Photo Credit: Johan Persson
Review
Fiddler on the Roof (until 2 September)
Chichester Festival Theatre
Box Office: 01243 781312 www.cft.org.uk
Photo credit: Johan Persson
Heart, humour and world-class performances are just some of the elements that make Daniel Evans’s big summer musical an absolute belter. Add to that terrific musicians, Alistair David’s thrilling choreography and Lez Brotherston’s cleverly conceived set, which makes the very best use of Chichester’s unique stage, and you have a show that has all the hallmarks of a West End transfer.
The story of Tevye, a poor dairyman with five daughters, it is 1905 and in Russia an uneasy sense of impending change is in the air. But on a poor shtetl Tevye is more immediately concerned with finding husbands for the three eldest of his girls. Alas, despite his best efforts to keep with tradition, it seems that they are determined to follow their hearts rather than their heads, or indeed the advice of Matchmaker Yente (gloriously played by Liza Sadovy).
Omid Djalili is superb as Tevye. Radiating warmth sufficient to melt a Moscow frost in January, he convinces absolutely as the ordinary family man who is not without his shortcomings. In his regular exchanges with God (Dajalili’s stand-up career is much in evidence here), and later as he sings the touching Do You Love Me? to his wife, he reveals a touching vulnerability.
Tracy-Ann Oberman as his wife Golde is equally impressive. A feisty lioness who knows her old man better than he knows himself, it is an inspired pairing.
The singing overall is outstanding. From sweet and soaring to joyous and rousing, Tradition, the opening number, is nothing short of an emotional musical wallop to the gut.
A stupendous ensemble effort, this is a revival that feels both fresh and relevant. Delivering the theatrical triple of laughter (the dream scene is as clever as it is riotous), tears, and food for thought, it is the latter of the whole shebang that is the production’s ultimate strength.
A sharp reminder of how political and social unrest continues to throw lives into disarray, the final moments are heartbreakingly poignant.
Sweet Bird of Youth
Chichester Festival Theatre
Until 24 June
Box Office: 01243 781312 www.cft.org.uk
Photo credit: Johan Persson
With the run-up to General Election a veritable carnival of hypocrisy, self-interest, arrogance and rampaging egos, the day after the event itself wasn’t the ideal time to digest more of the same. Alas, in Tennessee Williams’s 1959 play there is little relief from such monstrous conduct.
Fearing derision and rejection after the premiere of her latest film, aging Hollywood movie star Alexandra Del Largo (Marcia Gay Harden) has bolted and is holed up in a hotel in St Cloud on the Gulf Coast of Mexico with Chance Wayne (Brian J. Smith), a gigolo and wannabe actor who skipped the town a few years previously. While the actress hides behind an alias and dulls her demons with alcohol, narcotics and sex, Chance is determined to be reunited with Heavenly, his teenage sweetheart. Unaware that before leaving St Cloud he infected his girl with a STD that necessitated a hysterectomy, he has no idea that Heavenly’s father and brother are resolute: should Chance ever show his face in the neighbourhood again he will pay for his crime.
The first act, almost entirely a two-hander set in a hotel bedroom, offers superb performances from Harden and Smith. Convincing and compelling, on the Festival Theatre’s thrust stage, however, some of the intensity and intimacy is lost.
Elsewhere the performances are strong, especially Richard Cordery as Boss Finley, a bully with double standards and an unshakable belief in the American Dream. Victoria Berwick as Heavenly Finley is also excellent. Vulnerable, compliant but filled with a rage, when she sobs silent, despairing tears, her grief and anger is sorely palpable.
Easy on the eye, Anthony Ward’s set is stunning; clever, evocative and stylish, it is also beautifully complemented by Mark Henderson’s lighting.
The ruthless marching of time is one of the play’s key themes. In Jonathan Kent’s undeniably ‘classy bird’ there remains a niggling sense that the pace needs to be stepped up.
Photos: Johan Persson
Taking up his post as Artistic Director new Head Boy Daniel Evans opens his first Chichester Season with Alan Bennett’s early play, which is set in 1968 at Albion House, a fading public school.
Some fifty local schoolboys join the cast and are outstanding, opening the production with a roof-raising rendition of Praise My Soul the King of Heaven.
The occasion is the end of term show, which also marks the retirement of the elderly headmaster. Under the directorial auspices of his reformist successor, the offering of a history revue includes some sketches that get the old duffer decidedly hot and bothered – to be overtly risqué is definitely tsk-tsk territory.
There are some joyous moments. Danny Lee Wynter’s naughty portrayal of an elderly aristocrat à la Dame Maggie as Downton’s Lady Violet is delicious, while an ace tap-dance solo is worthy of the Strictly! final. A stage invasion of lusty-voiced rugger buggers is also a gas, which for all the headmaster’s puritanical tendencies is deemed perfectly acceptable once it is revealed that the opposition has been roundly trounced.
Alan Cox as incoming headmaster Franklin, Jenny Galloway as Matron and Lucy Briers as Miss Nisbitt give accomplished performances, while the music and singing is superb, thanks to the excellence and exuberance of a terrific ‘school orchestra.’
Some of the historical inspirations do not resonate, leaving these skits teetering on the brink of tedium. But there are plenty of jolly spoofs to compensate, as well as flashes of poignancy bringing a balancing shade.
You can almost smell overcooked cabbage thanks to Lez Brotherston’s impressive school hall set, which comes complete with an almighty oak organ, rising from and towering over the stage.
At eighty years on himself, and having suffered a heart attack only last year, it is perhaps unsurprising that Richard Wilson is not yet tight on his lines. Reading from a script for the most part, when he struggles to find his place on the page it causes the audience collective anxiety. It’s a shame, but there is still much to enjoy here.
www.cft.org.uk Box office: 01243 781312
Vicky Edwards
Debra Messing has revealed she was “pressured” to shoot a nude scene in 1995 film A Walk in the Clouds by the director Alfonso Arau and the film’s producers.
The Will & Grace star starred opposite Keanu Reeves in the film, it was her first major film and was not a pleasant experience. She also said that she contacted her agent about the directors request and was then informed she would likely be fired if she said no.
She went on to say that she was berated after approaching Arau about the scene. “Your job is to get naked and to say the lines. That’s it,” he reportedly said. When the time came to film the scene the filmmaker made her feel uncomfortable “He lifts (the sheet up), scans my naked body, then drops the sheet on top of me like a used Kleenex,” she said at the MAKERS conference in California, “He walks away without a word…The whole thing was a power play, a game. And the goal, to demean me, to strip me of my power and make me feel on a cellular level his dominance over me.”
In the end only her back was exposed in the film. The 48-year-old actress also reportedly had issues with Alfonso after he berated her for how she looked.
“How quickly can we get a plastic surgeon in here’, ‘Her nose is ruining my movie! I can’t do this! Look at this!”‘ Alfonso reportedly said.
Messing was “frozen, horrified, mortified” and “felt deep shame” about her Jewish heritage after his comments.
Monday Club is a collective of creatives who meet once a week as a company of actors, dancers, writers, directors and more to generate new ideas and to share skills from our various artistic backgrounds. We encourage collaboration and the development of new writing and performance, and support individuals in the exploration and achievement of their artistic goals.
TAKE THE FLOOR
Take the Floor is an exciting new scratch night, hosted by Monday Club at Chelsea Theatre. The night promotes new work within all forms of the arts and forges connections for collaboration between these varying mediums. At the event, we encourage creative support between participants and we provide ‘no pressure’ networking opportunities. All of our pieces are handpicked from a variety of promising new artists with fresh and dynamic ideas.
The evening begins at 6pm when visual artists exhibit their new work in and around the bar. The auditorium then opens at 7pm for a number of eclectic ten-minute performances on Chelsea Theatre’s wonderfully spacious stage. The twenty minute interval sees the first of our selected singer-songwriters perform in the bar, with the second musician playing at the end of the night, when performers and audience members discuss what they’ve seen, and perhaps even swap details for future collaboration over a very reasonably-priced drink at the bar.
Following our first Take the Floor in October, writing partnerships have been formed, advice has been shared from participant to participant, and pieces shown have continued on their various trajectories with feedback from our Take the Floor audience to help shape their development.
A celebration of diversity and collaboration within the arts, Take the Floor is a stimulating evening of creativity for those interested in seeing short bursts of varied entertainment, and those who are looking for inspiration to create their own work.
Visit www.mondayclub.co.uk to find out more.
Date: Sunday 15th January 2017
Time: 6pm for visual art; 7pm for performances on stage
Location: Chelsea Theatre, 7 World’s End Place, King’s Road, London, SW10 0DR
Tickets: £6 for one or £10 for two tickets for the whole night; £3 entry on the door for music only.
Tickets available from www.chelseatheatre.org.uk soon!
Take the Floor is run by James Bailey, Charlotte Whitaker, Robyn Hoedemaker and Guy Remy.
Actress Michelle Williams has opened up about her difficulty finding acting work in the past three years.
She is getting acclaim for new film, indie drama Manchester by the Sea, which is one of only three films she has been in since 2013. In an interview with Porter magazine she put it down to trends:
“In the past three years I have found it really hard to get work, It is very seasonal, you know, your popularity or marketability or whatever these things are, and I’ve been like in a little bit in a winter… My expectation, because of my early experiences, is failure, and so when something good happens for me, I am dazzled by it, I am like on my knees, I am just so grateful, so happy, so excited, because it’s not what I expect,”
Luckily she has two films coming out in 2017 Wonderstruck and The Greatest Showman.
The 36-year-old actress is also worried that roles might dry up when she turns 40.
“People talk about it like it’s a sort of cliff that everybody gets pushed off! It’s hard to imagine that you’ve reached this kind of age where suddenly the rug is pulled from underneath your feet.”
What do you think?
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Stepping Out
In rehearsals for Stepping Out
At Chichester Festival Theatre until 19 November (Booking: 01243 781312; www.cft.org.uk)
At the Vaudeville Theatre, London, 1 March – 17 June 2017 (Booking: www.nimaxtheatres.com)
Directed by Maria Friedman
Cast: Amanda Holden, Angela Griffin, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Tamzin Outhwaite, Nicola Stephenson, Judith Barker, Rose Keegan, Sandra Marvin, Jessica-Alice Mccluskey, Dominic Rowan, Janet Behan, Emma Hook, Katie Verner and Nick Warnford
A weekly tap dancing class in a community hall is the setting for a story that follows the lives of a group of ladies and a solitary man. Like many adult education classes, all human life is here.
Boasting a cast that includes several popular faces from television, Tracy-Ann Oberman is on superb form as wise-cracking Maxine. Glamorous in a wardrobe of nearly new and knock-off, the more-front-than-Brighton exterior conceals a tender and vulnerable heart. Tamzin Outhwaite as is also touching in her role class teacher Mavis. With her dreams of being a dancer dramatically reconfigured and an unhappy relationship to cope with, teaching is both her salvation and a constant needling reminder that she never quite made it. Amanda Holden as posh but tactless neat freak Vera delivers some of the production’s funniest moments, admitting only towards the end that her perfect life isn’t quite so perfect after all.
Everyone, in fact, has a secret to reveal, but the audience is short changed; what the final outcome is for each of the characters is anyone’s guess. Pace, too, is a frustration. A lethargic beginning gives way to a gentle potter before coming to a rather abrupt and inconclusive ending.
But the dialogue is sharp enough, the performances are (largely) accomplished and the familiar theme of trying to get along with people with whom one has little in common will surely resonate. Touring prior to the West End next year, hopefully the tempo will pick up and settle along the way. Then, no doubt, Stepping Out will be packing ‘em in.
