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London This Season
by Michael Jordan
London's theater scene offers more big budget, but intimate, theaters
than Los Angeles or even New York. The audience seating nearly huddles
around the stages, involving the viewers' spiritual intellect in the
productions while they shy away from the American style frequency of
standing ovations. Generally slower than American theater, the comedic
timing demands more thought and the audience tends to be more patient
during long, dramatic exposition.
Nevertheless, occasional uses of economical cutting pay off. Such is
the case in the opening scene of Bill Kenwright's production of
Filumena, at the Piccadilly Theatre. At curtain, the cast guides the
audience through the events immediately previous, rather than
ponderously staging a long deathbed scene. This, the best play I saw
for many reasons, tells of an aging whore who tricks her common law
husband into marriage, then maneuvers to teach him how to honorably
love a family. Powerhouse Dame Judi Dench in the title role, expertly
straddles the expanse between serious issues and lighthearted
sincerity. Eduardo de Filippo's 50-year-old Italian script holds up
extremely well with a tight, meaningful plot.
Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap may snap shut soon. Setting a daily
record, the murder mystery has been running for 47 years, with the
late Sir Peter Sounder's production occupying St. Martin's Theatre
since 1974. The entertaining, but muddled script only managed to snare
48 audience members when I saw it.
Tom Conti's one-man show, Jesus, My Boy offers a well researched and
practical explanation for Biblical mythos at the Apollo Theatre.
Laurence Myers & Independent Image Ltd's presentation is more a staged
essay than a play. The performance barely justifies building a set.
At the Lyric Theatre, Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband shows the
distress a wife can suffer when she expects that her politician
husband has no skeletons in his closet. Bill Kenwright's strong
revival keenly explores the legendary philosopher's text. As the Wilde
figure, actor Simon Ward condescends to the audience, ironically
overlooking the author's contempt for moralization. Portraying the
flirting temptress, Susannah York shows strong charisma and
concentrated communication in this funny, yet serious, and important
play.
Oscar Wilde becomes a character himself in The Royal National
Theatre's brilliant production The Invention of Love, at The Haymarket
Theatre where Wilde premiered both A Woman of No Importance, and An
Ideal Husband. Tom Stoppard's admittedly heady script exhaustively
examines classical Latin and Greek to compare the lives of Wilde and
A. E. Houseman. Contrasting both men as poets and homosexuals in a
time of stark repression, Houseman's lyric journey breathlessly
invigorates a writer's psyche.
At The Royal Court Theatre, Connor McPhersonıs Irish oral tradition
play The Weir, has mixed results. The title means an artificial
edifice that diverts direction, as in a man-made river dam. Here, five
characters exchange ghost stories, which methodically fit together so
that the sequence becomes a new direction for one of the grieving
characters. A haunting but sweet piece, the exposition draws a touch
long. Nevertheless, the company of Kieran Ahern, Brendan Coyle, Dermot
Crowley, Michelle Fairley, and Jim Norton shows masterful storytelling
technique. Stage Surgeons Ltd. & Scott Fleary Schofield's innovative
set fits uniquely into the tale.
Working on Harold Pinter's Betrayal, director Trevor Nunn
double-crosses ticket buyers with a complete dud. Despite a strong
cast including Imogen Stubbs, this retro-nonlinear plot of infidelity
has little potential. Since the story runs backwards, consecutive
scenes reveal little new information. The Royal National ought to end
this literally anticlimactic affair.
Contemporary playwright Michael Frayn has two scripts running in the
West End, a sketch comedy and a drama. Known for Noises Off, where the
characters rehearse and then perform a play, Frayn continues to
liberally abuse repetition as a theatrical device, again.
At The Gielgud Theatre, his comedy, Alarms & Excursions fails
desperately. Milking unrelated bits into a string of nonsense, the
cast pulls few laughs from Frayn's redundant and repetitive writing.
Presenters Michael Codron and Lee Dean seem to have built a series of
sets for a successful playwrightıs early abortions.
Copenhagen, Frayn's drama at The Royal National shows more promise.
This existentialist history play ferrets out a meeting between Niels
Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, early atomic scientists, whose friendship
and differing politics unwittingly led to the atomic destruction of
Hiroshima. While this well-acted (Sara Kestelman, David Burke, and
Metthew Marsh) piece has more meaning, it still shows weakness in
reliance on repetitive, nonlinear construction.
In Alan Ayckbourn's poorly titled new comedy, Things We Do for Love at
The Duchess Theatre, four characters articulate three troubled love
stories in a three-story house. A funny situation comedy with trivial
themes but an interesting set, Belinda Lang's expert characterization
of a stiff but needy woman memorably stands out. The rest of the cast
including Caroline Harker, Adrian McLoughlin, and Alexander Hanson
were fun, especially the latterıs very racy-for-the-English-stage sex
scene.
Billed as "All The Bardıs plays in 90 minutes," The Complete Works of
William Shakespeare is actually a commedia dell'arte nod to all 37
works. The expert improvisation of American actors Kyle Dadd, John
David Pohlhammer, and Brian Torfeh keep the audience rolling in The
Criterion Theatre aisles. This cast, the Reduced Shakespeare Company,
continues to flesh out the script by their predecessor/writers Adam
Long, Reed Martin, and Austin Tichenor. Over at the Royal Shakespeare
Company, Adrian Noble's satisfying direction of The Tempest shows off
Anthony Ward's marvelous design and Scott Handy as a unique and
strangely muscular "Ariel." Handy's compelling approach resembles Star
Trek's "Data."
The next sweeping rage of the stage will be Robert Stigwood, Paul
Nicholas, and David Ian's Saturday Night Fever, the Musical. Holding
court at the London Palladium, Anthony Garcia fits sleekly into the
Travolta role. Arlene Philips' choreography brings on the 'Night
Fever,' as the original movie soundtrack becomes the stage
production's score - verbatim. The comfortingly familiar tracks
written by the Bee Gees and friends were not originaly intended to
convey this particular plot. Only the titles and the tones are
appropriate for the story, as required by a 1970's movie soundtrack.
The particular lyrics of the songs do not necessarily pertain to the
action on stage, so occasionally a close listener will wonder what the
actor is singing about. Nevertheless, the incredible dancing will keep
this show 'Stayinı Alive.'
After a trip though Hollywood and five years on network TV, The New
York City School for the Performing Arts becomes a stage musical at
The Prince of Wales Theatre. Pretty much the same story, but with more
adult themes and new character names, David de Silva's Fame story is
still fun especially with Lars Bethke's terrific choreography. Still,
the effort worked better as a film. On the boards, every role requires
a triple threat singer/dancer/actor, but few performers are up to the
task - especially when they must be or look young enough to attend
high school.
Broadway is to the West End as New York's Off-Broadway is to London's
plays "On the Fringe," where Jumeira Productions presents Killing
Rasputin at The Bridewell Theatre. This semi-factual musical by James
McConnel, Kit Hesketh-Harvey, Stephen Clark, and Stuart Barr sets a
story of lurid androgyny and quasi-religious laying of hands against
events surrounding the Russian Royal Family and the 1909 Bloody Sunday
massacre in St. Petersburg. Director Ian Brown saves the choppy story,
unwieldy music, and poor singers/actors (especially Hal Fowler as the
bisexual prince) from completely wasting their time. This musical
needs a great deal of revision to keep it from a mere amalgamation of
"Cabaret," "Assassins," and "Jesus Christ Superstar."
The Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company presents a children's holiday
show, The Snowman, at The Peacock Theatre. Raymond Briggs' story
combined with Howard Blakes' music and sparse lyrics results in a
charming Nutcracker Ballet alternative about a boy. As happy kids in
the audience buy magic flashing snowballs, the child onstage learns
from his snowman friend how to fly to Snowland at the North Pole,
where he meets all sorts of colorful Snowpeople. An odd choreographic
event, all the ballet dancers wear klunky snow costumes. Nevertheless,
the sweet, long running story still charms children into enchanted
silence.
Finally, Andrew Lloyd Webber's latest, Whistle Down the Wind, at the
Aldwych Theatre shows strength, despite the composer's contributions.
Lloyd Webber's first story about common people, an American girl of the
1950's South discovers a man in her barn. After recently burying her
mother, the susceptible and needy child on the verge of womanhood
becomes convinced the man is Jesus. Basing the story on an old black and
white film, Lloyd Webber combines his 'Sunset' and 'Phantom' strategic
approaches with his early Biblical work. Merely an escaped convict,
the bogus Messiah nevertheless provides a catalyst to spiritual
awakening for the entire town. The grandiose score has little to do
with the meditative tone of the play and sloppily jumbles
unintelligible lyrics into catchy melodies. However, the multilevel
set conceals a train wreck to match the helicopter of 'Saigon' and a
burning barn, which resembles Universal Studios 'Backdraft'
exhibition. Tossing in a handful of live snakes for the actors to play
with, this spectacle has undignified success written all over it.
Here are some predictions as to how these works might cross the
Atlantic. Because of its strong story, someone will try to make
Filumena into a musical and fail. However, Judi Dench's stardom will
swell, putting her in the company of the well-loved Jessica Tandy and
Kathryn Hepburn. Someone will produce Alan Ayckbourn's comedy Things
We Do for Love in New York, but retitle it "Three Stories." Saturday
Night Fever will go on world tour and become the second longest
running musical next to The Lion King, perhaps the Bee Gee's producer
will even remake the film to capitalize further on his early success.
Since 'Rasputin' has already had several revisions, the limited
creators will not release control to co-patrons Stephen Soundheim and
Sir Cameron Mackintosh and the project's strong possibilities will
wither out of sight. 'Snowman' will come to America, starting in LA
to eventually supplant holiday productions of The Nutcracker. Finally,
'Whistle' will eventually be regarded by the public as Lloyd
Webberıs best play. Just watch.
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