IN BRIEF Popular film to musical translation crashes a few gears along the way but is bolstered by excellent casting, which makes it worth the trip.
“The road to happiness is a bumpy ride” says the publicity. It’s a pretty apt description of the show, too.
Fans of the film will know what they’re getting- a musicalised version of the 2006 hit movie, which ran off-Broadway for two months in 2013. The story tells of the dysfunctional Hoover family travelling cross-country, overcoming all obstacles to get nervy but spunky little Olive to a beauty pageant, learning a few valuable life lessons along the way, some of them in song.
As for the show itself, its strongest pluses are its cast. Laura Pitt-Pulford and Gabriel Vick are perfect choices for the parents, strong actors with voices that are expressive and a joy to hear, although the one solo that each has makes you wish we could have heard more of them. Gary Wilmot squeezes all the juice out of his comedy number, which he does with all the assurance of a man with four decades of experience under his belt. The rest of the cast (all by casting expert Jane Deitch) are similarly just right, with suicidal Uncle Frank coolly underplayed by Paul Keating: Dwayne, the mute teenage son played nicely physically by Sev Keoshgerian and a joyful surprise in Imelda Warren-Green, who gives full rein to her comedy chops as the monotoned hospital adminstrator and in Act Two as Miss California, singing “Dolor”, a burlesque flamenco number (of such glorious deadpan overacting volume that she could have brought a plane in to land with those gestures) which had the audience roaring in delight.
The role of young Olive was played impressively and skilfully at our performance by Sophie Hartley-Booth, with just the right pitch on cute, troubled and effervescent aspects of her character. The audience we were with found it easy to warm to her, and it has to be a hard heart that does not cheer her character on to the finale.
The cast were just great, and they boosted that material every which way they could, assisted no doubt by direction from Mehmet Ergen in what may be his first musical? The real issue here is what this cast have to work with, the book and music.
The script keeps hiccuping along in Act One, but to its credit, improves pace-wise in Act Two. The songs are very variable, but each character’s main individual song came across very well, where it was good to be able to hear the quality of the individual voices. The ensemble numbers didn’t really score for me, all being a bit too distracting and messy. As to the band, all good musicians, but five just wasn’t enough. The sound created felt very flimsy, even when boosted by group vocals in front.
Finally, the set. Its minimal, as you’d expect with a show going out on tour from a fringe venue, but it had a revolve which at least helped improve the sightlines by very often rotating the van in which the characters spend around 40% of the show. However, I’d imagine the designer David Woodhead had to work really hard to get what we saw on stage to work as well as it did in this auditorium. The “van” is really low-tech, but you forget about it after a while. The unforgiving confines of the Arcola are deeply unsuited to any end-on show due to its stage being seated on three sides (thrust). But of course the rest of the tour is for regular auditoria so it will undoubtedly sit better in those settings. Here, many seats felt restricted. Sitting to the end of one of the flanks, I got quite used to eyeing the back of someone’s head. But that’s the space, it’s no-one in the show’s fault.
It will fare better in more conventional auditoria that make up the rest of the tour, and the design will no doubt be opened out to incorporate a lot more flexible stage space than the tiny Arcola can offer.
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE is clearly a big deal for the Arcola. Seat prices are reaching £30 for the first time I can remember. This is (to my knowledge) the first co-production with global brand Selladoor who definitely know about touring small to mid-scale shows. So it’s a big leap of faith into a better future from potential returns coming back to benefit the venue. I would imagine they have stretched every financial sinew to even be able to pull this off in the first place.
I certainly hope the leap will work. The audience I saw at the show are most definitely not the Arcola audiences I have sat with many times before, so they are expanding their audience reach with this offering. But this expansion might benefit from a level of caution; to be honest, to charge £5 for a very skimpy programme makes me a little uncomfortable as a paying audience member at a London fringe venue (albeit an important one).
So, back to the show. The first act is pretty stop/start, it gets better in the second, the cast are excellent and worth the trip, but the solos are the thing that get it to the finish line. Enjoy the cast and you’ll have a good night out.
It’s the month where Nature takes a leaf out of Theatre’s book and puts on its first show of the season to entice us out of our homes. And there’s a lot of theatre to get you buzzing this month. See what takes your fancy in this month’s picks.
Opening Off-West End
London’s loudest laughs come from the Soho theatre this week.
You won’t find a more hilarious, joyously surprising and creative hour than five-starred Luke Rollason’s hugely-popular show PLANET EARTH III , which returns to London after success around the world. It’s a gleefully low-budget, one-man nature documentary set in a future where our worst predictions came true.
Following ecological collapse, thousands of endangered species are extinct, including the BBC. But one plucky (and unpaid) intern isn’t giving up, and right on programming schedule, we’re getting series three. Armed with only obsolete office supplies, an Attenborough voiceover and a surreal imagination, nature’s weirdest creatures are brought back to life by the ‘hugely entertaining’ (Chortle website) Luke Rollason. There is a wonderful inspired lunacy to his edgy creativity that often reminds me of the best early work of Complicite. Give yourself a treat and go – I promise you’ll never look at a paper clip the same way again! At the Soho Theatre from 3 to 6 April.
Read my interview with Luke Rollason about PLANET EARTH III here
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE was a wildly successful 2006 road movie , and now a musical version originating from Off-Broadway gets its European premiere at the Arcola, where it runs until 11 May. A standout cast includes Olivier-nominated Laura Pitt-Pulford, twice Olivier-nominated Paul Keating, multi-award nominated Gabriel Vick and TMA nominated Gary Wilmot. This show is the first major collaboration between the Arcola and Selladoor productions, the prolific global entertainment producers. After London’s run, you can catch it on an extensive UK tour from May until November.
Here’s a musical revival we’ve all been waiting for. Tyrone Huntley (star of January’s Leave to Remain) makes his directorial debut with the exuberant and effervescent Fats Waller songbook musical AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’ which runs at Southwark Playhouse from 19 April to 1 June. Join an extraordinary group of performers on a journey through a defining period of American musical history, the 1920s and 30s Harlem Renaissance – where joints were jumpin’ with talented dancers, singers and instrumentalists jamming to a new beat known as swing. Having notched up substantial West End runs in 1979 and 1995, this first major revival in over 20 years is choreographed by Oti Mabuse (Strictly Come Dancing) in her theatrical choreographing debut. It will hopefully enjoy a tour on top of this run and at Colchester Mercury, which co-produces with Paul Taylor-Mills. Get down there and party!
Read a Guardian interview with choreographer Oti Mabuse here
First seen at last year’s Edinburgh Festival, SITTING is the debut play by BAFTA Award-winning actress Katherine Parkinson which runs at the Arcola in East London from 10 April to 11 May.
Luke, Cassandra and Mary are sitting. They sit weekly for their portraits and, in a series of revealing sessions, end up sharing their funny and moving tales of love, longing and loss.
The Guardian’s Mark Fisher said “Art models reveal all in Katherine Parkinson’s smart debut…[she] delicately reveals connections that, by the end, give the play a wistful emotional weight” . This is on my list and I think it should be on yours. I’m intrigued….
Running until 27 April, this is for those of you that want a bit more of a challenging piece. GOING THROUGH, at the Bush Theatre, is a translation of an award-winning French play (Traversee) about child migrants and the perilous journeys they face to find a better life, by writer Estelle Savasta and directed by Omar Elerian, director of acclaimed West End hit Misty. This production is for deaf and hearing audiences and combines English, BSL and Creative Captioning. Aiming to both warm and break audiences’ hearts, this looks an interesting option for those more adventurous theatregoers.
Returning Off-West End
Returning to the Vaults in London for a month-long season from 2 April to 3 May, is the heartfelt and helpful show that reminds us that it’s OK to not be OK. That’s the message of A SUPER HAPPY STORY (ABOUT FEELING SUPER SAD) a very funny, helpfully honest and insightful cabaret musical about depression. Sally’s a happy person. She doesn’t let little things get her down and almost never cries. But she’s got an illness. It makes her feel like she isn’t the person she wants to be, but she doesn’t want anyone to know about it. Written by Olivier Award winner Jon Brittain (Rotterdam and Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho) with music by Matthew Floyd Jones (Frisky & Mannish). It’s a joyful, buoyant, gleeful, slightly silly, sugar-coated, unrelenting and completely super happy show! Except for the bits about depression.
“A Super Happy Story is Superb” said The Guardian’s Lyn Gardner.. and she was right! I am so glad that I went and I think you will be too. Touring UK-wide through to June. After London you can see it in May at Brighton, Mansfield, Nottingham, Derby, Burton-on-Trent, Spalding and Leicester
Touring the UK
HAIR 50th anniversary tour
Touring the UK extensively now until July , the hit tribal rock musical HAIR returns in the much – acclaimed 50th anniversary production. Cast includes the ever-watchable Marcus Collins (TV’s X-Factor, Hairspray), Jake Quickenden (Dancing on Ice) and a relative newcomer with a fantastic voice, Kelly Sweeney (watch out for her!).
See it in April at Cheltenham, Manchester, Cardiff, Plymouth and Birmingham
Opening West End
Jeremy Herrin directs Sally Field and Bill Pullman in Arthur Miller’s blistering drama, ALL MY SONS.
America, 1947. Despite hard choices and even harder knocks, Joe and Kate Keller built a home, raised two sons and established a thriving business.
But their contented lives, already shadowed by the loss of their eldest boy to war, are about to shatter. With the return of a figure from the past, long buried truths are forced to the surface and the overwhelming price of their American dream is laid bare.
Those drawn by the stars and Miller’s writing will no doubt find this rewarding, but if you can’t get there remember it’s being NTLive broadcast in May!
Featuring the legendary song, The Impossible Dream (The Quest), MAN OF LA MANCHA is inspired by Miguel de Cervantes’ extraordinary novel Don Quixote. Presented at the magnificent Coliseum for the first time in 50 years. This uplifting, timeless tale stars Kelsey Grammer, Danielle de Niese, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Cassidy Janson and Peter Polycarpou from 26 April to 8 Jun 2019 for a limited six week season in a new production by Michael Linnit and Michael Grade (in collaboration with English National Opera) Featuring the ENO’s 35-piece orchestra, which will sound fantastic no doubt (West End orchestras normanlly being in the 10-15 range). Join Don Quixote as he chases his impossible dream, to pursue the beautiful princess Dulcinea – and a few windmills. Determined to uphold all that is good and right against the odds, Quixote’s courage sustains, as he follows his unreachable star. (NB due to the very limited run there seem to be some pretty “unreachable” ticket prices too, but these may adjust as the dates near).
Continuing shows
One of last year’s best discoveries was THE PHLEBOTOMIST, Ella Road’s award-nominated debut play, which totally sold out its season at the Hampstead Theatre Downstairs. Set in a tantalisingly near future, the drama revolves around how each individual’s potential future life is completely predetermined….by the score from one single blood test. The audience I was with absolutely hugged this play from start to finish.
Four star reviews across the board for this brilliant, intelligent new thriller , a newly expanded version of the hit show which sold out last year and caused the first ever (I think) transfer from the Studio to the Main House, no mean feat in itself, but it points out how successful the play is. I urge you to see it while you have the chance. Only until April 20th.
A standing ovation at every performance has greeted Stephen Sondheim’s lovingly-crafted, bittersweet musical FOLLIES, returning to the National Theatre after a sold-out run last year (and winning Best Musical Revival at the Olivier Awards). On the eve of demolition of Weissman’s Theatre, past performers gather to drink, dream and reminisce….and somehow, try to make sense of it all.
New cast members this season are all top-notch: Joanna Riding (The Pajama Game, Flowers for Mrs Harris), Alexander Hanson (A Little Night Music) and Claire Moore (Phantom of the Opera). Returning cast include the phenomenal Tracie Bennett, assured Janie Dee and (from mid-April) the spine-tingling operatic septugenarian Josephine Barstow, with perfectly-drilled choreography once again courtesy of the brilliant Olivier-Award-winning Bill Deamer. In an ongoing repertory season to May 11th.
NT Live Broadcasts
ALL ABOUT EVE is a stage translation of the Oscar winning classic Bette Davis movie about rival actresses of different generations vying to stay in the limelight. Lifting the curtain on a world of jealousy, insecurity and blind ambition, this new production, from one of the world’s most innovative theatre directors, Ivo van Hove (Network, NT Live: A View from the Bridge), asks why our fascination with celebrity, youth and identity is the only thing which is, ironically, ageless. Broadcast live on Thursday April 11th to cinemas across the UK, and then in a series of encores across the country. Check when it’s on at your local screen. Details here
London shows closing
Closing Saturday 13 April – Laura Wade’s incisive look at the stresses on living as a model fifties housewife, Home, I’m Darling starring Katherine Parkinson closes at the Duke of York’s prior to embarking on a short tour, visiting Bath, Salford and Mold
Closing Saturday 13 April – The final part of Florian Zeller’s well-received trilogy, The Son , closes at the Kiln Theatre in Kilburn
Closing Saturday 20 April – The only time I’ve said “too many hits in one show” Motown the Musical closes at the Shaftesbury Theatre (prior to an extensive UK tour, details here)
Closing Saturday 27 April – Mark Haddon’s mega-hit The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time closes at the Piccadilly Theatre
Closing Saturday 27 April – Arthur Miller’s saga of family relationships and the costs (of all types) they incur are examined in The Price , starring David Suchet, which closes at Wyndham’s Theatre
Outside London
Standing at the Sky’s Edge, the new Richard Hawley musical, closes Sat April 6th at Sheffield’s Crucible.
RAGS, the musical with Rebecca Trehearn closes Sat April 6th at Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester.
LUKE ROLLASON in Planet Earth III. Photo courtesy Steve Ullathorne
One man plus lots of obsolete office supplies equals the weirdest (un)natural history show that Attenborough never thought of. You won’t find a more hilarious, joyously surprising and creative hour than five-starred Luke Rollason’s hugely-popular show PLANET EARTH III , which returns to London after success around the world. It’s a gleefully low-budget, one-man nature documentary set in a future where our worst predictions came true.
Following ecological collapse, thousands of endangered species are extinct, including the BBC. But one plucky (and unpaid) intern isn’t giving up, and right on programming schedule, we’re getting series three. Armed with only obsolete office supplies, an Attenborough voiceover and a surreal imagination, nature’s weirdest creatures are brought back to life by the ‘hugely entertaining’ (Chortle website) Luke Rollason. There is a wonderful inspired lunacy to his edgy creativity that often reminds me of the best early work of Complicite. Do treat yourself and go – I promise you’ll never look at a paper clip the same way again! At the Soho Theatre from 3 to 6 April.
Here’s our chat. Enjoy!
What sparked the
idea for Planet Earth III?
The idea for the show all started because of some poor preparation. I think as a result this has become a key feature of my work ever since. I had my very first gig, after I’d spent a week at Clown Camp in a forest in Wales, and I was planning to do this really complicated idea – I was going to be a relay runner in a tiny 9 year-old sized tracksuit and people were going to have to chase me. I bought the tracksuit and that was pretty much as far as I got. I had nothing. All I had was a lamp, which I put on my head, and then made stupid noises whilst I turned it on and off in the dark. I performed under the name Luke Attenborough because I thought I could then disappear forever if it was terrible. I think I owe everything I’ve done since to the fact that it wasn’t. That night, someone suggested I do a whole show of animals. I laughed in their face. And then several months later Planet Earth III was born.
You have been doing this show for sometime now. How has it grown and developed along the way?
Definitely! With performing something so responsive to the audience, there’s an extent to which the show mutates performance by performance. Audience members give me the best ideas. There was a time once in Edinburgh when one audience member was determined to stick up a sign with sellotape that had lost its stick. We all sat there and watched glue dry. I didn’t do anything. That was my potentially my favourite time onstage ever. The audience can take the show into strange places.
“I was challenged to become invisible. I left the stage. This was depressingly popular.”
The show has been very successful around the world. What next for it?
At some point the show is going to have to wind down – but it’s hard because it’s what people keeping asking us to come and perform! But I need to move on onto new shows which have to learn to stand on their own two feet. After SOHO, we’re performing Planet Earth III at a couple of music festivals and then to some schools – and then taking it and a couple of other shows to America in the Autumn. A friend of ours has opened a comedy theatre in Georgia and is bringing performers from around the world there.
Photo courtesy Steve Ullathorne
You are back to London for these Soho Theatre dates. How are you feeling about these?
Nervous! But this has very much been what we’ve been working so hard for
– so it feels strange to feel nervous for what is meant to be the victory lap.
Plus it’s THE place to perform for comedy fans. I like the edginess of an unpredictable
audience – in Edinburgh, because everyone has heard of Attenborough we’d get
some beautifully eclectic audiences – half of one of the last shows was a
school trip of teenagers! They were brilliant.
“The audience can take the show into strange places”
Your Attenborough voice over, Luke, is very good at timing his interjections, and there is an edginess to your interplay. Does he occasionally throw you a curve ball?
All the time! We have two Attenboroughs – Luke Howarth (who directed the show, and who hates performing but I managed to drag him into it because he loves doing the impression) and Christian Brighty (a fellow clown who does the family version of the show – Blue Planet III – with me). The show claims to be a one-man nature documentary but it only really exists because of the live conflict between me and the voice of Attenborough. Regarding curve balls – there’s a section of the show where I have to perform suggestions from the audience. I often have absolutely no idea what they are, and I’ve seen Luke desperately Google some from the tech box before. The finest of these was the cuttlefish, where Christian challenged me to turn invisible. I left the stage. This was depressingly popular.
Photo courtesy Steve Ullathorne
You have spent quite a lot of time at the legendary Gaulier clown school in Paris. How have you found it, and how has it has impacted your work? Gaulier, and clown workshops in general, gave me back stage fright. A teacher of mine used to point out that for many people, their greatest fear is going on stage. So if you’re not terrified, there’s something wrong.
I hear you are very busy developing a new show for the Edinburgh Festival which is about….sperm?
That’s right! I’m bringing two new shows to the Fringe this year – a new solo hour about technology, distraction and our brains which I’m billing as a slapstick Black Mirror – which, ironically, I’m finding hard to make as I keep getting distracted! And then me, Christian and Tom Curzon are making a physical comedy called Privates where we play three sperm. We did our very first preview at a comedy night in Norwich this week which was a good learning curve, and we’re developing it further as we speak.
PLANET EARTH III is at Soho Theatre, London from 3 to 6 April. Information and tickets here
Friday March 29th was a special day for the National Theatre, and for the 1100-plus audience who had managed to get tickets for a Conversation with Stephen Sondheim.
Dominic Cooke (director of the National’s current Sondheim hit FOLLIES) chatted onstage with the musical theatre legend (looking well and sprightly for his 89 years) for 40 minutes about his career, collaborations and the mechanics of show construction. It made for a fascinating mini-masterclass.
A few choice quotes for you:
“British audiences appreciate language…..language is a passion of mine.”
On the value of music – “The characters should be different at the end of the song than at the beginning,…. music can speed up those points of change. What might take a whole scene can be done in four quatrains……that’s because of the magic of music.”
“It’s remarkable to me that so many playwrights want to write musicals.”
On collaboration – “You are feeding each other and feeding off of each other at the same time. That’s what makes a good collaboration. Its like a good marriage. You supply something and you receive something that you wouldn’t receive doing it alone.”
On “fixing” a show – “You fix the first scene first, then you look at the rest of the show, then you fix the second scene, then you look at the rest of the show, and so on. Every time you fix something, it will affect everything else, maybe for the better, it may show up what’s wrong (elsewhere).”
On Follies – “I wrote the whole (individual) Follies sequence while we were in rehearsal. I didn’t know how we were going to get out of it”…….. ““I’m Still Here” was written on the road for Yvonne de Carlo”……. “Originally “Losing My Mind” was for both women”…… “Alexis Smith said to me “I wish I had a number where I could show off my legs.””
“Most of the shows I’ve written deal with the theme of
friendship”
“(A lot of) actors enjoy signing my songs because they’re acting songs, they’re not just presenting a song.”
At the end, as the standing-room house roared its approval, everyone knew that the last 40 minutes had been very well-spent.
Thanks to everyone at the NT for a rare opportunity to hear from this musical theatre giant in person.
For those wanting more, the Stephen Sondheim Society is a great source of Sondheim-related events in the UK. Take a look at their website here
