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Wednesday 11 July 2018

It Happened in Key West, Charing Cross Theatre | Review

It Happened in Key West

Charing Cross Theatre

Reviewed on Tuesday 10th July 2018 by Nicola Louise

★★★

Sometimes you walk into a show and you know exactly what to expect and sometimes you don’t have a clue... It Happened in Key West was the latter for me.

Based on a true story, it follows the story of Count Carl von Cosel (Wade McCollum), a scientist from Germany who washes up on a beach in Key West, Florida and finds him self working as a radiologist in the local hospital, there he finds his true love, Elena (Alyssa Martyn), who’s suffering from tuberculosis.

When you walk into the theatre you’re greeted with a character on stage playing a guitar; the sea projected on the wall behind him and the sounds of waves and seagulls can be heard. This sets the scene and creates an air of excitement and intrigue for what's to come.

Reading the beginning synopsis of this musical, you'd expect a love story, however, when Elena dies that’s where this show starts to get a bit... different.

Von Cosel, a real life character, dug Elena's body up and lived with it for 7 years and this show follows that story from beginning to end.

McCollum worked well with what he was given. He portrayed the friendliness, the longing and the hurt of his character yet he was still funny, and Martyn was great as the innocent young Elena.

You could tell throughout that writer, Jill Santorillo, wanted to add comedy to an otherwise dark story and she does so with brilliant effect. The show is genuinely funny, however there’s a song called 'At the End of the World’ which I found unnecessary; I didn’t feel like it added anything to the story and I felt myself cringing at the whole performance.

Honestly, I’m still trying to figure out how I feel about this musical. I’ve never walked out a show wondering what had just happened but I did with this. Despite being a wacky story, I’m not sure it's a musical that needed to be made and although the actors were 5* the musical was not.

If you’re in the Charing Cross area, want a bit of a laugh and want to see a wild story on stage, I would suggest It Happened in Key West, however, I wouldn’t go out of my way to see it.

It Happened in Key West is currently playing at the Charing Cross Theatre until 18th August.

photo credit: Darren Bell

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Friday 2 February 2018

Hot Lips and Cold War, London Theatre Workshop | Review

Hot Lips and Cold War

London Theatre Workshop

Reviewed on Thursday 1st February 2018 by Nicola Louise

★★★★★

"Hot Lips and Cold War explores cultural, sexual, political relationships and the nature of the glue that holds everything together – trust." – Lizzie Freeborn

Set during JFK administration, this new musical by Lizzie Freeborn set in the Whitehouse, looks at the staff in house at the time of the sexual scandal set by JFK himself and Ms Marilyn Monroe.

The main focus of this show, however, is a young Irish girl Maria, played by Sylvie Briggs, a photographer who wants out of Ireland to start a new life. Briggs really shows the sweetness and naivety of Maria throughout the show, especially when her love, Davy (Adam Small) a young American, PA to the president’s secretary is around. Maria is in love with Davy but it’s one-sided.

Small is great at showing Davy in a light that makes the audience both feel sympathy and hate towards the character.

Within the Whitehouse, we meet Mrs Kennedy’s maid Grace, and her son, Marvin played by Florence Odumosu and Jamal Franklin. The pair worked off each other well and you believed the love between them as a family. When Franklin sang his first song with Maria, he did come off a bit camp which almost ruined his character development, but, unlike most small theatre shows I’ve seen, he managed to redeem himself pretty quick and you could see and believe that he was slowly falling in love with Maria.

The Kennedy’s were perfect, Marcia Sommerford really made the first lady her own and you could see the worry and betrayal in her eyes from her husband’s affair, and the hatred she had for Marilyn Monroe played by Freya Tilly, who was the reincarnation of Ms Monroe herself.

JFK, played by Robert Oliver had stage presence as the President and really brought to life the worries and concerns the man had that his affairs would get out and ruin everything he worked so hard for.

With such a small company, I need to mention Lewis Rae, the President’s secretary and Ashley Knight who played Jerome Kingsley, a rich Southerner who was both a racist and a bigot. I enjoyed Knight’s performance- he played it just right. With Englishmen playing Rich Southerner’s there’s always the danger of overplaying, but this wasn’t the case. His song ‘You’ll hear the South Roar’ was one of my favourites.

Hot Lips and Cold War plays at the London Theatre Workshop until February 24th.

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Friday 2 March 2018

Bismillah! An Isis Tragicomedy, Vault Festival | Review

Bismillah! An Isis Tragicomedy

The Vaults

Reviewed on Thursday 1st March 2018 by Nicola Louise

★★★★

I’ve never really been a fan of shows with a single set (or no set in this case) and two people. It always seemed a bit boring (not that it was the actors fault, the writing was just not up to scratch), so when I decided to attend Bismillah! An Isis Tragicomedy I was little apprehensive.

Currently being shown as part of The Vault Festival at Waterloo, the tunnels provide the perfect setting for what is meant to be a holding cell controlled by Isis- as you walk in and take your seat there’s already something happening. A solider is tied to a pole in the middle of the stage with a bag over his head, he’s struggling and the action begins.

Bismillah, written by Matthew Grenhough -who also plays the prisoner of Isis- is a perfect mix of comedy and true horror. The IS solider played by Elliot Liburd arrives with food and water and the show starts; conversation flows between the two soldiers and they find themselves bonding over shifts at Wetherspoons and a £4.39 meal deal at the airport.

It soon becomes clear however, that Liburd’s character has some issues with himself. As he starts to lose his temper, you can see the confidence in Grenhough’s character leave his body as he suddenly becomes a terrified little boy.

Both actors performed Grenhough's thought-provoking script well, asking the questions: How well do you really know somebody? How different are we to them? Just because the news reports one thing does it make it true?

Never before have I been gripped so much in 75 minutes watching a conversation between two people than I have seeing this show. As this show was first staged in 2015 a few things are a little out dated but still work. Even the over use of pop culture but that’s what makes this show what it is.

Bismillah! An Isis Tragicomedy is currently showing at the Vault Festival until the 4th March 2018. Get your tickets quick.

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