(Second review in a day. Family Friendly season continues. This got professionally reviewed last year and may or may not get covered again this year, so just a short one from me.)
I love the Harry Potter books. While I didn’t get into the series until book four had been long published, I pre-ordered books five and six for same day delivery and went to midnight madness for book seven (even if I did read the leaked version online in advance - I was surrounded by 4channers that weekend and didn’t want to be spoiled.) Needless to say, the thought of a comedic redux was appealing, but I didn’t have a chance to make it to last year’s run at Trafalgar Studios.
Fortunately Potted Potter is back, still performed by its creators Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner, and still promising all seven books in 70 minutes. Needless to say, it’s also fortunate is that Potted Potter is pretty darn funny, revelling in the books’ formula and embracing the inner fan in all of us. From the audience quidditch match (complete with appropriate levels of violence) to Dan’s demands to stop playing the rather dull Harry and take over as Dumbledore right as Book 6 is about to end (no spoilers here!), the show is sharp, hilarious, and revels in its low budget.
Will non-Harry fans have a reason to go? Not really. But Potter aficionados, both young and old, will have a ball. Just not a Yule Ball - this is a show performed at Christmas, not a Christmas show.
Where: Trafalgar Studios 2
When: Varies. Most days are two shows at 12:00, 15:00, or 19:00.
How Much: £20
Concessions: Children and standard concessions £15. Family tickets for £60.
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RZ Unofficial “Worth Paying”: £15. A short Fringe show at Fringe prices.
RZ Other Notes: QUIDDITCH! DRAGON!
Showing posts with label Trafalgar Studios. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trafalgar Studios. Show all posts
Friday, 12 December 2008
Sunday, 30 November 2008
REVISIT: “Maria Friedman Rearranged”
(Rapid Fire Review #2 as I clear through a week involving far, far too much theatre.)
So instead of going to the third night of Perfect Pitch on Thursday, a friend wanted to see Maria Friedman at Trafalgar 1 and I could get us ultra-cheap tickets, so I figured why not. “I can deal with seeing six shows in a week, really,” I thought to myself and put the booking in. While said friend ended up getting sick and being unable to attend, I dragged myself out of the house, taking comfort in being able to watch two episodes of Rose of Versailles on the tube.
It would, of course, be just my luck that the already late-starting show (scheduled for 20:30 or 21:00 on weekends) would start extra late as this being the first preview nobody had bothered to accurately work out how long it would take to change the sets from the early evening performance of Horrid Henry. The result? Standing around in a very crowed and tiny bar area for an extra half hour.
Was the show worth it? I guess. The setlist was identical to that at the Chocolate Factory, but trimmed down to an interval-less 95 minutes. Ms. Friedman has a lot of fun doing these concerts, and her charm and enthusiasm rubs off onto the audience making it hard not to leave satisfied, but I honestly wasn’t in the mood to appreciate most of it and wished that I’d stayed home and given myself the much needed night off that I’m only getting now.
In other words, yes, it’s worth going if you’re a particular fan of Ms. Friedman or you haven’t seen this particular concert series before, but if you’ve already been you can spend the night elsewhere without regret.
Where: Trafalgar Studios 1
When: Until 04 Jan., W-F @ 20:30, Sa @ 21:00, Su @ 18:00
How Much: £25-35
Concessions: No idea.
-------------------------------
RZ Unofficial “Worth Paying:” £20
RZ Other Notes: I gave this gig the same worth paying at the Menier despite the set being a good 15-20 minutes longer. The seats are more comfortable, however, at Trafalgar and £20 will get you a ticket at TKTS including the booking fee. I think the show also works better in the shortened form, but YMMV.
So instead of going to the third night of Perfect Pitch on Thursday, a friend wanted to see Maria Friedman at Trafalgar 1 and I could get us ultra-cheap tickets, so I figured why not. “I can deal with seeing six shows in a week, really,” I thought to myself and put the booking in. While said friend ended up getting sick and being unable to attend, I dragged myself out of the house, taking comfort in being able to watch two episodes of Rose of Versailles on the tube.
It would, of course, be just my luck that the already late-starting show (scheduled for 20:30 or 21:00 on weekends) would start extra late as this being the first preview nobody had bothered to accurately work out how long it would take to change the sets from the early evening performance of Horrid Henry. The result? Standing around in a very crowed and tiny bar area for an extra half hour.
Was the show worth it? I guess. The setlist was identical to that at the Chocolate Factory, but trimmed down to an interval-less 95 minutes. Ms. Friedman has a lot of fun doing these concerts, and her charm and enthusiasm rubs off onto the audience making it hard not to leave satisfied, but I honestly wasn’t in the mood to appreciate most of it and wished that I’d stayed home and given myself the much needed night off that I’m only getting now.
In other words, yes, it’s worth going if you’re a particular fan of Ms. Friedman or you haven’t seen this particular concert series before, but if you’ve already been you can spend the night elsewhere without regret.
Where: Trafalgar Studios 1
When: Until 04 Jan., W-F @ 20:30, Sa @ 21:00, Su @ 18:00
How Much: £25-35
Concessions: No idea.
-------------------------------
RZ Unofficial “Worth Paying:” £20
RZ Other Notes: I gave this gig the same worth paying at the Menier despite the set being a good 15-20 minutes longer. The seats are more comfortable, however, at Trafalgar and £20 will get you a ticket at TKTS including the booking fee. I think the show also works better in the shortened form, but YMMV.
THOUGHTS: Perfect Pitch Festival 2008
Another year, another Perfect Pitch. This year the festival changed from showcasing 10 shows (15-60 min. presentations) at Upstairs at the Gatehouse to showcasing 6 (45-55 min. presentations) at Trafalgar Studios 2. While the new location lends to the festival’s cred, the reduction in showcased material - especially when two of the six were by the same person - is disappointing even if the bump in casting is equally impressive.
That said, I went on two nights and saw four of the pieces. As these works are still in development I won’t get into too much detail but will stick to general impressions.
First and foremost, I thought that while the scores to all of the shows were good, three of the four were identical in style - I felt as though I could cut apart the music and put the songs into different pieces without suspecting something wrong. Part of this is undoubtedly due to the limited (or entire lack of) arrangements used, as hearing theatrepop scores on piano alone (or with simplified string and/or acoustic guitar) makes it difficult to appreciate uniqueness in full. Now on with the individual shows:
Lift - Nine people ride the lift at Covent Garden station and their lives meet and intertwine. It’s a nifty idea, and while I don’t think the show could easily scale to the West End, I can see it fitting in comfortably at somewhere like the Chocolate Factory or the Kings Head. Likewise this would work quite well as a concept album. It’s a good (if not overly white) representation of modern London.
The Diary of Me - A rebellious 16 year old comes to terms with his estranged father dating again after his mother dies while understanding friendship and relationships. This would have been more interesting had I not seen Shit Mix a month earlier: fairly standard youth theatre fare, would do well somewhere like Oval House or on a TIE programme.
Can You Keep A Secret - A mother is constantly moving with her two daughters: one who fails to establish friendships online or in person yet falls for a local bad boy and another who is shy and escapes into a fantasy world with dangerous repercussions on reality. Similar thoughts to The Diary of Me, but taken from a more adult perspective. Word is that the teenage relationships involved are actually the main ones but the adults became the focus in order to keep things clean for the 45 min. format. The fantasy elements will, I suspect, be better dealt with when scenery and the full running time are involved.
The Lost Christmas - A pair of robots from the year 4000 come back to the present to find something missing from the winter season, meeting up with a girl in a traditional, respectable middle-upper class liberal family. The standout score of the bunch, the music here is more pastiche than straightforward and it works out well. This show probably worked best in the 45 min. format (along with Lift which is more episodic than linear) and this would make a nice alternative to panto.
In short: nothing OMGWOW but there’s clear potential in all cases and I wish I could have seen the last two shows (Rebels and Retail, which looks like a British Walmartopia and Through the Door, a time travel romance.) The scarier thing is that the festival organisers consider themselves to be a stepping stone in early or middle development for a five to ten year development cycle. IMHO that’s an excessive period, but not a surprising one these days - Next to Normal - currently running in DC - has been going for 10 years (even if it was production worthy after seven,) Rue Magique also made it to ten despite staying a disaster, and even RENT was being worked on for the better part of five years (arguably seven including when Larson and Aronson were toying around with it.) The turnaround time on production is only getting higher (remember the days when composers banged out a new show in 1-3 years?) and it's frightening to think that in many cases the reward is a 1 hour edition at a festival with 1800 other shows competing for eyes or 6-8 weeks on the Fringe with few places to follow up.
On that note, I wish the best of luck to all involved, and let’s all look forward to 2009.
That said, I went on two nights and saw four of the pieces. As these works are still in development I won’t get into too much detail but will stick to general impressions.
First and foremost, I thought that while the scores to all of the shows were good, three of the four were identical in style - I felt as though I could cut apart the music and put the songs into different pieces without suspecting something wrong. Part of this is undoubtedly due to the limited (or entire lack of) arrangements used, as hearing theatrepop scores on piano alone (or with simplified string and/or acoustic guitar) makes it difficult to appreciate uniqueness in full. Now on with the individual shows:
Lift - Nine people ride the lift at Covent Garden station and their lives meet and intertwine. It’s a nifty idea, and while I don’t think the show could easily scale to the West End, I can see it fitting in comfortably at somewhere like the Chocolate Factory or the Kings Head. Likewise this would work quite well as a concept album. It’s a good (if not overly white) representation of modern London.
The Diary of Me - A rebellious 16 year old comes to terms with his estranged father dating again after his mother dies while understanding friendship and relationships. This would have been more interesting had I not seen Shit Mix a month earlier: fairly standard youth theatre fare, would do well somewhere like Oval House or on a TIE programme.
Can You Keep A Secret - A mother is constantly moving with her two daughters: one who fails to establish friendships online or in person yet falls for a local bad boy and another who is shy and escapes into a fantasy world with dangerous repercussions on reality. Similar thoughts to The Diary of Me, but taken from a more adult perspective. Word is that the teenage relationships involved are actually the main ones but the adults became the focus in order to keep things clean for the 45 min. format. The fantasy elements will, I suspect, be better dealt with when scenery and the full running time are involved.
The Lost Christmas - A pair of robots from the year 4000 come back to the present to find something missing from the winter season, meeting up with a girl in a traditional, respectable middle-upper class liberal family. The standout score of the bunch, the music here is more pastiche than straightforward and it works out well. This show probably worked best in the 45 min. format (along with Lift which is more episodic than linear) and this would make a nice alternative to panto.
In short: nothing OMGWOW but there’s clear potential in all cases and I wish I could have seen the last two shows (Rebels and Retail, which looks like a British Walmartopia and Through the Door, a time travel romance.) The scarier thing is that the festival organisers consider themselves to be a stepping stone in early or middle development for a five to ten year development cycle. IMHO that’s an excessive period, but not a surprising one these days - Next to Normal - currently running in DC - has been going for 10 years (even if it was production worthy after seven,) Rue Magique also made it to ten despite staying a disaster, and even RENT was being worked on for the better part of five years (arguably seven including when Larson and Aronson were toying around with it.) The turnaround time on production is only getting higher (remember the days when composers banged out a new show in 1-3 years?) and it's frightening to think that in many cases the reward is a 1 hour edition at a festival with 1800 other shows competing for eyes or 6-8 weeks on the Fringe with few places to follow up.
On that note, I wish the best of luck to all involved, and let’s all look forward to 2009.
Tuesday, 21 October 2008
REVIEW: "Shit Mix"
Before I go any further with this review, let’s get the formalities out of the way. Shit Mix is not a bad play, and I commend Leo Richardson for getting his first work this far.*
But does it really belong in the West End? Even at groovy funky Trafalgar Studios? No. No, it really doesn’t. Shit Mix (a slang term for what we yanks call a suicide cocktail) is a strictly by the book tick-box example of derivative youth theatre, and while it would be at home on the Oval House or Almeida’s (excellent) programmes for youth targeted works and audiences, it fails completely at reaching the teenage audience it so desperately seeks here. I saw this play on a Saturday night and I’d guess that a third of the audience were under 30. I was too lazy to try (and it’s increasingly hard to be certain), but I’m pretty sure I could have counted the actual under 18’s without needing to go past my figurative fingers. Of course, ticket prices are higher on weekends, but concession rates are the same, so I stand by my argument.
Onto the play itself. Wannabe chav LB has the hots for gothiloli Raggedy Anne but they’re too shy to tell each other. Obviously closeted friend Bent Ben is a go-between keeping everybody happy but he secretly fancies LB’s older brother Harry the Hottie who has a BIG SECRET. It’s the same BIG SECRET that you get in most teen plays so no points for guessing. Of course slutty girl Dirty Debbie fancies Harry as well but settles for prostituting herself to LB for £6.50 and a plate of chips.** In between these escapades everybody meets in the park, consumes mass quantities of alcohol, screws around, and substitutes internal monologues for interpretative dance. It’s a nice gimmick, and combined with Samantha Potter’s direction keeps the show moving along, but the upbeat choreographed curtain call set to the title song from Dreamgirls is unnecessary and contradicts the more downbeat ending.
All in all, I’m not really sure what the point of Shit Mix’s current run is. Teens aren’t going (it’s cheaper and hipper to get a DVD from Blockbuster) and there’s nothing in it for adults who aren’t nostalgic for a miserable time in most peoples’ lives or trying to understand “those darn kids today.” I suppose it’s all rather hypocritical of me to be saying this as well - I’m not that old, and I loved Dog Sees God (which recently ran in Manchester, though I saw the Off Broadway run) which covers almost identical territory but at least had the twist of subversively filtering its cliches through beloved childhood icons. With a veritable flood of exceptional productions running in the city right now, it seems a waste for grownups to go and see this.
*This is the internet, not a family friendly newspaper, so no, I'm not giving in to using asterisks.
**I wish I were making up these names and events, but they are in fact real parts of the show. The names are even displayed in the form of back-lit pop art.
Where: Trafalgar Studios 2
When: Until 25 October, M-Sa @ 19:45
How Much: £15 M/Th(Mat)/Sa(Mat), £22.50 all other performances
Concessions: £15
-----------------------
RZ Unofficial “Worth Paying”: £10. Fringe price for a fringe show and what you’ll pay for less-choice performance times at TKTS.
RZ Other Notes: For those wishing to be spoiled, the tick boxes here are: popular kid, closeted gay, suicide, goth kid, slut, drugs, boozing, party life, dissolving friendships, pop culture references, character fails at their art, the bad kid, no visible adults, scuffy costumes, generic “this could be anywhere” setting, profanity, big central event. Now, am I talking about Shit Mix, Dog Sees God, or this week’s runs of Neighbours and Hollyoaks?
But does it really belong in the West End? Even at groovy funky Trafalgar Studios? No. No, it really doesn’t. Shit Mix (a slang term for what we yanks call a suicide cocktail) is a strictly by the book tick-box example of derivative youth theatre, and while it would be at home on the Oval House or Almeida’s (excellent) programmes for youth targeted works and audiences, it fails completely at reaching the teenage audience it so desperately seeks here. I saw this play on a Saturday night and I’d guess that a third of the audience were under 30. I was too lazy to try (and it’s increasingly hard to be certain), but I’m pretty sure I could have counted the actual under 18’s without needing to go past my figurative fingers. Of course, ticket prices are higher on weekends, but concession rates are the same, so I stand by my argument.
Onto the play itself. Wannabe chav LB has the hots for gothiloli Raggedy Anne but they’re too shy to tell each other. Obviously closeted friend Bent Ben is a go-between keeping everybody happy but he secretly fancies LB’s older brother Harry the Hottie who has a BIG SECRET. It’s the same BIG SECRET that you get in most teen plays so no points for guessing. Of course slutty girl Dirty Debbie fancies Harry as well but settles for prostituting herself to LB for £6.50 and a plate of chips.** In between these escapades everybody meets in the park, consumes mass quantities of alcohol, screws around, and substitutes internal monologues for interpretative dance. It’s a nice gimmick, and combined with Samantha Potter’s direction keeps the show moving along, but the upbeat choreographed curtain call set to the title song from Dreamgirls is unnecessary and contradicts the more downbeat ending.
All in all, I’m not really sure what the point of Shit Mix’s current run is. Teens aren’t going (it’s cheaper and hipper to get a DVD from Blockbuster) and there’s nothing in it for adults who aren’t nostalgic for a miserable time in most peoples’ lives or trying to understand “those darn kids today.” I suppose it’s all rather hypocritical of me to be saying this as well - I’m not that old, and I loved Dog Sees God (which recently ran in Manchester, though I saw the Off Broadway run) which covers almost identical territory but at least had the twist of subversively filtering its cliches through beloved childhood icons. With a veritable flood of exceptional productions running in the city right now, it seems a waste for grownups to go and see this.
*This is the internet, not a family friendly newspaper, so no, I'm not giving in to using asterisks.
**I wish I were making up these names and events, but they are in fact real parts of the show. The names are even displayed in the form of back-lit pop art.
Where: Trafalgar Studios 2
When: Until 25 October, M-Sa @ 19:45
How Much: £15 M/Th(Mat)/Sa(Mat), £22.50 all other performances
Concessions: £15
-----------------------
RZ Unofficial “Worth Paying”: £10. Fringe price for a fringe show and what you’ll pay for less-choice performance times at TKTS.
RZ Other Notes: For those wishing to be spoiled, the tick boxes here are: popular kid, closeted gay, suicide, goth kid, slut, drugs, boozing, party life, dissolving friendships, pop culture references, character fails at their art, the bad kid, no visible adults, scuffy costumes, generic “this could be anywhere” setting, profanity, big central event. Now, am I talking about Shit Mix, Dog Sees God, or this week’s runs of Neighbours and Hollyoaks?
Friday, 26 September 2008
REVIEW: "Riflemind"
Riflemind, n. 1. The state of wishing to blow one’s head off rather than suffer the second act of an insipid play. 2. An insipid play currently running at Trafalgar Studios.
Is there really much more to say? Riflemind may be the inaugural product of an artistic partnership between Trafalgar Studios and some celebrity studded international companies, but it doesn’t mean the play isn’t complete and utter tripe. And by tripe, the RZ means shit, and in the worst sort of way.
How so, you ask?
Most insipid and bad plays do the audience the favour of being irredeemably bad or making it clear up front that there’s going to be some obvious lack of fulfilled potential which makes it easy to work out if it’s worth staying for the second act or at least having the benefit of being short yet not a total write-off. And then there’s Riflemind, which suckers the audience into returning for the last hour with the mysteries and intrigue of the circumstances surrounding a rock group’s breakup some 3-10 years earlier. We never know exactly how many years, though, since we hear that John, the lead guitarist and singer, hasn’t played for three years but also hasn’t seen some of his bandmates for ten - including his brother - whoops, spoiled the pointless secret which has no actual impact. Needless to say, the first act sets up the possibility for big reveals and big conflicts which never come in the second act. Instead, the audience get repetitive, irritating, aggravating, and shouty dialogues for a brain and butt-numbing two and a half hours but just manages to avoid being an outright bore. The audience aren’t given the answers or details they deserve, sacrificed for an actress making bad sandwiches and endless, meaningless yammering. The cast and set are all fine, though it’s hard imagine how they could have put up with both a full Australian run in addition to having to run through such rubbish again here. At least they’re well fed - in addition to the afore-mentioned sandwiches in the first act there’s also mass consumption of Chinese delivery in the second.
In short (and the RZ is keeping this short as possible since remembering the play is making him physically ill), Riflemind can be summed up by paraphrasing a Monty Python sketch on a different Australian product: Riflemind is a play with a message in it, and the message is BEWARE. This is not a play for seeing, this is a play for walking past and avoiding.
Where: Trafalgar Studios 1
When: M-Sa @ 19:30, Th & Sa @ 14:30
How Much: £25-45
Concessions: Unknown
--------------------------------
RZ Unofficial “Worth Paying”: £0.
RZ Other Notes: Whatever happened to Bushwhacked, the punk band reunion show that ran at the Royal Court last year? That was supposedly far more interesting.
Is there really much more to say? Riflemind may be the inaugural product of an artistic partnership between Trafalgar Studios and some celebrity studded international companies, but it doesn’t mean the play isn’t complete and utter tripe. And by tripe, the RZ means shit, and in the worst sort of way.
How so, you ask?
Most insipid and bad plays do the audience the favour of being irredeemably bad or making it clear up front that there’s going to be some obvious lack of fulfilled potential which makes it easy to work out if it’s worth staying for the second act or at least having the benefit of being short yet not a total write-off. And then there’s Riflemind, which suckers the audience into returning for the last hour with the mysteries and intrigue of the circumstances surrounding a rock group’s breakup some 3-10 years earlier. We never know exactly how many years, though, since we hear that John, the lead guitarist and singer, hasn’t played for three years but also hasn’t seen some of his bandmates for ten - including his brother - whoops, spoiled the pointless secret which has no actual impact. Needless to say, the first act sets up the possibility for big reveals and big conflicts which never come in the second act. Instead, the audience get repetitive, irritating, aggravating, and shouty dialogues for a brain and butt-numbing two and a half hours but just manages to avoid being an outright bore. The audience aren’t given the answers or details they deserve, sacrificed for an actress making bad sandwiches and endless, meaningless yammering. The cast and set are all fine, though it’s hard imagine how they could have put up with both a full Australian run in addition to having to run through such rubbish again here. At least they’re well fed - in addition to the afore-mentioned sandwiches in the first act there’s also mass consumption of Chinese delivery in the second.
In short (and the RZ is keeping this short as possible since remembering the play is making him physically ill), Riflemind can be summed up by paraphrasing a Monty Python sketch on a different Australian product: Riflemind is a play with a message in it, and the message is BEWARE. This is not a play for seeing, this is a play for walking past and avoiding.
Where: Trafalgar Studios 1
When: M-Sa @ 19:30, Th & Sa @ 14:30
How Much: £25-45
Concessions: Unknown
--------------------------------
RZ Unofficial “Worth Paying”: £0.
RZ Other Notes: Whatever happened to Bushwhacked, the punk band reunion show that ran at the Royal Court last year? That was supposedly far more interesting.
Monday, 15 September 2008
UPDATE: Too Much Theatre
It’s finally happened: the RZ’s theatre-going habit has outstripped his ability to keep the site updated in a timely manner. Mind you, going to the theatre at night has been functioning as a perk for focusing on work during the day, namely the work of getting his behemoth of a master’s thesis written. As such, the RZ has seen the following shows but will not be writing full reviews on them:
Well @ Trafalgar 2: It’s funny, and raises some interesting questions, but also suffers from “hate all the characters” syndrome. By the last 20 minutes the RZ was hoping that the main character would go McDonagh on someone’s arse.
Our House @ New Wimbledon (Now touring somewhere else): How the original production won the Olivier is beyond the RZ’s comprehension - it must have been a painfully dry year. Not having been in the UK when Madness were the shit, the only thing keeping him from leaving this shitty production at the interval was the thought of spending two hours on the train to and from Wimbledon for an hour of theatre. Not that it was all bad - the choreography was great, the songs would be fun to play DDR to, and the cast tried their best - but the sound design was poor (there were lyrics?) and the RZ facepalmed repeatedly during the performance, the plot of which was as such: do the right thing and wind up an unemployed convict, do the wrong thing and wind up successful only to murder your mum by accident.
The Pretender Agenda @ New Players: An office full of scandal makes for a funny play, but it needed another workshop: the first scene could have been cut entirely though the play was overall entertaining and a good reminder of why you should always be nice to your temps. The cast was loaded with TV stars the RZ didn’t recognise (that all gave quality performances either way), but he suspects that only 10% of the audience (somewhere in the 50-75 person range) was NOT comped the night he went - most of the people in the stalls knew the author who was also in attendance.
Eurobeat @ Novello: Went with a friend who loves the trash factor of Eurovision this time. No surprise, she loved it. No surprise, Poland won. The RZ has shilled for this enough by now and doesn’t even work for the damn show.
Small Craft Warnings @ Arcola 1: Typical Tennessee Williams with the added bonus of an unrehearsed understudy coming to the rescue of a mostly solid cast (who all slipped accents a few times). Great speeches, but a bit of a mess. This was the RZ’s first time at the Arcola and he’s fallen in love with the space, not to mention the neighbourhood’s restaurants.
The Harder They Come @ Playhouse: The RZ popped in for the closing. Nothing particularly special or different, no speeches at the end.
On the RZ’s agenda for this week is a preview of Come Dancing at Stratford East and a lot of continued writing work along with the Osamu Tezuka festival at the Barbican (where he will probably hide in the back row of the cinema with his computer continuing to make last minute revisions).
Well @ Trafalgar 2: It’s funny, and raises some interesting questions, but also suffers from “hate all the characters” syndrome. By the last 20 minutes the RZ was hoping that the main character would go McDonagh on someone’s arse.
Our House @ New Wimbledon (Now touring somewhere else): How the original production won the Olivier is beyond the RZ’s comprehension - it must have been a painfully dry year. Not having been in the UK when Madness were the shit, the only thing keeping him from leaving this shitty production at the interval was the thought of spending two hours on the train to and from Wimbledon for an hour of theatre. Not that it was all bad - the choreography was great, the songs would be fun to play DDR to, and the cast tried their best - but the sound design was poor (there were lyrics?) and the RZ facepalmed repeatedly during the performance, the plot of which was as such: do the right thing and wind up an unemployed convict, do the wrong thing and wind up successful only to murder your mum by accident.
The Pretender Agenda @ New Players: An office full of scandal makes for a funny play, but it needed another workshop: the first scene could have been cut entirely though the play was overall entertaining and a good reminder of why you should always be nice to your temps. The cast was loaded with TV stars the RZ didn’t recognise (that all gave quality performances either way), but he suspects that only 10% of the audience (somewhere in the 50-75 person range) was NOT comped the night he went - most of the people in the stalls knew the author who was also in attendance.
Eurobeat @ Novello: Went with a friend who loves the trash factor of Eurovision this time. No surprise, she loved it. No surprise, Poland won. The RZ has shilled for this enough by now and doesn’t even work for the damn show.
Small Craft Warnings @ Arcola 1: Typical Tennessee Williams with the added bonus of an unrehearsed understudy coming to the rescue of a mostly solid cast (who all slipped accents a few times). Great speeches, but a bit of a mess. This was the RZ’s first time at the Arcola and he’s fallen in love with the space, not to mention the neighbourhood’s restaurants.
The Harder They Come @ Playhouse: The RZ popped in for the closing. Nothing particularly special or different, no speeches at the end.
On the RZ’s agenda for this week is a preview of Come Dancing at Stratford East and a lot of continued writing work along with the Osamu Tezuka festival at the Barbican (where he will probably hide in the back row of the cinema with his computer continuing to make last minute revisions).
Tuesday, 29 July 2008
REVIEW: "I, Lear" & "The Female of the Species"
(A quick catch-up post. Still two plays behind after this one.)
Mid-late July isn’t exactly what the RZ would deem the best time to open a new show in the West End. With special events (the Proms) going on, local festivals (Chichester) taking place, and the entire industry gearing up for Edinburgh, the West End looks a bit haggard and unappealing. Nevertheless, new plays are still coming in (musicals seem to be on hold for a bit), so here we go.
I, Lear is a two-hander from award winning comedy duo Black Sheep. A Reduced Shakespeare-meets-39 Steps look at the theatre canon (“We’re going to do the best of British Theatre.” “I think you mean the best of theatre.” “Like I said, the best of British Theatre, such as Brecht and Chekhov.”), you can already guess what to expect and if you’ll like it. There’s the standard unevenness of sketch plays (the Brecht sequence is brilliant, the Sherlock Holmes one not so much) and a heaping dose of slapstick used to demonstrate the “techniques” required in acting.
The whole thing, as the title suggests, culminates in an abridgement of King Lear, easily the best segment, and the parts which dragged on earlier come back in a way which proved legion: better in the whole than on its own. At 75 minutes, I, Lear is the sort of thing you get a right laugh out of for £5-10 on the fringe, but £20 at Trafalgar seems excessive.
For those seeking out more intellectual fare, the non-air conditioned Vaudeville is hosting its own new one act, The Female of the Species.
Female is the antithesis to the manly I, Lear. Dame Eileen Atkins leads the cast as Margot Mason, a burned out feminist intellectual struggling to get one more book out to pay the mortgage on her new summer home. When a disgruntled ex-student appears and takes Mason hostage, chaos unfolds as Mason’s daughter intrudes on the verge of a breakdown.
The good news is that Female is actually humourous, something Atkins’ last appearance wasn’t. Her character is similar in both - a sharp tongued egotistical matron - but the character works better in this one, as she throws her status and weight around you see that this is a woman who made herself. The supporting cast are uniformly strong, and it’s nice to see a play done without mics in an intimate venue like the Vaudeville.
The bad news is that Joanna Murray-Smith ran out of ideas at the 75-80 minute mark when the play is 100 minutes long. As one might expect given the storyline (there’s a lot of this lately, isn’t there...), feminist theory is thrown around like peanuts at a baseball game, but for most of the play it works because it’s a part of the verbal sparring or sets up something in the plot and/or leads to a joke. The problems emerge when Murray-Smith has written herself into a corner with the daughter sympathising with the intruder (names escape the RZ at this point and it helps minimise spoilers anyway) and her emasculated husband being rather worthless. Turning to tired sitcom formulas, an angry new-man taxi driver is introduced, and this is where the play falls apart: Mr. Driver begins an extended, painfully dry monologue about gender roles and, still failing to resolve the story, Mason’s gay publisher is brought in to offer everybody book deals and bring about a happy ending for all. It’s trite, dull, and in a sweltering theatre, painful.
I, LEAR
Where: Trafalagar Studios 2
When: Until 16 August, M-Sa @ 19:45
How Much: £15 on Mondays, £20 all other nights.
Concessions: None
-----------------------------
RZ Unofficial “Worth Paying”: £10. Comedy club fare, comedy club price.
RZ Other Notes: Avoid sitting in Row A if you’re in the centre block. In fact, to play it safe, avoid Row A in general. It would be a spoiler to ruin the moment, but let’s just say it involves possible stains.
THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES
Where: Vaudeville Theatre
When: Until 4 October, T-Sa @ 19:30, W/Sa @ 14:30
How Much: £35-£47.50
Concessions: £20 in advance for Wednesday matinee or 1 hour prior to curtain all other shows.
----------------------------
RZ Unofficial “Worth Paying”: £15. This is a fringe play on steroids which, despite some good performances, badly needs an editor.
RZ Other Notes: It gets hot in the Vaudeville. Really hot. Bring a bottle of water and dress lightly.
Mid-late July isn’t exactly what the RZ would deem the best time to open a new show in the West End. With special events (the Proms) going on, local festivals (Chichester) taking place, and the entire industry gearing up for Edinburgh, the West End looks a bit haggard and unappealing. Nevertheless, new plays are still coming in (musicals seem to be on hold for a bit), so here we go.
I, Lear is a two-hander from award winning comedy duo Black Sheep. A Reduced Shakespeare-meets-39 Steps look at the theatre canon (“We’re going to do the best of British Theatre.” “I think you mean the best of theatre.” “Like I said, the best of British Theatre, such as Brecht and Chekhov.”), you can already guess what to expect and if you’ll like it. There’s the standard unevenness of sketch plays (the Brecht sequence is brilliant, the Sherlock Holmes one not so much) and a heaping dose of slapstick used to demonstrate the “techniques” required in acting.
The whole thing, as the title suggests, culminates in an abridgement of King Lear, easily the best segment, and the parts which dragged on earlier come back in a way which proved legion: better in the whole than on its own. At 75 minutes, I, Lear is the sort of thing you get a right laugh out of for £5-10 on the fringe, but £20 at Trafalgar seems excessive.
For those seeking out more intellectual fare, the non-air conditioned Vaudeville is hosting its own new one act, The Female of the Species.
Female is the antithesis to the manly I, Lear. Dame Eileen Atkins leads the cast as Margot Mason, a burned out feminist intellectual struggling to get one more book out to pay the mortgage on her new summer home. When a disgruntled ex-student appears and takes Mason hostage, chaos unfolds as Mason’s daughter intrudes on the verge of a breakdown.
The good news is that Female is actually humourous, something Atkins’ last appearance wasn’t. Her character is similar in both - a sharp tongued egotistical matron - but the character works better in this one, as she throws her status and weight around you see that this is a woman who made herself. The supporting cast are uniformly strong, and it’s nice to see a play done without mics in an intimate venue like the Vaudeville.
The bad news is that Joanna Murray-Smith ran out of ideas at the 75-80 minute mark when the play is 100 minutes long. As one might expect given the storyline (there’s a lot of this lately, isn’t there...), feminist theory is thrown around like peanuts at a baseball game, but for most of the play it works because it’s a part of the verbal sparring or sets up something in the plot and/or leads to a joke. The problems emerge when Murray-Smith has written herself into a corner with the daughter sympathising with the intruder (names escape the RZ at this point and it helps minimise spoilers anyway) and her emasculated husband being rather worthless. Turning to tired sitcom formulas, an angry new-man taxi driver is introduced, and this is where the play falls apart: Mr. Driver begins an extended, painfully dry monologue about gender roles and, still failing to resolve the story, Mason’s gay publisher is brought in to offer everybody book deals and bring about a happy ending for all. It’s trite, dull, and in a sweltering theatre, painful.
I, LEAR
Where: Trafalagar Studios 2
When: Until 16 August, M-Sa @ 19:45
How Much: £15 on Mondays, £20 all other nights.
Concessions: None
-----------------------------
RZ Unofficial “Worth Paying”: £10. Comedy club fare, comedy club price.
RZ Other Notes: Avoid sitting in Row A if you’re in the centre block. In fact, to play it safe, avoid Row A in general. It would be a spoiler to ruin the moment, but let’s just say it involves possible stains.
THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES
Where: Vaudeville Theatre
When: Until 4 October, T-Sa @ 19:30, W/Sa @ 14:30
How Much: £35-£47.50
Concessions: £20 in advance for Wednesday matinee or 1 hour prior to curtain all other shows.
----------------------------
RZ Unofficial “Worth Paying”: £15. This is a fringe play on steroids which, despite some good performances, badly needs an editor.
RZ Other Notes: It gets hot in the Vaudeville. Really hot. Bring a bottle of water and dress lightly.
Sunday, 20 July 2008
THOUGHTS: In My Name
(This play is closed now so it gets the quick treatment)
Take a slovenly shelf-stocker, a hyperactive Essex hoodie, and slam them into an apartment with a disgruntled soldier/terrorist/we’re-never-quite-told and blend with a Pinter-esque sense of ambiguous reality. The result? In My Name. Whiny sloppy white loser has been renting his flat to a nervous, uptight Middle-Eastern looking fellow that’s sleeping on the couch when 7/7 hits. When Mr. Uptight starts hearing people talking in Arabic all over, he begins to panic as memories of raping someone’s 11 year old daughter in order to advance an interrogation. Add in the appearance of Mr. Hoodie making a racket, and you get rants about why people want to bomb the country: It stands for nothing anymore and we’re just superficial gadget freaks without beliefs, morals or direction.
The play’s biggest problem (it has many) is that none of the characters are likeable or worth getting behind. When the interval came (one needed to rework the set by shifting everything 1/3 towards stage right), the RZ hoped that all of them would die.
Redeeming qualities? One, namely the crudest game of Guess Who in theatrical history.
Where: Trafalgar Studios 2
When: Closed
How Much: £17.50
Concessions: Good question.
-------------------
RZ Unofficial “Worth Paying”: Doesn’t matter since it’s not open.
RZ Other Notes: Hopefully I, Lear, which the RZ is seeing tomorrow, will fare better.
Take a slovenly shelf-stocker, a hyperactive Essex hoodie, and slam them into an apartment with a disgruntled soldier/terrorist/we’re-never-quite-told and blend with a Pinter-esque sense of ambiguous reality. The result? In My Name. Whiny sloppy white loser has been renting his flat to a nervous, uptight Middle-Eastern looking fellow that’s sleeping on the couch when 7/7 hits. When Mr. Uptight starts hearing people talking in Arabic all over, he begins to panic as memories of raping someone’s 11 year old daughter in order to advance an interrogation. Add in the appearance of Mr. Hoodie making a racket, and you get rants about why people want to bomb the country: It stands for nothing anymore and we’re just superficial gadget freaks without beliefs, morals or direction.
The play’s biggest problem (it has many) is that none of the characters are likeable or worth getting behind. When the interval came (one needed to rework the set by shifting everything 1/3 towards stage right), the RZ hoped that all of them would die.
Redeeming qualities? One, namely the crudest game of Guess Who in theatrical history.
Where: Trafalgar Studios 2
When: Closed
How Much: £17.50
Concessions: Good question.
-------------------
RZ Unofficial “Worth Paying”: Doesn’t matter since it’s not open.
RZ Other Notes: Hopefully I, Lear, which the RZ is seeing tomorrow, will fare better.
Wednesday, 19 March 2008
REVIEW: "Snowbound"
It would do the staff of Trafalgar Studios well to hand out orders of pancakes at performances of Ciaran McConville’s new play Snowbound - there’s simply too much syrup on stage for them to do anything else.
This isn’t to say that the RZ finds syrup bad - he’s quite fond of maple, boysenberry, and chocolate. However, Snowbound reads like the lighter side of Lifetime movies - the ones without domestic abuse. We’ve got the mentally challenged little brother, the selfless caretaker, the dead parents, the career-minded sister, the estranged marriage between family friends and the “make ‘em suffer more” tragedy at the start of the second act. Through all of this the audience is assaulted with enough videos and discussions on the nature, wonders, and pains of love to cause cavities.
The design, a cluttered wall of black and white family photos with blank price tags serves to distort the film-within-the-play on love, and for some reason the legendary red benches of Studio 2 (aka the only comfortable bench seats in London) are covered in white drop cloths, presumably to hammer home the winter imagery. The cast of seven are decent enough for the material, but none of them will take home an Olivier.
The RZ also wishes to call out the promotions staff for using pull quotes related to McConville’s prior works - and not always with full details on the placards and show posters.
There’s certainly an audience for this sort of material, but the RZ isn’t it and found himself wanting to pull a de Jongh and catch a short nap but managed to stay awake through the evening. For those big on “inspiring” works (and the RZ uses the term loosely), Snowbound is a must-see. For the more cynical looking to take in a bit of family drama, wait for August: Osage County or Next to Normal to transfer.
Where: Trafalgar Studios 2
When: M-Sa @ 19:45, Th/Sa @ 15:00 until 19 April.
How Much: £24
Concessions: Monday performances for £15, check re: seniors/students.
-----------------
RZ Unofficial Worth Paying: £10 (TKTS for Mondays). Decent performances and a professional if not amazing script.
RZ Other Notes: Avoid seats A14-20 as you are likely to get stepped on/have someone’s arse in your face/have a light glaring in your eyes in this area. The RZ recommends ordering interval drinks in advance from the foyer bar as Dealers Choice has a simultaneous interval and the bars get insane. It *is* worth using the loo, however, if only to watch first timers struggle to comprehend the Dyson Airblades. Whingers take note, there is much alcohol consumed onstage along with some utterly nasty (read: stereotypically British) looking pasta.
This isn’t to say that the RZ finds syrup bad - he’s quite fond of maple, boysenberry, and chocolate. However, Snowbound reads like the lighter side of Lifetime movies - the ones without domestic abuse. We’ve got the mentally challenged little brother, the selfless caretaker, the dead parents, the career-minded sister, the estranged marriage between family friends and the “make ‘em suffer more” tragedy at the start of the second act. Through all of this the audience is assaulted with enough videos and discussions on the nature, wonders, and pains of love to cause cavities.
The design, a cluttered wall of black and white family photos with blank price tags serves to distort the film-within-the-play on love, and for some reason the legendary red benches of Studio 2 (aka the only comfortable bench seats in London) are covered in white drop cloths, presumably to hammer home the winter imagery. The cast of seven are decent enough for the material, but none of them will take home an Olivier.
The RZ also wishes to call out the promotions staff for using pull quotes related to McConville’s prior works - and not always with full details on the placards and show posters.
There’s certainly an audience for this sort of material, but the RZ isn’t it and found himself wanting to pull a de Jongh and catch a short nap but managed to stay awake through the evening. For those big on “inspiring” works (and the RZ uses the term loosely), Snowbound is a must-see. For the more cynical looking to take in a bit of family drama, wait for August: Osage County or Next to Normal to transfer.
Where: Trafalgar Studios 2
When: M-Sa @ 19:45, Th/Sa @ 15:00 until 19 April.
How Much: £24
Concessions: Monday performances for £15, check re: seniors/students.
-----------------
RZ Unofficial Worth Paying: £10 (TKTS for Mondays). Decent performances and a professional if not amazing script.
RZ Other Notes: Avoid seats A14-20 as you are likely to get stepped on/have someone’s arse in your face/have a light glaring in your eyes in this area. The RZ recommends ordering interval drinks in advance from the foyer bar as Dealers Choice has a simultaneous interval and the bars get insane. It *is* worth using the loo, however, if only to watch first timers struggle to comprehend the Dyson Airblades. Whingers take note, there is much alcohol consumed onstage along with some utterly nasty (read: stereotypically British) looking pasta.
Monday, 11 February 2008
REVIEW: "Sweet William"
There are two kinds of theatre fans in this world: those who are fans of Shakespeare and those who do not exist in the eyes of the former. Indeed, how could one fail to be charmed by the language, the sweeping epics, and the legacy left behind by the Bard? To be completely honest, the RZ finds it pretty easy. He would rather sit through a repeat visit to An Audience with the Mafia than go to a production of Shakespeare, and the only time he has ever found himself engaged at all by the master was watching Slings & Arrows - and even then it was the acting and the set-up rather than the words which blew him away.
That said, classical actor Michael Pennington had an entirely different and wholehearted appreciation for the man, leading him to devise and perform the new one-man show Sweet William, now running at the home of the Dyson Airblades...er...Trafalgar 2.
Pennington’s tale is an intertwined blend of his own life and experience with the material with that of Shakespeare’s. From his first visit to Macbeth to forming a politically charged troupe, Pennington relates to and through the great texts, coming in and out of characters related to the times and events in the discussed lives.
And that’s about it, really. It’s hard to go into great detail about such a simple show, other than to point out that it’s obvious from beginning to end how passionate Pennington is about his source material. Despite his age, he maintains an approachable warmth and vigour through two acts with only a chair to accompany him.
And because there’s so little to comment on, it’s a rather easy judgement to call to make. Shakespeare enthusiasts will feel at home with this production, and while non-enthusiasts are unlikely to be converted (the RZ wasn’t), it’s a more entertaining lecture than the far more sensationalised pap mentioned above.
Both groups, however, should be outraged at the Ambassador Theatre Group for having the gall to charge £27.50 for this production. One man, a chair, and a single lighting preset doth not such a high price justify, and as one of the RZ’s companions pointed out, one could see a musical for that (or two or three fringe productions elsewhere). The show is touring, however, and will undoubtedly be cheaper at the Kingston Rose or Greenwich Theatre (it’s playing one of them....)
Where: Trafalgar Studios 2
When: M-Sa @ 19:45, Th/Sa @ 15:00 until 16 Feb.
How Much: £20 Mon. Eve, £27.50 all other performances
Concessions: Book by phone and mention “ATG Email Offer” to get £20 tickets. Students and usual suspects can likely get day seats as well.
----------------------
RZ Unofficial “Worth Paying”: £12.50. It would be worth top price at a smaller venue with a more reasonable price.
RZ Other Notes: Readers who have not seen the brilliance that is Slings & Arrows (a Canadian TV series about a Shakespeare festival) are deprived and should rush to the nearest R1 DVD store of their choice to pick up the new and highly affordable boxset. Also, both of the RZ’s companions commented on Trafalgar’s use of Dyson Airblade hand driers, officially making Trafalgar Studios the trendy place to use the loo in the West End.
That said, classical actor Michael Pennington had an entirely different and wholehearted appreciation for the man, leading him to devise and perform the new one-man show Sweet William, now running at the home of the Dyson Airblades...er...Trafalgar 2.
Pennington’s tale is an intertwined blend of his own life and experience with the material with that of Shakespeare’s. From his first visit to Macbeth to forming a politically charged troupe, Pennington relates to and through the great texts, coming in and out of characters related to the times and events in the discussed lives.
And that’s about it, really. It’s hard to go into great detail about such a simple show, other than to point out that it’s obvious from beginning to end how passionate Pennington is about his source material. Despite his age, he maintains an approachable warmth and vigour through two acts with only a chair to accompany him.
And because there’s so little to comment on, it’s a rather easy judgement to call to make. Shakespeare enthusiasts will feel at home with this production, and while non-enthusiasts are unlikely to be converted (the RZ wasn’t), it’s a more entertaining lecture than the far more sensationalised pap mentioned above.
Both groups, however, should be outraged at the Ambassador Theatre Group for having the gall to charge £27.50 for this production. One man, a chair, and a single lighting preset doth not such a high price justify, and as one of the RZ’s companions pointed out, one could see a musical for that (or two or three fringe productions elsewhere). The show is touring, however, and will undoubtedly be cheaper at the Kingston Rose or Greenwich Theatre (it’s playing one of them....)
Where: Trafalgar Studios 2
When: M-Sa @ 19:45, Th/Sa @ 15:00 until 16 Feb.
How Much: £20 Mon. Eve, £27.50 all other performances
Concessions: Book by phone and mention “ATG Email Offer” to get £20 tickets. Students and usual suspects can likely get day seats as well.
----------------------
RZ Unofficial “Worth Paying”: £12.50. It would be worth top price at a smaller venue with a more reasonable price.
RZ Other Notes: Readers who have not seen the brilliance that is Slings & Arrows (a Canadian TV series about a Shakespeare festival) are deprived and should rush to the nearest R1 DVD store of their choice to pick up the new and highly affordable boxset. Also, both of the RZ’s companions commented on Trafalgar’s use of Dyson Airblade hand driers, officially making Trafalgar Studios the trendy place to use the loo in the West End.
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