ROB & IAN GO TO GLASGOW

 

IAN GOES TO OLD TRAFFORD

 

NAOMI EYERS INTERVIEW

 

IAN GOES TO WEMBLEY

 

ABBA TRIBUTE BANDS & THE BJÖRN IDENTITY NEW CD

 

REVIEW: EUGENIUS @ Turbine Theatre, Battersea

 

There's not much subtlety going on in EUGENIUS,  the pop musical currently playing at the Turbine Theatre. But then again when a musical is this much fun then there is not much need for subtlety anyway.  This musical became a cult hit at the Other Palace in 2018 and has now received its long awaited revival courtesy of the tiny Battersea theatre.  

In a nutshell,  talented writer of comic books Eugene dreams of Tough Man and his friend Super Hot Lady and wakes to write their adventures down.  A Hollywood scout visits his school where his unfiltered geeky friend Feris and love smitten Janey for whom Eugene is a secret crush, push Eugene into declaring his comic book writing.  As it turns out Hollywood is very impressed, and he is whisked off to Los Angeles to begin work on a Tough Man movie to be directed by the fearsome Lex Hogan.  But is Hollywood all it's cracked up to be?  Suddenly the movie starts to veer away from Eugene's original story and what is worse,  he finds himself distanced from his friends Feris and Janey.  Then it turns out that the evil Lord Hector is real, and arrives from distant space to take revenge on his estranged brother Tough Man.  

It is easy to see why this show captivated so many in its previous incarnation.  It's campy,  fun and with great 1980s inspired songs and some scintillating performances.  The way the limited space of the Turbine has been transformed is beautiful to behold,  it proves that you don't need a huge space and millions spent on a show to have a brilliant night out.  Elliott Evans as Eugene is a perfect leading man, ridiculously good looking with a voice of an angel,  he is the focus of the show as the troubled teenager. James Hameed as his bombastic best friend Feris gets a lot of the laugh lines, and lights up the stage with sheer energy whenever he appears. Jaina Brock-Patel is perhaps the vocal lynchpin of the show,  with her big power ballad voice soaring through the numbers as her love for Eugene grows.  Lara Denning as Lex Hogan, bitch director and manipulator,  proves a powerhouse and is perhaps the villain of the piece with money clearly her prime motivation, seeking to exploit Eugene to the max.  Joseph Bleach chews the scenery on every entrance as the evil Lord Hector, the alien with attitude. A showstealer if ever there was one.  Dominic Andersen once again impresses (following his turns in West End try outs What's New Pussycat? and Mrs. Doubtfire), excelling in his roles as the school bully,  Gerhard the challenged German actor and more tender scenes as Eugene's Dad. Lets not forget Rhys Taylor dragged up as the Space Diva at the beginning of the show and then as camp Theo, assistant to Lex, with his penchant for musical theatre icons.  Meanwhile Maddison Firth gives us a bimbo actress Carrie a.k.a. Super Hot Lady. She is spot on as she delivers her laugh lines with style whilst unveiling a terrific singing voice.

Director Hannah Chissick has given us a slick show,  fully utilising the Turbine space into a loud, colourful intergalactic spectacular.  The songs are so full of earworms,  if you are not humming "Listen to the crowd and hear them say, go Euginius..." all the way home you must be deaf!   Eugenius is one of the best feel good evenings in London,  and we hope this is just the first stage of its return journey, reaching for the stars and higher.  We can't wait to meet Eugene and his friends again. Consider us converted.

Rob & Ian

The original cast recording is available from all major online music sources

REVIEW: ALLEGIANCE @ Charing Cross Theatre, London

 

George Takei's musical ALLEGIANCE has had quite a journey.  It premiered in San Diego in 2012,  three years later transferring to Broadway and now, another eight years hence, has finally found its way to the London stage at the Charing Cross Theatre.  The show has been something of a passion project for Takei (better known as Star Trek's original Mr. Sulu) because the subject matter is very close to his heart, having been based on his own family history.  In 1942 a five year old Takei and his family were taken at gunpoint from their home in Los Angeles, and put in concentration camps found in Arkansas and Tule Lake, California.  As were thousands of Japanese-Americans whom it was thought might be loyal to the Land of the Rising Sun when America declared war on Japan in World War Two.   It is a story that has not been widely told until now,  Takei's musical follows the journey of the fictional Kimura family as they are separated and treated like enemy aliens for the duration of the hostilities.   

The show has music and lyrics by Jay Kuo, and whilst no obvious earworms spring up it remains a powerful score.  The UK production has been directed by Tara Overfield Wilkinson  who makes the most of the small stage area of the Charing Cross Theatre, with the audience placed on two sides,  as she transports us back in time.   The story starts in 2001 when old Sam Kimura is preparing for a military parade of veterans receives a notice to say his sister Kei has died,  a sister he hasn't seen for fifty years. We are then back in 1941 when the young Sammy is a teenager, dreaming of a bright future,  but the bombing of Pearl Harbor changes that for all Japanese-Americans.  The family find themselves in an internment camp,  under house arrest.  In order to try and prove his loyalty to America,  Sammy tries to enlist in the army but is rejected as an enemy of the US.   What follows is the struggle of a group of people swept along with events they have no control over.

The 85 year old George Takei gives a stirring performance as the old Sam Kimura and also Sam's grandfather Ojii-Chan.  You can tell his long struggle to bring this story to the stage fills him with pride and a desire for this part of American history to be recognised.  His star quality is evident throughout. Telly Leung was sadly absent in the role of the young Sammy Kimura and was instead replaced by Sario Solomon,  giving a sensitive and three dimensional account of the young man trapped in a nightmare scenario. One of the strongest features of the show is the singing, and nowhere is this more evident than Aynrand Ferrier as Sammy's sister Kei.  Her vocals are sensational,  and give the show much of its heart.  In songs 'Gaman' and 'This Is Not Over' she leads the company like a flower in full bloom.  So too Megan Gardiner - as kindly nurse Hannah Campbell - brings a striking stage presence and voice to her role. Each of the company members are required to play several roles throughout the evening and the vocal choral numbers soar during the show.  The moody lighting by Nic Farman compliments the effective settings by Mayou Trikerioti,  manages to convey the stark living conditions in the camps with even worse horrors of war. 

 

A word too for the five musicians who make up the band under the musical direction of Beth Jerem,  they manage to summon up the sound of the 1940s and bring out the very best in Jay Kuo's score.  Allegiance could have been a downbeat evening given the persecution, hardships and sacrifices endured,  but somehow the show manages to uplift and convey the strength of spirit of that particular generation. We left the theatre convinced we had seen theatre of quality and substance.  Allegiance was worth the wait,  and we hope that we haven't seen the last of this production in the UK.  

 Rob & Ian