Review: BECOMING NANCY @ Birmingham Rep (preview)

 

A brand new UK musical, especially from the pens of such established composers as Stiles and Drewe, is to be celebrated particularly when the subject deals with such complex issues as coming out and racism combined with  kitsch nostalgia for the 1970s. Terry Ronald's 2012 novel Becoming Nancy has become something of a cult hit, with its vivid characters portraying a world of light and shade.

 

For those who haven't read the book,  the year is 1979 and a school in East Dulwich has decided to put on a production of Oliver!, the Lional Bart Dickensian musical.  For 16 year old David Starr, this means dreams of stage stardom, convinced he is going to get the lead role of Fagin.  However, things don't work out like that.  He is given the role of Nancy, due to him being the best singer in the school and Nancy having the best song. Already bullied for being a 'pansy', David is coming to the realisation he is gay.  It is a painful process, a secret he tries to hide from his Mum and bullish Dad.  His best friend is the fiery Frances, a black girl who has her fair share of racial intollerance from the local bigots. Luckily the colourful drama teacher Hamish McClaronon takes David under this wing and guides him towards a hopeful triumph in the school production. Into the fray enter a new boy at the school, Maxie Boswell, impossibly good looking and athletic captain of the football team. He is cast opposite David as Bill Sikes.  A chemistry develops between the two, but what is it?  With the battle lines drawn with National Front supporter Jason Lancaster and cruel PE teacher Bob Lord, the term is not going to be an easy ride.

And that my friends is the starting point, for a wonderful journey of love and self discovery blighted by the right wing violence and bullying that were sadly a part of the 1970s. But this is a musical about hope and that is its key. The musical had its world premiere in Atlanta during 2019 but now finds itself on home territory for this amazing new production directed by theatre legend Jerry Mitchell, the man who propelled Kinky Boots, Hairspray and Legally Blonde to Broadway megastardom.

The score is mostly by George Styles (music)  and Anthony Drewe (lyrics),  however Elliot Davies (book) and original author Terry Ronald also have a hand in the songwriting credits, so it appears a real team effort.  There are so many bangers in the score that it should be served with a helping of mash,  every ballad and up tempo moment are ear-worms that you can take from the theatre.  This might just be the score that takes Stiles and Drewe from industry respect to global appreciation.

 

And what a cast the Birmingham Rep have served up for the shows British debut. Lead by Joseph Peacock as David Starr,  he has a wonderful voice as he proved in The Osmonds musical recently and finds the teenage angst within David with which we can all associate.  He is matched by Joseph Vella as the charismatic sporty Maxie,  they convey a chemistry which has us all rooting from them throughout the show.  But this is a very much an ensemble piece.  Paige Peddie as Frances Bassey, with her weariness at the treatment she gets from daily racism, is a tour de force.  She has the voice of a diva and transforms herself into Donna Summer in an instant for the big disco number 'Ready To Be Touched'.  Rebecca Trehearn (so brilliant in Andrew Lloyd Webber's troubled Cinderella) is David's Mum Kath.  Her solo number 'About Six Inches From Your Heart' is a showstopper.  David's supportive Aunt Val played by Genevieve Nicole is a straight talking, down to earth rock that we would all want as our aunt. She miraculously transforms herself into a other wordly Kate Bush when the script requires, proving Nicole's star quality. Her duet of lost loves (with Daisy Greenwood as David's would be girlfriend Abigail Henson) 'On The Night Bus' has a real pathos. Stephen Ashfield as Hamish McClarnon, David's mentor and friend,  is another accomplished performance as he flounces around directing Oliver! and generally steering events in the school. Mathew Craig as David's boorish Dad Eddie is a difficult role, but manages that fine line which gives the character depth and not just bluster.  I could go on naming outstanding performances, but the entire ensemble deliver faultlessly.  The music is delivered flawlessly by Musical Director Sarah Burrell and her four musicians,  going from disco to reggae and show ballad when required. They meet the demands of the score with ease.

 

Although only in preview when we saw the show,  we instantly decided it was a 'returner'.  That is to say we want to see it again.  Becoming Nancy has the ingredients of a hit: great songs, great performances and a story that touches the heart. It's a risk worth taking.

Rob and Ian

 

Show details can be found at the offical BECOMING NANCY WEBSITE

A 6 track EP of songs from the show performed by the 2024 cast is available on all major streaming and download services.

Becoming Nancy Songs (highlighed songs available on the EP):

ACT ONE

Welcome To The Beat Of My Heart

Becoming Nancy

Look At Them

You Do You

The Play's The Thing

I Don't Care

About Six Inches From Your Heart

Big Night Tonight

Move Along

Is This Something?

 ACT TWO

Abigail Henson

On The Night Bus

My Skin

Where Do We Go From Here?

Just For Today

Ready To Be Touched

The Risk

Have You Ever Had A Love Like This?

DAME MAGGIE SMITH (1934 - 2024) - A Tribute

The outpouring of public affection since the announcement of the passing of Dame Maggie Smith has been significant and heartfelt. Maggie, revered by her peers as much as her viewing public, somehow touched us deeply with her waspish comedic skills and also her ability to reach the very core of a character which would have us close to tears.  It was a rare skill honed playing opposite her friend Kenneth Williams and also the theatre greats such as Edith Evans and most significantly Sir Laurence Olivier, into whose original National Theatre company she was invited.

With a career that started in 1952, we have had an incredible 70 years of brilliant performances on stage and screen.  Her stage appearances - mostly lost to time with no recordings available - are the stuff of theatre legend.  I myself was lucky to see the Dame several times giving breathtaking performances of comedy and tragedy.  The first occasion was in 1993 when she accepted the iconic role of Lady Bracknell in The Importance Of Being Earnest at the Aldwych Theatre. A dazzling display of looks and gestures made her instantly a harridan without having to go over the top with the role, and in the process raising gales of laughter from the audience by the merest gesticulation or glare. (Incidentally working with Maggie in this play was described as "the worst experience I've ever had in the business" by Richard E. Grant - Maggie could be formidable off stage as well.)  Later I saw her in Edward Albee's Three Tall Women and A Delicate Balance,  Alan Bennett's Talking Heads and The Lady In The Van.  Masterclasses in stage performances.  I met the Dame several times at stage doors,  she was much as I expected friendly but slightly aloof.  She always had the aura of someone who stood outside the usual celebrity circus.  Celebrity was for lesser mortals.

DMS as Lady Bracknell in The Importance Of Being Earnest (1993)

 Dame Maggie's screen career started in 1955 with an appearance on the BBC's Sunday Night Theatre and from there moved into movies (1958's Nowhere To Go marked her first significant big screen role) and eventually reached the stratosphere as an Hollywood A-lister.   Her two Best Actress Oscars demonstrated her command of the big screen.  Her flouncy and fascist brainwashing of young girls in The Prime Of  Miss Jean Brodie shows both sides of the Smith arsenal: comedy and drama. The irony of winning an Oscar playing an actress nominated for an Oscar in 1978's California Suite was not lost on anyone,  Maggie's backbiting with her on screen husband played by Michael Caine is screen magic.  There are so many performances that rate a mention:  her lovelorn Miss Mead in the The VIPs (1963) trying to protect her employer (Rod Taylor) with whom she is secretly in love,  haughty social climber Joyce Chilvers forced to aquire a black market pig due to post-war rationing in Alan Bennett's magnificent  A Private Function (1984) and her scene stealing Constance Trentham in Julian Fellows' Gosford Park (2001),  a prototype for her role as the Lady Grantham in the phenomenon that is Downton Abbey (2010 - 2022).

For students of Dame Maggie Smith, wishing to enjoy her range and her power on screen,  I have a recommended list of five screen appearances that perhaps you might go and search out in tribute to Maggie and all she brought to drama and comedy throughout her career.

THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE (1969)

 

Maggie's first Oscar win and a blazing performance of manipulation and folly. Although Maggie employs her full comic arsenal as teacher Jean Brodie in 1930s Edinburgh, it is her chilling romanticising of the Fascist movement that is at the heart of the movie. Playing opposite her then real life husband Robert Stephens as the art teacher Teddy Lloyd with whom she is having an affair,  Jean's cosy world is brought to a halt when her loyal pupil Sandy spills the beans about the lessons leading to the final showdown with Celia Johnson.  Maggie Smith's command of the screen has never been greater,  and although some critics felt Maggie's comedy dilutes her politicial teachings, it does show how charismatic Jean Brodie is that her girls will follow her every word. 

 

THE LONELY PASSION OF JUDITH HEARNE (1987)

 

For my money perhaps Maggie's greatest screen performance is as the Irish spinster Judith Hearne,  forced by circumstance to live in a run down boarding house run by Mrs. Rice and her troublesome layabout son Bernard.  Its here Judith meets Rice's brother James Madden (Bob Hoskins),  back from America with tales of high living and investment opportunities.  He comes to believe Miss Hearne may have some money to invest in his American diner fantasies.  Maggie's study of the introverted Judith Hearne, who longs for romance and is easy prey for the fast talking Madden,  tugs at the heartstrings.  Its a perfect study of longing and dreams,  and of course when things take a turn for the worse it is devastating to Miss Hearne as her gentle romance with Madden is the one thing that is stopping her from sinking.  Its hard to concieve that Maggie was never nominated for an Oscar for this role,  as the film company (struggling with mounting debts) simply forgot to enter the movie for consideration by the Oscar panel. If there is one Maggie Smith performance I could keep with me, it would be this one.

TALKING HEADS:  BED AMONG THE LENTILS (1988)

 Alan Bennett's celebrated series of monologues under the umbrella title of Talking Heads have become televison classics.  No more so than this entry for Maggie Smith as vicars wife Susan who is tired of the "fan club" as she calls them,  a group of devoted church goers who worship her husband Geoffrey as much as the Almighty.  To ease her burden, she takes to the bottle and is found buying wine at a grocers run by a young Asian named Ramesh.  It turns into an unlikely affair.  Maggie's weary performance hits every beat spot on,  all of Bennett's little comedic gems are given full utterance as Susan's tragic tale unfolds.  The quiet calm when it is revealed Susan's alcoholism has been cured thanks to her husband and Church circle (so they think) is unrelentingly bleak.  A truly brilliant search of the human condition.

 SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER (1993)

An adaptation of Tennessee Williams' play set in the deep south of America, 1936.  Maggie plays matriach Violet Venable whose son Sebastian is killed on a trip to Spain.  Sebastian's cousin Catherine arrives at the villa with the shocking story of how Sebastian met his fate, and Violet tries to get the doctor to perform a lobotomy in order to stop her telling her story.  Sebastian was a predatory homosexual who used Catherine to procure his victims, and fell foul of a grizzly fate.  Violet will stop at nothing to stop this story getting out.  Maggie is surrounded by a top notch cast in Richard Eyre's classy BBC production - Natasha Richardson as Catherine, Rob Lowe and Richard E. Grant all fawn around Violet as she spits fire against her neice. Maggie's southern drawl finds the dragon in the ailing Violet and it is a fascinating portrait of a deluded woman protecting the reputation of her only off spring. 

 

THE LADY IN THE VAN (2015) 

Maggie had played Alan Bennett's celebrated anti hero, the tramp lady Miss Shepherd in the 1999 West End stage production.  It took a further sixteen years before the director Nicholas Hytner and Bennett could bring Miss Shepherd to the big screen. The eccentric Camden resident who Bennett allowed to park her delapidated Bedford van in his drive is now something of a literary folk hero thanks to Bennett's memoir detailing the trials of living with her on a day to day basis.  The film delves into Miss Shepherd's surprising and colourful history, revealing the event which sent her over the edge, and living in squalid circumstances.  Maggie was born to play this role. Shepherd's tetchy personality which masked an underlying vulnerability is Maggie's forte. She illuminates the light and shade of Miss Shepherd's world brilliantly, and rightly brought Maggie Smith much acclaim, as the original stage performance had done.  Its not the perfect movie but Maggie's performance within it certainly is.

 

Just five performances which for me have stood out as being Maggie at her on screen peak, but there is no such thing as a poor Maggie Smith performance.  She brings a skill and a class to some movies which frankly need her to lift them from bathing in the average.  But when she is paired with material that is equal to her talent, she soars like a virtuoso. There are so many more I could nominate:  Mabel Pettigrew in Memento Mori, Lady Hester Ransom in Tea With Mussolini,  Daphne Castle in Evil Under The Sun,  Aunt Augusta in Travels With My Aunt...   As much national treasures as the Crown Jewels themselves.   Most of them are available via streaming or physical media,  I urge you to go and check some of them out.  Dame Maggie Smith may have left us but she has also left us a performance portfolio the equal to the greatest of 20th and 21st century thespians. Sleep well, Dame Maggie and thank you.

Rob Cope

Review: HAIRSPRAY (UK Tour) @ Manchester Palace Theatre

 

Woah, Woah, Woah... Hairspray is back on a UK Tour and we are feeling the beat. With big hair, big bootie and big tunes,  it really is a 1960s extravaganza like no other.

Originally released as an iconic John Waters movie in 1988 starring Divine and Rikki Lake,  it became a fully fledged stage musical in 2002 on Broadway.  Since that time we have had the 2007 John Travolta movie version and the fabulous 2016 Hairspray Live! on TV. The story of Tracy Turnblad and her peers really hasn't gone away in over two decades of high energy,  foot tapping, singalong greatness.

 

For those that may be unaware, we meet Tracy Turnblad in Baltimore, 1962. She has dreams of appearing on the Corny Collins Show with his glamourous troupe of fashionable dancers.  However Tracy is a plus size girl and when she gets the chance to audition she is given rather unkind treatment from producer and top bitch Velma Von Tussle, whose all American daughter Amber is a regular dancer on the show.  Also getting the bitch treatment from Velma is Little Inez, a talented coloured girl, who is the subject of the shows racist segregation policy.  Naturally as this is all inclusive musical theatre, we can't be having that so there follows a battle for Tracy and Little Inez to get recognised for the stars they are and for the people of Baltimore to become fully integrated as dancers and in love.  

The music and lyrics of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman really hit the mark with its homage to the productions of Phil Spector and Berry Gordy's Motown throughout.  The entire score is awash with earworms you just won't be able to stop humming as you leave the theatre:  'Good Morning Baltimore',  'It Takes Two',  'Mama, I'm A Big Girl Now' and of course the tongue twisting anthem of the show, 'You Can't Stop The Beat'.

This new UK tour has been blessed with a glorious cast.  Neil Hurst channels Harvey Fierstein as he brings us a big brassy Edna Turnblad,  gravelly voiced and the very heart of the show.  His performance as drab Edna discovers her inner glamazon is a joy.  He is matched with Alexandra Emmerson-Kirby as Edna's daughter Tracy,  making her professional debut she invests Tracy with the vigour and energy of youth and delivers Tracy's songs with gusto. Gina Murray's take on Velma Von Tussle is first class,  she is a stony faced bitch, a former 'Miss Baltimore Crabs' who is at the very centre of efforts to prevent anyone who veers away from an all American image appearing on the show. Murray nails it.  When it comes to vocals,  the biggest voice of the night is Michelle Ndegwa as Motormouth Maybelle,  self proclaimed 'big, blonde and beautiful' Mama. Her performance of the civil rights anthem 'I Know Where I've Been' took the roof of the Palace Theatre and she deservedly got an ovation.   The roles of Little Inez and Seaweed (Maybelle's children) are underwritten but thankfully Katlo and Reece Richards still found opportunities to shine, and made their mark on the show.   The show is blessed with good voices as Solomon Davy (Tracy's love interest Link Larkin) and Allana Taylor (Von Tussle's daughter Amber) prove throughout.  A word too for Dermot Canavan as Edna's devoted husband Wilbur,  their duet 'You're Timeless To Me' is a highlight of the show with both actors striving to keep a straight face much to the delight of the 2000 strong audience.  Richard Atkinson and his onstage band of seven make sure the music keeps pumping out, there is no finer sound in theatre than a great band in full flow. Thank you guys and gals. 

Jointly and expertly directed by Paul Kerryson and former Maybelle, Brenda Edwards with breathtaking choreogrpahy by Drew Mconie, this latest production delivers in spades and proves that Hairspray is set to remain one of the all time great musical theatre shows. Hairspray isn't just a frothy revisiting of the sixties, it reminds us of our need for inclusivity and the ongoing struggle for equality.  It genuinely has something to say about history and how we can continue to learn from it.  You certainly can't stop this beat, and frankly who would want to?  Beehived brilliance.

Rob and Ian

Venue and ticket information can be found at the official HAIRSPRAY UK Tour website.

Rob and Ian's recommended listening: the original 2002 Broadway cast recording on streaming and downloading services (plus of course CD for oldies like us!)

Review: MY SON'S A QUEER (But What Can You Do?) @ Derby Theatre (UK Tour)

 

There are some shows which transcend criticisim and this might jst be one of them. Rob Madge's self celebratory My Son's A Queer (But What Can You Do?) is 70 minutes of sheer joy.  The premise of the show is simple:  looking back through videos of yourself as a child to chart your love of performing and the queerness that is at the very core of it.   In particular it focuses on Madge's desire to perform a Disney parade which includes many of the great Disney princesses.

In hilarious commentary, we are introduced to the video clips of Rob aged about 6 years old along with his family where clearly Rob has a sense of his own celebrity ("Are you filming ME?" he demands of his Dad on several occasions,  seemingly aware of the fact other people might be in the room.)  His Mum and Dad indulge him by making an array of home made props and wigs to enhance little Rob's desires for fully staged productions on their living room.  And woe betide them if they are not on cue or get their lines wrong if he has allocated them a supporting role, and whatever Rob is playing everyone else is very much a supporting role in his young mind.  

 

But behind the larks is a beautiful telling of a young mind who knows he's queer and knows he loves dressing up, particularly the beautiful gown of Belle in Beauty And The Beast.  Rob's Dad admits on the video that he deliberately brought his son a replica of The Beast's costume from the Disney shop in a bid to move Rob away from his obsession with Belle and other Disney princesses. This was never going to work. A turning point is when Rob's grandparents lovingly make him a puppet theatre where he can finally act out his shows in a theatre setting.  It is obvious to us on the video and his family that Rob is destined for the stage, its in his very soul.

Of course Rob's journey isn't without its troubles.  Hateful comments and the hurtful shunning by the his fellow schoolchildren because he is clearly different to them, left a lasting mark.  Madge tells us all of this going from hilarity to heartbreak in a fell swoop in what is a sensitive and finely judged performance throughout.

There are songs, there is glitter and there is eventually a long long overdue Disney parade for the now 27 year old Rob.  But most of all there is joy.  The audience cling on to his every word from the off,  his natural confidence and charisma is the very heart of the show, and whereas it could have come over as very self indulgent and tacky, it is instead a glorious celebration of family and acceptance of who you are. The instant standing ovation at the end said it all.

The question would be, how do you follow that?  But Rob will.  His indomitable spirit and effervesence will lead him to more triumphs for sure. We just hope we are there to witness them.

Rob & Ian 

                                        

A cast recording is now available to stream and download from most online providers or on a CD which can be ordered by clicking the link below.

Review: & JULIET (UK Tour) @ Manchester Opera House

 

& so...   It's fair to say we feel rather proprietorial about & Juliet as we caught the show during its world premiere season prior to its move to the West End (and Broadway, and Australia etc. etc.)  So it seems rather fitting we return to the scene of that very first visit - Manchester's magnificent Opera House - to watch the opening date of the very first UK Tour.

The premise of the show is a fairly simple one. Mrs. Shakespeare, Anne Hathaway (there'll never be another!), travels down from Stratford to London to see what her husband Will has been writing.  He presents her with the plot of Romeo & Juliet,  with the lovers tragically killing themselves at the denouement.  Anne thinks Juliet deserves more of a future, and sets about re-writing the ending much to Will's annoyance. In this battle of Will(s) Juliet finds herself alive and heads to Paris with her nurse Angelique, best transgender friend May and fun loving April, a way Anne Hathaway has of writing herself into the action.  There, in the party scene of Paris, Juliet meets Francois du Bois and somehow becomes romantically involved,  but of course its not as simple as that.  With Will and Anne battling for control of the writers quill, the journey takes many twists and turns before there is a happy ending.

 

The real calling card of this show though are the songs of Max Martin and his many collaberators.  Max's name might not be on the tip of everyone's tongue but his songs certainly are.  Think Britney's 'Kiss Me Baby One More Time',  Jessie J's 'Domino' ,  Kelly Clarkson's 'Since U Been Gone', The Backstreet's Boys' 'Larger Than Life' and Katy Perry's immortal 'Roar' to name just a few in the show.  30 wall to wall hits, an A - Z of pop from the 1990s onwards.  Its infectious, by the time you get to leave the theatre you are on a musical high like no other.  

Having been witness to the brilliant original cast,  we were guilty of being a little wary of the incoming class of 2024,  but we need not have been.  The entire ensemble ooze quality and talent.  At the performance we attended the 'alternate Juliet' was on show.  Psalms-Nissi Myers-Reid dropkicked every note and comedy line, giving us a memorable Juliet to lead the mighty production.  Sandra Marvin was equally magnificient as outspoken Angelique,who finds her former lover Lance in Paris.  Lance is played by television doctor Ranj Singh,  and guess what?  He pulls off the singing and acting with style. So allay fears he is not up to job, he's the real deal. Jordan Broatch gives us a slightly understated May perhaps to match Kyle Cox's laid back Francois,  polished performances but a bit more depth of characterisation might be required here, we never quite get the attraction they both have for each other. Jack Danson's Romeo is a foppish joy as he struggles to come to terms with how Juliet can have moved on without him.  Matt Cardle's Shakespeare takes centre stage from the off,  we know he can belt out a tune but his delivery of the comedy is equally on point,  but perhaps the evening really belongs to Lara Denning's Anne Hathaway.  By turns hugely funny, and then she can wring a tear out of your eye with her longing for her husbands attention.  A star performance at the heart of a supernova of a show.

This year long UK tour is bound to bring this cult show a mountain of new fans. We are already planning where we can see it again. If you need a lift, you need to see this show. Its the only jukebox musical that equals the joy of Mamma Mia! Make sure you catch this tour, because in the words of Pink it's "Fuckin' Perfect".

Rob & Ian

Details of the UK tour can be found at the OFFICIAL & JULIET WEBSITE