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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 
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Tuesday 10 January 2023

Aimee Lou Wood and John McCrea to Join Cast of Cabaret


Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club in London’s West End are delighted to announce that BAFTA Award winner Aimee Lou Wood will play ‘Sally Bowles’, Olivier Award nominee John McCrea will play ‘The Emcee’ and Nathan Ives-Moiba will play ‘Cliff Bradshaw’ from 13 February 2022 until 27 May 2023. kitkat.club


Aimee Lou Wood said today “I’ve wanted to be Sally Bowles since I was around 10 so this is really special. I’m unbelievably excited and having the greatest time in rehearsals. The production is so wonderful and I feel honoured to be stepping into this beautiful team of people!”


John McCrea said today “I’m thrilled to be taking on the iconic role of the Emcee in this ground-breaking production of Cabaret.  It’s an absolute honour to be joining this amazing company of artists.”
 

Aimee Lou Wood is best known for her portrayal of Aimee Gibbs in all three series of the Netflix series Sex Education for which she won the BAFTA Award for Best Female Comedy Performance. She recently starred in the critically acclaimed film Living opposite Bill Nighy. Her stage credits include Sonya in Uncle Vanya at the Harold Pinter Theatre in the West End and Downstate at the National Theatre.

 

John McCrea created the role of Jamie New in the smash hit musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie at both the Sheffield Crucible Theatre and the West End’s Apollo Theatre. For his performance he was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical and won the Most Promising Newcomer at the Critics Circle Theatre Awards, the WhatsOnStage Award for Best Actor in a Leading role in a Musical and the UK Theatre Award for Best Musical Performer. He recently appeared as Max in Daddy at the Almeida Theatre and his film credits include Artie in the hit Disney film, Cruella.  

 

Nathan Ives-Moiba’s many theatre credits include As You Like It at the National Theatre, My Children My Africa at Trafalgar Studios, Our Country’s Good for Out of Joint, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, And Did Those Feet and Tull, all at the Octagon Theatre. For his performance in Tull, Nathan was nominated for the Best Newcomer at the Manchester Theatre Awards.

 

At certain performances, the role of Sally Bowles will be played by Emily Benjamin.

 

As a member of the original cast of this production, Emily has been a swing and understudy to the role of Sally Bowles since the show opened. Her other West End theatre credits include Bat Out of Hell The Musical at the London Coliseum and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at the Bridge Theatre.

 

The final performance for Callum Scott Howells as ‘The Emcee’ and Madeline Brewer as ‘Sally Bowles’ will be Saturday 28 January 2023. Sid Sagar’s final performance as ‘Cliff Bradshaw’ will be Saturday 11 February 2023.

Between 30 January 2023 – 11 February 2023 the role of ‘The Emcee’ will be played by Matthew Gent and the role of ‘Sally Bowles’ will be played by Emily Benjamin. At certain performances the role of ‘Sally Bowles’ will be played by Sally Frith.

 

Matthew Gent’s West End theatre credits include Sweeney Todd at the Adelphi Theatre, The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre and Les Misérables at the Queen’s Theatre. His other theatre credits include Rags at the Park Theatre, The Queen of the Mist at Charing Cross Theatre, The Water Babies at Leicester Curve, The Carnival of the Animals at Riverside Studios and Taboo at Brixton Club House.

 

The cast also includes Vivien Parry as ‘Fraulein Schneider’, Richard Katz as ‘Herr Schultz’, Danny Mahoney as ‘Ernst Ludwig’ and Michelle Bishop as ‘Fraulein Kost’. The cast is completed by Gabriela Benedetti, Charles Croysdill, Laura Delany, Sally Frith, Matthew Gent, Ying Ue Li, Ela Lisondra, Chris O’Mara, Grant Neal, Hicaro Nicolai, Adam Taylor, Toby Turpin, Patrick Wilden and Sophie Maria Wojna.

 

The Prologue Company currently includes Rachel Benson, Ami Benton, Laura Braid, Reuben Greeph, James Hastings, Samantha Ho, Emma Holt, Liz Kamille, Andrew Linnie, Aine McLoughlin and Callum Sterling.

 

This unique production of Cabaret opened in December 2021 to critical and audience acclaim, widely praised as the ultimate theatrical experience. In April 2022 the production won a record-breaking seven Olivier Awards, the most for any musical revival in Olivier history. The production has also won three prestigious Critics Circle Awards and most recently the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Design for designer Tom Scutt.

 

Transforming one of London’s most famous theatres with an in-the-round auditorium and reimagined spaces, before the show guests are invited to enjoy and explore the Kit Kat Club with pre-show entertainment, drinks and dining all on offer. When booking, guests receive a 'club entry time' to allow enough time to take in the world of the Kit Kat Club before the show starts. But of course, the show really starts when you first join us in the club…

 

One of the most successful musicals of all time Cabaret features the songs Wilkommen, Don’t Tell Mama, Mein Herr, Maybe This Time, Money and the title number. It has music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, book by Joe Masteroff. Based on the play by John Van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood.

 

Cabaret is directed by Rebecca Frecknall, set and costume design is by Tom Scutt with choreography by Julia Cheng. Musical supervision is by Jennifer Whyte and musical direction is by Ben Ferguson with lighting design by Isabella Byrd and sound design by Nick Lidster. The casting director is Stuart Burt and the associate director is Jordan Fein.

Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club is produced by Ambassador Theatre Group Productions and Underbelly.

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Tuesday 4 December 2018

Striking 12, Union Theatre | Review


Striking 12
Union Theatre 
Reviewed on Monday 3rd December 2018 by Olivia Mitchell 
★★★★

Now we've entered December, the festive shows on offer are really stepping up, with the Union Theatre's Striking 12 providing a festive but not in-your-face-Christmas 90 minute story to warm hearts and have toes tapping. 

With an eclectic score by Brendan Milburn and Valerie Vigoda's this re-telling of Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Match Girl, switches between a contemporary New Year's Eve and the 1840s New Years Eve where the Anderson tale is set. 

Declan Bennett plays Brendan, a man who dislikes NYE as he's haunted by memories of his ex-fiancé; whilst home alone, he reads the Anderson tale and is reminded of the importance of giving and sharing. Bennett is vocally powerful and gives an admirable performance despite some sound issues, especially towards the start, which made him hard to hear. 


In the 1840s setting, Bronté Barbé plays the Little Match Girl with a sweetness and sincerity that the audience can't help but be drawn to, and in the modern setting, she plays an equally kind and appealing character  as a girl selling seasonal lightbulbs. Barbé's effortless vocal performance is utterly mesmerising to watch and, helped by Alex Lewer's lighting, really evokes the warm feeling we all desire at Christmas. 

The rest of the cast are made up by Andrew Linnie on piano, with Danielle Kassaraté, Kate Robson-Stuart and Leon Scott acting as narrators, secondary characters and musicians in a series of seamless turns and twists. The trio do an outstanding and humourous job of moving the story forward and work extremely well together in the small space of the Union.


Whilst the cast are very strong and the story is sweet, there are a few faults with this production, mainly that the overarching story, doesn't have much oomph as it lacks emotional depth. Our leading man spends the entirety of the show reading about the struggles of the Little Match Girl so that he eventually becomes a 'new man'. However, he wasn't bad to start with, at least, from what we see. Other than turning away the young girl selling light bulbs, there isn't a scrooge-like aspect to him so his transition doesn't feel overly effective. There's also a number of mentions of his ex-fiancé which aren't explored, so again,  have little impact.  

However, even with these issues, the story is super sweet and with a couple of tweaks could be a real hit. To combat those winter blues, and get a fuzzy feeling inside, be sure to take a trip to the Union Theatre and spend 90 minutes with Striking 12.

Striking 12 runs at the Union Theatre until 23rd December 2018

photo credit: Tom Grace
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Thursday 5 November 2020

Hiba Elchikhe Brings Together West End Performers For A New Musical Theatre Series


In collaboration with Nimax and The Theatre Café, West End performer Hiba Elchikhe is thrilled to announce a brand-new musical theatre based web series: Out Of The Darkness, Into The Spotlight.


Bringing a little bit of glitter to the grey, this three-episode series hopes to not only entertain, but shine a light on the performers who are keeping the West End alive, even during lockdown.


Hiba, who is currently starring in the West End hit Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, and who has created the series says “In a time of such uncertainty I am so excited to be able to bring together a spectacular group of freelance artists, that are representative of the UK.”  


Featuring a line up of stellar creatives, each episode shines a “spotlight” on something different: Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Musical Theatre and Christmas. The first episode is set to premiere on November 18th, with the next two going live on November 25th and December 9th. Each episode will feature a different line-up of star performers, running at approximately 45 minutes and including a mixture of songs. Performers include: Danny Becker (Prince of Egypt, Aladdin), Courtney Bowman (Six, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie), Danielle Steers (Six, Bat Out of Hell), Hiba Elchikhe (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Brooklyn), Carrie Hope Fletcher (Les Misérables, Heathers), Sejal Keshwala (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie), Tim Mahendran (& Juliet, Spring Awakening), Grace Mouat (& Juliet, Six), Trevor Dion Nicholas (Hamilton, Aladdin), Liam Tamne (Prince of Egypt) and Noah Thomas (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie).


As well as Maisey Bawden, Paul Bradshaw, Rhiane Drummond, James Gillan, Shanay Holmes, Rob Houchen, Melissa Jacques, Emma Kingston, Carl Man, Frances McCann, Scott Paige, Sharun Phull, Amy Trigg and Andrew Patrick Walker, with more to be announced.


Tickets are available from: https://www.thetheatrecafe.co.uk/2020/11/news-out-of-the-darkness-into-the-spotlight/


#IntoTheSpotlightConcert


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Wednesday 7 March 2018

Cilla (UK Tour), Storyhouse | Review


Cilla (UK Tour)
Storyhouse
Reviewed on Tuesday 6th March 2018 by Becca Cromwell
★★★★

Based on both a real-life story and Jeff Pope’s Bafta Award Winning ITV drama, Cilla the Musical brings to life the story of Priscilla White, a teenage girl from Liverpool whose dreams turned to reality as she became one of the most loved Stars of the 1960s and most popular entertainers of all time. Cilla began her career in 1963 and had a career in both Music and Television which spanned five decades; including shows such as Surprise Surprise and Blind Date.

The musical score, written by Scott Alder incorporates both Cilla’s best loved songs and other well-known hits from the sixties well. You can expect to hear a majority of the songs that everyone remembers from the sixties, including Anyone Who Had A Heart and You’re My World, alongside The Beatles’ Twist and Shout and Martha and the Vandellas’ 1964 hit Dancing In The Street.

Kara Lily Hayworth, who landed the role through success at rigorous open auditions, plays the role of hopeful starlet Priscilla White whose life changes massively once introduced to Brian Epstein. It is no wonder that Hayworth bagged the role, as her portrayal of Cilla was astounding. Cilla herself would be proud. The vocals were extremely impressive and although not from Liverpool, Hayworth really did the accent justice.


Personal Assistant turned boyfriend Bobby, played by Carl Au, brought plenty of drama to the production. With a strong voice and solid acting, the character was portrayed excellently. With charm and wit, Au shone throughout the show.

Brian Epstein, played by Andrew Lancel, was executed fantastically. The character’s tragic tale was intertwined with the main plot of the show, and worked well. The audience connected with Lancel well and he received loud applause at the curtain call.

The ensemble and supporting characters all gave good performances, with Pauline Fleming and Neil MacDonald standing out in the comedy roles as Cilla’s Parents.


The first act of the show feels more like a concert than a musical theatre production, as it is done in a style that almost breaks the fourth wall, different to anything I have seen in a while. Set mostly in the Cavern Club in Liverpool, Cilla embarks on her journey from teenage starlet to national treasure.

During the second act, there are significantly more numbers which make it feel like a musical theatre production, rather than a concert. However there were a few set mishaps, with one of the backdrops being lowered completely down instead of pulled back up out of view and wonky tables. Set mishaps aside, the cast often had to deal with the band being louder than their microphones, which is a shame. Throughout the bigger numbers, Hayworth could hardly be heard over the live band, which can easily be remedied and make the whole experience even more enjoyable.

The UK tour of Cilla runs currently until April 21st. Grab your tickets whilst you can!

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