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Thursday 5 October 2017
The Addams Family (UK Tour), Grand Opera House | Review
The Addams Family (UK Tour)
The Grand Opera House, Belfast
Reviewed on Tuesday October 3rd by Damien Murray
★★★★
This Irish and UK premiere tour production of the musical comedy, The Addams Family was an entertaining and fast-paced production of Andrew Lippa’s funny musical about a less than conventional family and its ancestors.
Right from the off, it was obvious that this was not going to be ‘One Normal Night’, as – during the overture – a finger-clicking hand appeared through the letter box; the hand of an unknown person (in this case, probably a ‘stage hand’!!).
Mainly played out on the superbly old and run-down eerie mansion befitting to such a weird and spooky family, the functional set designs, with moveable staircases and great use of the two side balconies, helped greatly with the good pace of this production.
Despite the family’s appearance, values and lifestyle, this atmospheric piece is not so much scary as it is a funny musical with great one-liners that, thankfully, are never just throw away lines for the experienced cast.
We were then introduced to a mixed bag of weird ancestors who looked almost normal when compared to the central family of the piece.
They made up a well-used ensemble, which, despite its relative lack of numbers, produced some excellent harmonies during choral pieces (e.g. 'One Normal Night' and 'Move Toward The Darkness') and provided solid support throughout in vocals, dance, movement, visuals and as a distraction during scene changes.
While the Act 1 finale, 'Full Disclosure' (Part 2) was a great production number, the orchestra and cast rose to the challenge here with the varied and difficult score, which - apart from the variety of tempo changes from one song to the next - had to cope with a degree of musical fragmentation caused by lots of start/stops throughout many songs and challenging underscoring.
While the great musicality of the tango rhythms made numbers like 'Trapped', 'Secrets' and 'Not Today' stand out here, it was the orchestra’s sheer accuracy of performance and the visual impact of the dancers in the production number, 'Tango De Amour', that combined to make this an irresistible musical highlight.
'Pulled' was another highlight because of Wednesday’s strong vocal performance, while the flamenco flavoured music of 'Let’s Live Before We Die' impressed and 'But Love' provided a little vaudeville-style distraction between scenes.
There were some soft ballads in the varied score, including the gentle, 'The Moon And Me', while 'Move Toward The Darkness' was unusual in that it is rare that a ballad is used as a finale number, but it did allow for some great choral work.It was good to see the reprise of the up-tempo, 'When You’re An Addams', being used to send all home happy after the ballad finale.
Choreography was a strong element in this production and the concepts were well-executed right from the opening production number, 'When You’re An Addams', when we knew that there was going to be no problems with dance, as this song’s varied choreography included lots of arm movements and samples of line dancing, the bunny hop and the twist. The moon ballet was well-staged ('The Moon And Me'), while it was a nice touch to use a ‘young’ Wednesday to highlight the emotions of the song during Happy Sad.
The nightmarish family in this macabre musical was effortlessly brought to life by the talented principals, including Cameron Blakely as the Latino-looking and hen-pecked husband, Gomez, who supplied some touching moments in the song, 'Happy Sad', yet also managed to deliver the song’s humorous lines on cue, while always maintaining the right comic timing to get the laughs when needed.
Samantha Womack as the very much in-charge and matriarchal Morticia was both tall and elegant and looked the part in her long black ankle-length dress and long black hair like Crystal Gale. Boasting dead-pan looks that could kill, this was a very confident performance from a total all-rounder with a great voice and good stage presence who perfectly captured her character’s dry wit. She also proved to be a most impressive dancer, especially in the song and dance number, 'Just Around The Corner', which allowed her to show her macabre emotions of joy.
However, for me, the star of the show was Carrie Hope Fletcher’s manipulative daughter, Wednesday. This amazingly talented girl is a strong performer with a great voice and real stage presence and this was highlighted in her performance throughout, but especially during the ‘coming of age’ song, 'Pulled'.
In the absence of Les Dennis, due to illness, his understudy, Scott Paige, was more than deserving of this role and impressed greatly both in his acting, comic timing and vocal ability, especially as he was acting so much ‘out of age’ in this part. Despite playing the loveably crazy uncle, Fester, he provided lovely vocals during his gentle ballad, 'The Moon And Me' and as the show’s narrator character.
Dickon Gough had a dream role as the ever-growling zombie-like butler, Lurch, and played one of musical theatre’s great non-speaking parts exceptionally well, while Grant McIntyre, as Pugsley, played the younger brother with a grown-up attitude well.
There was good support from Charlotte Page’s fully-disclosed Alice, Dale Rapley’s typical American parent, Mal, and his college student son, Lucas, played by Oliver Ormson, while Valda Aviks’ eccentric Grandma was good, but I would like to have seen more of her character’s outspoken and irreverent attitude.
Perfectly-timed sound effects and special visual effects like the thunder and lightening, the monster in the box and the use of individual ancestors in the portrait painting all added to the success of this slick production.
Thanks to the brilliant lighting, costumes, props, make-up and hair, this was a visually stunning show from its strong opening to its unusual ballad ending … absolutely ‘finger-clicking good’ throughout!
The Addams Family runs at the Grad Opera House, Belfast until October 7th.
Photo credit: Matt Martin
Friday 21 July 2017
In Conversation With... Tyrone Huntley | Jesus Christ Superstar | Interview
Tyrone Huntley has the voice of an angel and supreme acting skills. He's just finished starring as CC in Dreamgirls and is currently in rehearsals to reprise the role of Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar at the Regent's Park Open Air theatre later this summer. He's already a star but he deserves even more praise for his outstanding performances and I can't wait to see what more he does!
For anyone that doesn’t know, can you explain a little about your career and highlights so far?
I graduated from Mountview in 2011 and got my first job in the U.K. Tour of Sister Act. My West End debut came straight after that in The Book of Mormon and since then I've been fortunate enough to work on other incredible shows including the Original London Casts of Memphis and Dreamgirls.
I read that you studied law and completed a degree in it whilst you were starring in The Book of Mormon and Memphis, how was it juggling the two?
It was difficult and extremely time consuming but ever so rewarding. I learned a lot and when I graduated I felt such a sense of pride and achievement.
Do you have any other hidden passions that you’d like to pursue?
You’ve just finished playing CC in the epic, Dreamgirls. Is CC anything like you?
CC has some really enviable qualities that don't sit naturally with me. Where CC is optimistic and positive thinking, I generally think the worst and I'm not surprised when things don't necessarily go my way!! That said, I like to think I can relate to his ambitiousness, his caring nature and desire to make people happy.
Have you had any funny onstage or offstage mishaps whilst you’ve been in the show? Or any other shows?
I did Porgy and Bess at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre a couple of years ago which meant, like Jesus Christ Superstar, we were obviously performing outside. In the show I had a little featured singing bit - my big moment. One evening I was just about to sing my part but as I breathed in I inhaled a massive fly so instead of singing my one little solo song, I had a beautifully underscored coughing fit!
It’s so exciting that you’ll be returning to play Judas again at the open air theatre. What are the hardest and most exciting parts about playing the iconic role?
I'm very excited. It's a great role in a great show and I get to perform at Regent's Park again! The music is amazing and I'm looking forward to sinking my teeth back into it. That said, it's very challenging vocally which means, more than usual, I have to look after myself and make sure I stay as fit and healthy as possible which means my already limited social life will have to take even more of a back seat!!
Besides yourself, who else would you like to see tackle the character of Judas?
I'd love to see my old mate Matt Cardle do it, he'd be perfect. Or thinking outside of the box maybe Eva Noblezada... she'd sound amazing.
What’s the last thing you do before you step out on stage?
I have to go through all of my lines for the next scene. I trust my short term memory way more than my long term memory and it puts me at ease just to check the lines are still there!
 |
| Tyrone and the cast of Jesus Christ Superstar |
You have a five minute break in rehearsals, what are you doing?
Eating.
Is there a musical or play you’ve seen recently that you loved?
I saw Hamlet at the Harold Pinter a few weeks ago with Andrew Scott and Juliet Stevenson. I was completely blown away by everything about the production!
What’s a fun fact that people might not know about you?
It's certainly not very fun but it's extremely important to me. I HATE coriander. It's poison!
What’s your best piece of advice for an aspiring performer?
Hard work doesn't always pay off but if you put in the work, no one can ever take that away from you and you can always rest in the knowledge that you did everything you could. Be open - every experience, whether negative or positive, is an opportunity to learn.
A huge thank you to Tyrone for taking the time to do this interview. Make sure you book to see Jesus Christ Superstar at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre this summer.
Monday 6 March 2017
Hamlet, Almeida Theatre | Review
Hamlet
Almeida Theatre
Reviewed on Saturday 4th March 2017 by Olivia Mitchell
Reviewed on Saturday 4th March 2017 by Olivia Mitchell
★★★★★
Shamefully, most of my Shakespeare knowledge has come from school English lessons so I'm not the most educated on the Bard but I jumped at the chance to see this highly anticipated production of the great tragedy Hamlet. At almost four hours long you might think you'll lag towards the end but this production is so well done that you'll be gripped and wide awake throughout!
Andrew Scott of Sherlock fame takes on the mammoth feat of playing the iconic, Hamlet. You need skill, stamina and sincerity to carry this very long play and Scott has all of these in spades. He holds the play up and commands every moment, showing a thousand different emotions and really taking the audience on a crazy, dramatic journey. Each word he speaks is filled with emotion. From quiet whispered moments to loud shouts and screams, he manages to involve the audience and create a real sense of intimacy. His performance is absolutely outstanding.
Peter Wight is brilliant as Polonius; nosy and sneaky but still likeable. Jessica Brown-Findlay as Ophelia transforms from joyful innocence to grief-stricken craziness wonderfully and gives a truly moving performance in her final scenes. Juliet Stevenson's Queen and relationship with Angus Wright's Claudius are very convincing and just shocking enough. They work very well together, showing a lot of character development throughout and using the text in new and exciting ways.
Hildegard Bechtler's set is simple but crazily effective. It seems to become more opaque as the play moves on, with the clever use of curtains and screens becoming ingrained in and crucial to the performance throughout. Along with Tom Gibbons' sparse and overwhelming score a sense of drama and being trapped/followed is ever present.
Robert Icke has created a truly brilliant production. From explosive moments to moments of silence, the audience are kept gripped and the four hours goes by in a tick. The performance is humorous and shocking at the same time whilst embodying the eerie intensity that Shakespeare is so well known for. Every crevice of the play has been fully thought through and the character work from rehearsals is clear in every moment on stage.
This is an impeccable production from a stupendously talented and well rounded cast. The show has been brought into the modern world perfectly and effectively. There's light and shade, humour and sadness, love and hate and so much more. Truly brilliant!
Hamlet runs at the Almeida Theatre until April 15th. The production is currently sold out but it's well worth queuing for a return ticket!
Photo by: Manuel Harlan
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