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Five Things You Should Know About Follies

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1.    Let’s cut to the chase: Follies contains some of the greatest performances I’ve ever seen in a musical.

It features Stephen Sondheim veterans Philip Quast, Imelda Staunton and Janie Dee. Most incredible of all, the way this sparkly ensemble revisit their former lives from 30 years ago to when they first met while working as Follies dancers. The ghosts of the past send shivers up your spine. Also, Tracie Bennett in particular steals the show on a few occasions in a hall of mirrors for all shades of misery

2.    With a near 30-year history and a world-class reputation, Sondheim shows are no strangers to the National Theatre (Judi Dench appeared in ‘A Little Night Music’ in the Olivier, 1995 and Philip Quast in ‘Sunday in the Park With George’ in the Lyttelton Theatre, 1990 etc, etc and so on).

It’s hard to avoid the fact that most of Follies’ action takes place on a stage revolve resembling a merry-go-round in West Side Story. The beauty of this show lies in the precision that draws the multi-layered elements together.

3.    There are incredibly few directors who could carry off at least three quarters of this show. Dominic Cooke’s production for the National Theatre has kept the songs in the faithful style – the orchestra are sublime – but when Imelda delivers a refreshingly devastating low-key version of ‘Losing My Mind’, it’s the night’s highlight. A haunting exploration of character.

This is an inventively staged production with a cast and the arrangements are of a phenomenally high standard. As well as being expertly written the majority of these songs are also skilfully structured and only serve to reaffirm Sondheim’s Godlike genius.

 

4.    The choreography itself is beautiful, reflecting the sorrow, torment and human resilience in both the music and the performances. Everything slots perfectly into place in this magnificent evocation of showbiz. Sweeping across the stage are buckets of Swarovski crystals, sashes, sequined frocks and outfits that reel you in from start to finish.

This is the first time Dominic Cooke has directed a musical. Luckily, there’s a clarity of vision that’s practically unrivalled in the current musical theatre scene. Follies feels effortlessly enchanting.

5.    Vicky Mortimer’s show-making set and costume design uses a crumbling theatre on a revolving set to remind us how the characters’ lives are confined and ravaged by theatre; Bill Dreamer’s vivid choreography, deserves a mention again, his work with ‘Loveland’ pays hymn to the showbiz past; and the orchestra has a glorious, brassy ring.

The production’s centrepiece – to these eyes, anyway – is ‘I’m Still Here’, a track for which Apple Music single song repeat function could well have been invented. A dazzle to watch. 

But the show is not perfect and I can see people’s concerns about Imelda’s suitability as a ‘Showgirl’ or that her vocals may be underpowered. They are missing the point; these things add to the charm of the production. The no interval thing is a bit crap….

Nevertheless, nothing is left to chance here, folks.

I make that a considered, authoritative and concrete 9/10. Also: Looks like my work here is done. Time to go to the pub.

Follies runs in the Olivier Theatre at the National until 3 January.

‘FYI’ Follies will be broadcast by NT Live to cinemas in the UK and internationally on Thursday 16 November.

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Lyn Gardner announced as TheatreCraft 2017 Ambassador

One of the most important theatre critics of the last century has been announced as Theatre Craft’s 2017 Ambassador: Lyn Gardner.

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Lyn Gardner

What a woman.

TheatreCraft, London’s largest free careers event for people seeking careers off-stage in theatre, has announced renowned theatre journalist and critic, Lyn Gardner, as the TheatreCraft 2017 Ambassador. Gardner will open the event on Friday 3 November at the Waldorf Hilton Hotel by delivering a welcome speech to all attendees.

More than a careers fair, TheatreCraft remains an entirely free event that offers young people the opportunity to take part in dynamic workshops led by theatre professionals, explore the vibrant marketplace of exhibiting theatres, arts organisations and education providers, connect with peers through various networking opportunities and speak with industry experts in one-to-one advice sessions.

As a committed supporter of new theatre, companies and artists, Gardner’s writing has created a powerful spotlight for theatre; shining light into every corner of the country. Her voice in mainstream national publications continues to be invaluable to emerging and established theatre makers.

Commenting on this year’s event, Gardner said;

“TheatreCraft is such a brilliant initiative because it opens doors and makes young people realise that working in theatre doesn’t just mean acting. There are so many opportunities and careers available that don’t involve putting yourself centre stage, but which still require creativity, ingenuity and are just as much fun!  TheatreCraft reminds us that there is a role for everyone in theatre, and we need people of many different talents and from many different backgrounds.”

The annual event will hold further significance throughout the industry following an independent report commissioned by the Society of London Theatre (SOLT) and UK Theatre, which has found that off-stage theatre, despite benefiting from a passionate, engaged workforce, is struggling with a shortage of skilled technical workers.

The report found that the education sector is channelling young people away from off-stage careers, labelling theatre as a ‘high risk option’ and offering a notable lack of guidance around training routes into the industry. The report went on to identify TheatreCraft as an important response to these issues, having actively championed the vibrant array of careers in the sector for fourteen years.

1,000 people aged 16 -25 attended TheatreCraft last year, taking part in more than 68 workshops delivered by skilled theatre professionals across 6 West End venues, and engaging with 66 theatres and arts organisations in the marketplace, making it the largest event to date.

TheatreCraft is organised by a group of committed partners from across the creative and cultural industries; the Theatre Royal Haymarket Masterclass Trust, the Royal Opera House, the Society of London Theatre and Mousetrap Theatre Projects.

The event is sponsored by The Waldorf Hilton Hotel, White Light and John Good. Official London Theatre is this year’s official Media Partner.

For more information and all the latest news about TheatreCraft visit www.theatrecraft.org or find us on Twitter @TheatreCraft

Well done Theatre Craft.

 

 

 

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Five key shows opening in London in the next four months 

Here are five important shows opening in London between now and the middle of November. (Please note that I am open to doing regional shows and Fringe shows but thought it would be fun to start with the ‘big ones’ – just humour me for the time being)

Jesus Christ Superstar (11 August)

Tyrone Huntley and Declan Bennett both have a natural luminescence so intense that it would shine bright in a Vantablack theatre dungeon. This revival is perfectly at home at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s rock musical could raise the Titanic from the sea bed. Enjoy!

Five Guys Named Moe (29 August)

How do you think this will do?

It doesn’t exactly feel as if the world of theatre is ‘battening down the hatches’ in anticipation of an unstoppable Clarke Peters musical tsunami. At the same time: you can’t go wrong with a bit of Clarke Peters. (Unless you happen to be the person who designed the poster, who ‘went wrong’ on an epic scale.) Anyway, the cast are extremely talented and it’s on at this new pop-up theatre in Marble Arch. So, ‘Let the Good Times Roll’, etc.

Footloose (12 September)

At this point we are so far into ‘will this do’ territory that you might as well watch the 1987 film.  It’s always difficult to say that a movie musical is entirely pointless, especially when there are audiences enduring it on tour around the country. However, this show, literally a frame-by-frame recreation of the movie, does make you wonder

The Toxic Avenger – (28 September) 

This show is a JOY. Joe DiPietro and David Bryan’s cult rock musical lands at the Arts Theatre following a storming month-long run at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Watch and learn, lesser theatre entities. This is how you do it.

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – (6 November)

This show is a really exciting thing, isn’t it? The new musical by Dan Gillespie Sells and Tom MacRae premiered at Sheffield Crucible last year and transfers to the Apollo Theatre. John McCrea is brilliant, and ‘Everybody’s Talking’ is a super-smart musical. If you enjoy it, buy the concept album.  

N.B. There are two plays (‘Ink’ and ‘Labour of Love’) by up-and-coming scribe James Graham opening this Autumn in St Martin’s Lane, apparently. 

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Around the World in 80 Days, Matthew Ganley Interview: “Dolphins are incredible creatures.”

You’ve probably heard that Around the World in 80 Days is currently on at Cadogan Hall, London, so it seemed like a good opportunity to talk to Matthew Ganley who is currently starring in it.

The show is on at Cadogan Hall for five weeks and continuing as part of a wider UK tour. The production features an ensemble of 8 who play over 125 characters in an imaginative and physically inventive high-spirited escapade. Follow the mysterious and fabulously wealthy Phileas Fogg as he wagers his life’s fortune that he can circumnavigate the globe in just 80 days. Brilliant.

Here is what we discussed.

Hi ya! How is Around the World in 80 Days looking?

It’s looking great thanks. A riotous spectacle!

Great! How would you best describe Theresa Heskins’ approach to directing?
Detailed, rigourous and playful. Her rehearsals are brilliantly full on. So much care and attention is taken and her shows have real integrity as a result. As an actor I am trusted and scrutinised in equal measure. You bring all of yourself into the process and after a week your brain and body have had a full workout!

If you could bring something extinct back to life, what would you choose?
The Baiji Dolphin. A Chinese river dolphin recently declared extinct due to human impact. We could learn to do things differently to give them another shot. Dolphins are incredible creatures.

There are a lot of characters in Around the World in 80 Days aren’t there. How do you tackle playing several different characters?
Having a few different accents is useful. Also discovering the differences physically between the parts. Working with opposites can help. If one character is a smug plonker, I might explore making the next one kind and likeable. Above all, discovering the truth for each character and realising their role within the story is the most useful approach.

Who would play you in the film of your life and why?
Jason Statham. We look vaguely similar and he’d make my life look that bit cooler.

How is this role different to your previous roles in The Lady Killers or Once?
In Once and The Lady Killers I had just the one character. In 80 days I have 28 (including an elphant’s arse!) It provides a different challenge. Being able to switch in an instant from an English reform club member to a street seller in Bombay without leaving the stage is a challenge but a very fun one! There’s not a moment’s rest.

How challenging is it staging this show?
It’s such a fast paced and technically busy show. Portraying each country and culture in a such short space of time means the acting, movement, music, quick costume changes, lighting, fight sound effects etc. must all work seemlessly together. The whole team both on and offstage can’t afford to drop the ball. There’s never a dull moment!

Around the World in 80 Days is quite unique in that it is old fashioned but also post-modern isn’t it.
That’s interesting. I’ve never thought of it in those terms. It’s great that an audience might elicit those observations and I’d say our amazing design team definitely contribute to placing us in a very specific period. From my perspective the show is so well written that the stuff I’m responsible for, i.e. the people, relationships and the story to me are timeless.

CLICK HERE TO BOOK YOUR TICKETS FOR AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS

What do you think audiences will enjoy most about this production?
The comedy, the suspense, the brilliant fight sequences, the elephant, the epic journey and the romance.

What is top of your bucket list?
At the moment it’s a sky dive.

Cadogan Hall seems like an unusual home for this show. Is it?
Transferring from traditional theatres to a concert hall has had its challenges. It has also gifted us with great acoustics, a wonderful auditorium and the new addition of projecting images of each place on to the backdrop of the stage. We’ve had some brilliantly lively crowds so far and the show is settling in very nicely here.

Is there anything that you’d like to add?
Come and see it. You’re guaranteed an unforgettable night out.

At Cadogan Hall until 2 September, then on tour. Box Office: 020 7730 4500

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Letters To Morrissey, produced by Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre Company, coming to HOME Manchester 12-16 September 2017

Letters to Morrissey
Letters to Morrissey

Letters to Morrissey

Award-winning actor and playwright Gary McNair makes his second appearance at HOME on Tue 12 – Sat 16 September 2017 with touching new show Letters To Morrissey, produced by Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre Company.

Directed by Gareth Nicholls, the theatre’s associate director, Letters To Morrissey follows up McNair’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe First hit A Gambler’s Guide to Dying, which featured in HOME’s Orbit festival in 2016.

McNair’s affectionate one-man show is the final part of a trilogy of often darkly comic works drawing on the joys and struggles of growing up in working class Scotland, explored through letters written to The Smiths’ front-man Morrissey at the turn of the millennium by a conflicted teenager from the outskirts of Glasgow.

It’s 1997. You’re 11. You’re sad, lonely, and scared of doing anything that could get you singled out by the hopeless, angry people in your home town. One day you see a man on telly. He’s mumbling, yet electrifying. He sings: “I am human and I need to be loved, just like everybody else does.” This guy gets it. You become obsessed with him. Later, when you need someone, you write to him. A lot.

Fast-forward to today, 20 years on. You find those letters and ask yourself: “Has the world changed, or have I changed?” Letters To Morrissey is about confronting the worst thing you’ve done – and hoping that you can still be good person.

Coming to HOME direct from this year’s Edinburgh Festival, where it world premiered at the Traverse Theatre, Letters To Morrissey considers our human desire to be understood, and about finding potentially false kinship in an icon you don’t actually know.

@home_mcr #LettersToMorrissey

 

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THREE TALES OF LIFE AND DEATH-US comedy stars in three one-act plays at Assembly

Three Tales of Life and Death

In the world premiere of Pulitzer/Tony Award nominee Craig Lucas’s (Prelude to a Kiss, An American in Paris, Amelie) zany and touching new play, THREE TALES OF LIFE AND DEATH, three stories collide in a world of voyeuristic theatre critics, bartenders with too much spirit and mysterious strangers looking for love in the afternoon.

In Phase 1, Love and Life, critics provide live commentary as the a couple make extra-marital love for the first time and the son of an overly anxious woman reflects on his mother and her tendencies to worry….,

In Phase 2, Death, as a bar tender is closing up for the night, a mysterious stranger walks in…

In Phase 3, Afterlife, in two separate scenes, two spirits encounter each other in Limbo and grapple with their former lives and what comes next.

Making their Edinburgh Fringe debuts, US comedy legends Richard Kline (of the US sitcom Three’s Company) and Pamela Shaw (Swingers), perform these three one-act plays directed by Manhattan Theater Club’s Associate Director Hunter Bird.

LISTINGS INFORMATION

Venue:                        Assembly (Front Room), 54 George Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2LR

Dates and Times:      3 – 26 August at 15.50 (not 6, 9, 15, 22 August)

Running Time:          65 mins

Tickets:                      £6 on 3 & 4 Aug

                                    £11 (£10) on 5, 6, 10, 14, 16, 17, 21, 23, 24 Aug

                                    £12 (£11) on 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26 Aug

Box Office:                0131 220 4348

 

 

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Edinburgh Fringe, Tago Korean Drum, Interview: “Our music is very sexy, intense, and sophisticated!”

TAGO Korean Drum II live
TAGO Korean Drum II live

TAGO Korean Drum II live

TAGO return to The Fringe 2017 with a new show which follows their enormously popular and successful Fringe debut last year.

‘FYI’ TAGO means ‘lighting up the world by beating drums’ and this young ensemble achieves it with a spectacular mixture of Korean traditional instruments – from gigantic drums to small percussion instruments – spiced up with extravagant martial arts movement.  TAGO’s performances are a masterful display of thrilling percussion and precisely choreographed movement that has wide audience appeal.

TAGO Korean Drum II live shot 4 players

TAGO Korean Drum II live shot 4 players

TAGO – KOREAN DRUM II is one of a collection of Korean shows at the 70th Edinburgh Festival Fringe supported by Korean Arts Management Service (KAMS), an affiliate of the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism of Korea. The collection, which consists of MEDEA on media, Behind the Mirror, TAGO: Korean Drum, Mind Goblin and SNAP is part of Korea/UK 2017-18 presented by the Korean Cultural Centre UK, a year-long cultural exchange in partnership with leading British cultural institutions, set to bring the best of Korean art to the UK.

I thought it would be nice to talk to TAGO master drummer Kim Si-Won. I was right. It was quite nice.

Here is what happened.

Hi! Can you describe TAGO KOREAN DRUM?
TAGO master drummer Kim Si-Won:  Our music is very sexy, intense, and sophisticated!  Korean drums play an important part in traditional Korean music; it’s an art that has been passed from generation to generation for hundreds of years.  In TAGO we harness our traditional music with a more modern touch combining traditional Korean instruments – from gigantic drums to small percussion – with some exciting martial arts moves!  And we wanted to break the assumption that all drums are round so we’ve built a square drum and put strings and a wooden keyboard on it so it takes four of us to play it!

Performers are always busy rehearsing, preparing or performing; how do you relax?
That’s a good question Mr Carl!  We actually practise for 3-4 hours a day because you have to constantly develop strength and technique to play the drums…but we love to find new places to eat, drink and relax.  Edinburgh has some great bars and we’re looking forward to trying out some malt whiskies.

You recently took part in the London Korean Festival. How did audiences respond?
It was absolutely amazing!  We performed a 30 minute set against a colourful backdrop and the audience were dancing and cheering.  The Kensington Olympia venue is gigantic and the sound of our drums was perfect for the big acoustics.  They also had lots of Korean food stands so we felt right at home.  We signed lots of autographs too and did many selfies with audience members.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Performing abroad, definitely!

How would you like this show to be remembered?
As a big, exciting and sexy show!  Also we would like people to enjoy the sounds of the different drums and percussion instruments, some of which you can only see if you come to Korea.

What do you like most about the city of Edinburgh?
The people are so friendly and the beer is great!  When we performed for the first time in 2016, we didn’t realise there were so many shows on – some of our Korean friends are here with their own shows – magic, illusion, dance, music – and we’re hoping to go and support some of them.  Last year we had to buy umbrellas…

TAGO Ho-goon Hyun on the big drum photo by Young Kyong

With the costs of putting on a show – what would be your advice for other international companies that want to bring work to Edinburgh Festival Fringe?
Don’t pack too much!  We send our biggest drums in advance and we take the smaller items on the plane with our luggage.  We could easily bring more then end up not playing them all – so, rather than have a big choice of instruments, we perform a specially designed international show that we know we can deliver.  If you try to pack everything, you can easily run out of money.

What is the Korean Arts scene like?
Really vibrant and diverse. The art of drumming has been around for centuries and you have to be very dedicated to train for many years before you can perform professionally.  Drummers usually started training intensely from the age of 10.  The K-Pop scene is huge now – Korean pop music – and young audiences are moving away from traditional art forms which is why our show is a combination of old and new.  Also the phenomenon of magic and illusion shows is very new to Korea and very popular and the Korean National Ballet (since 1993) is also very cool with people who like ballet.

What do you think audiences enjoy most about your work?
I think people really dig the huge sound of the drums – the sound really fills any performance space and it’s exciting to experience.  I think they also like our combination of drumming and martial arts moves – it’s a really hard thing to learn but very satisfying when you hear the audience cheering!

Are there any shows you are looking forward to seeing?
We are hoping to check out some comedy shows – we didn’t have chance last year – so we’re going to try and see Kwame Asante who we hear is a doctor as well as a comedian and our friends in the Korean magic show Snap which is also very funny.

 What is the most rewarding part of being a performer?
Being up there onstage with my friends is the best – we all met at university and set up Tago nearly 15 years ago.

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