Press ESC or click the X to close this window

A Christmas Carol (Susan Elkin reviews)

Show: A Christmas Carol

Society: Guildford Shakespeare Company

Venue: Online Only

Credits: Written by Charles Dickens. Adapted by Naylah Ahmed. A co-production with Jermyn Street Theatre, London

Type: Sardines

Author: Susan Elkin

Perfomence Date: 19/12/2020

3 STARS

This valiant show uses Zoom so its cast of six are each in a different place all trying, and sometimes succeeding, to convince the audience at home that they really are in face-to-face conversation with each other.

Susan Elkin | 20 Dec 2020 16:03pm

Director Natasha Rickman makes a reasonable fist of creating the required illusion – and given the limitations of this technique I’ve noticed a steady improvement in theatre Zoom skills during this challenging year. This was one of the best I’ve seen so far although it’s no substitute at all for the real thing.

A succinct version of A Christmas Carol, adapted by Naylah Ahmed, it tells the story of Scrooge’s night of enlightenment and rebirth well enough but the topical, pandemic references are unnecessary and don’t work.

Jim Findley’s Scrooge is suitably, laughably cross at the outset but gradually becomes more childlike and gleeful. Findley brings an attractive warmth to the role.

The production’s starry USP is to have rounded up both Penelope Keith and Brian Blessed as, respectively, the Ghost of Christmas Past and the Ghost of Christmas Present. Keith, cheerfully patrician as ever and all swathed in Miss Haversham style ancient lace, pitches it somewhere between a kindly headmistress and an eccentric aunt. Blessed has fun with his usual basso profundo clarity and a strange red velvet circular hat connoting seasonal joviality.

Al the other roles are ably played by Paula James, Robin Morrissey, Lucy Pearson and GSC’s Young Company. Morrissey is especially moving and plausible as Bob Cratchit although I disliked the offputting facial close-ups when he plays Jacob Marley.

A Christmas Carol is, of course, a political piece with Scrooge initially as the face of extreme capitalism and everyone else presenting various levels of liberalism. Somehow that seems more pointed than ever this year. I was moved by the phrase “clinging to hope” at the end. Yes, that’s what we’re all doing right now.

Show: Covidella and the Masked Ball

Society: The MTA (student productions)

Venue: Online – The MTA, Bernie Grant Arts Centre, Town Hall Approach Road, Tottenham Green, London

Credits: Book by Howard Samuels. Music & lyrics by Annemarie Lewis Thomas

Type: Sardines

Author: Susan Elkin

Perfomence Date: 18/12/2020

5 stars

Every time I see TheMTA, a musical theatre college founded by Annemarie Lewis Thomas in 2009, in action I’m struck first by the talent of the students and second by the quality of the training they’re getting – even under the constraints of this difficult year.

Susan Elkin | 18 Dec 2020 22:46pm

So how do you mount a panto in a pandemic? You base it round the virus itself and you do it online so there’s no chance of being cancelled at the last minute: a decision which has allowed tens of thousands of schoolchildren to see this show – and I bet they had a ball in every sense.

Howard Samuels’ witty book gives us five fairies from different pantomime stories (one in drag) lamenting, in verse, the 2020 situation and the lack of panto. Then they think of a way of doing it and we launch into a coronavirus version of Cinderella. Buttons becomes Bubble, the stepmother is Countess Corona and it’s her mask she loses at the ball so they use track and trace to find her. It’s good, topical fun with lots of quips about rule changing, distancing, rule of six and all the rest of it.

CherAnn Thorkilsen sings with innocent clarity as Covidella and I loved her glitzy 21st Century ball dress. Alex Matthews has oodles of stage presence as Bubble (who has a bit of a thing with Dandelion, the Prince’s sister who isn’t Dandini). Antoine Paulin is deliciously, absurdly sexy with his hip grinding, winking at the audience and attractive tenor voice, spiced with a smidgin of French accent. And Stamatis Seraphim is terrific as Countess Corona striding about pouting, bullying and being theatrically outrageous.

Thomas’s songs and lyrics are catchy and funny and you can hear every pithy word – all the music is original. There’s no reliance on cliché ABBA songs or this year’s hits in this show. Choreography by Helen Siveter is neat and nicely executed.

I have, in general this year, avoided recorded or live shows as a substitute for real theatre but I’m glad I made an exception for this one because it does the student cast proud. Filmed by View 35 it really does showcase every single student with skilful use of close-ups so that we really see and hear what each of them can do – and they can do a great deal so I hope agents are paying attention. The sound quality is uneven in places but that did not detract from my enjoyment.

First published by Sardines: https://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/review/every-time-i-see-themta-a-musical-theatre-college-founded-by-annemarie-lewis-thomas-in-2009-in-action-im-struck-first-by-the-talent-of-the-students-and-second-by-the-quality-of-the-training/

Wilf Goes Wild (first episode) is available to watch via www.wilfgoeswild.com.

Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

This show is a single 15-minute episode pilot of a project which is intended to develop into a series. With Arts Council Funding The Mystery of the Missing Marvin is free to view via the Wilf Goes Wild website.

An animation (by Sarah Middleton – good fun) presents two children, Wilf and his sister Willow, feeling upset …

Read the rest of this review: http://musicaltheatrereview.com/wilf-goes-wild-mp-theatricals/

The Elf Who Was Scared of Christmas at Charing Cross Theatre, London (available to watch via Stream.Theatre).

Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

It’s always a treat to see a joyful, affirmative Christmas show for preschoolers. And this year it carries a new resonance because it is such a relief to be in a theatre sharing escapist magic with tinies after such a long period of darkness. Bravo producer Danielle Tarento for putting this on.

Devised, co-written and performed by Gina Beck and Neil McDermott, The Elf Who Was Scared of Christmas is a 50-minute two-hander which …

Read the rest of this review at https://musicaltheatrereview.com/the-elf-who-was-scared-of-christmas-charing-cross-theatre/

Mr Stink

Susan Elkin | 13 Dec 2020 23:10pm

The last show I saw in March before lockdown was Waiting For The Ship To Sail at Chickenshed so it was a movingly powerful experience to be back there at last. Yes, the foyer has been stripped of seating, there are strict rules about use of the facilities and, of course, the audience is small capacity and distanced. Nonetheless we were there, in the Raynes Theatre for cast of ten to warm our hearts with a new version of David Walliams’s Mr  Stink. And jolly good it felt.

Lou Stein, Chickenshed’s artistic director, has staged Mr Stink before – in his trademark large-scale style – in 2018 and 2019. This one was different. The length is pared down to 75 minutes to preclude the need for an interval and all the action on stage is distanced. Full marks then to the very slick four-strong ensemble whose song and dance routines are lively, vibrant and fun – even though they aren’t close to each other and often, I suspect, can’t see their fellow dancers. And I loved the moment when they donned masks to move in and carry and lift a sofa with an actor on it as part of the choreography, meaning that they were, briefly, closer to one another.

Lucy-Mae Peacock is perfect as Chloe, the rather troubled little girl beset by turbulent family life, who befriends a tramp. She gets the right blend of feistiness, courage and diffidence and sings like a nightingale. She also looks right. Although Peacock is 18, she is very small of stature and makes a delightful visual contrast to Jonny Morton’s tall Mr Stink – a role he alternates with Bradley Davis. Morton creates a  kindly, disinhibited, calm persona for Mr Stink and in the final duet with Chloe, his bass voice harmonises satisfyingly with the high clarity of hers.

Ashley Driver (alternating with Demar Lambert) as Mr Crumb is both funny and poignant and Brenda McGurk is, yet again, deliciously outrageous as Mrs Crumb until she finally sees sense and softens.

It’s a show with a lot of warmth not least because it addresses issues such as inclusion, diversity and bullying without being in any way clunky or obvious. That’s why it’s a perfect fit for Chickenshed whose mission is firmly rooted in theatre changing lives by working with everyone including the most vulnerable people in society irrespective of age.

Dave Carey is, as usual, the MD for this show but I missed the live band. This show is performed to backing tracks which means that there are occasion timing glitches. I understand, of course, why you can’t have a group of tightly packed musicians in a gallery at the moment and look forward to their return before too long. Meanwhile that’s only a very minor gripe about a fine and valiant production.

Mr Stink

Stick Man, based on the book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler is a quest story

Susan Elkin | 12 Dec 2020 01:28am

Images: Paul Blakemore

Stick Man, based on the book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler is a quest story. The titular Stick Man, depicted partly by a stick and partly by Jamie Coles, wants to get home to his wife and children in the family tree. From the Odyssey to The Wizard of Oz it’s a very familiar framework as we work through various episodes and adventures along the way as he gets variously used by children as a bat, pecked by a swan and threatened with fire, among other things.

It jars a bit, therefore, when it suddenly, rather clumsily, morphs into a Christmas story with the arrival of Father Christmas. The moral feels a bit bolted on too when Stick Man rather pointedly declares that he feels “used and abused” and turns to the audience for sympathy.

There are some good moments, though. “Invisi-ball” is one of the best puns I’ve heard in awhile as the cast mimes the inflation of a huge ball and then plays games with the audience by throwing it to them. And I loved the swan head glove puppet on Georgina’s arm, its angry voice evoked by talented actor-muso, Euan Wilson on saxophone.

The three cast members, directed by Mark Kane, work very slickly together with some attractive movement and voice work although the exaggerated “Etonian” voices in the beach scene are a bit overdone. Benji Bower’s songs are fun  and there’s some engaging percussion work, including xylophone, from Wilson.

It certainly engaged most of the children in the audience. One tiny boy, at the performance I saw, got so engrossed he shouted out “not in the fire!” at the top of his voice when things weren’t looking promising for Stick Man.

Handel: Messiah

Posted on 

Christ Church, St Leonards-on-Sea, Saturday 05 December

HPO Singers, Ensemble OrQuesta Baroque
Helen May soprano
Isabelle Haile soprano
Laura Fleur mezzo-soprano
Nathan Mercieca countertenor
Kieran White tenor
Thomas Kelly tenor
John Holland-Avery baritone
 
Marcio da Silva conductor/baroque guitar

This was the first live concert I have attended for ten months so I think I may be forgiven for shedding several tears when the notes of the “Sinfonia” died away in the atmospheric half light and Kieran White opened with “Comfort ye my people”. It set the tone for the whole evening: a lot of fine singing, respect for some of the most arresting, uplifting music ever written and – given the privations of this strange year – an unusual sense of warm gratitude in both (distanced) performers and audience.

Working with a small group of singers – only four basses – and conducting, with a lot of originality, from his baroque guitar Marcio da Silva found much clarity and precision in the chorus numbers although the necessary spacing created a challenge – the basses were to the right of the orchestra at the front with tenors to the left and sopranos and altos at the back. This placed the band in the middle of the choir and meant that sopranos were a long way from the basses, and the altos from the tenors. Inevitably there were occasional timing glitches but none of them detracted from the overall achievement.  The unaccompanied “Since by man came death” was perfectly, movingly together, however and the understated opening to “Amen” worked really well because it left so much scope for joyful crescendi as it developed all the way to that magical, climactic top A from the sopranos, nine bars before the end.

It was a concert full of ideas too. First there was the use of a tiny Baroque orchestra who played impeccably on original instruments (or replicas)  with Marcio da Silva on guitar and Petra Hajduchova on harpsichord.  I grinned to see Marcia da Silva morph into percussionist and singer during “Hallelujah”, leaving Edmund Taylor to direct from the first desk. Versatility is everything at the moment.  I also liked the idea, in this of all years, of sharing the solo work among seven soloists rather than four: more opportunities for more talented people.

Among the many high spots was Laura Fleur’s smiling “O thou that tellest”. She has a lower register like spiced hot chocolate. The contrast she later brought to the stark agony of “He was despised” was outstanding. I also admired the elegant, measured decoration from countertenor, Nathan Mercieca in “He shall feed his flock” and John Holland-Avery is a very arresting, dramatic singer in “The Trumpet shall sound”. Then there was the “sounding” itself with Louis Barclay’s on natural trumpet – another delightful moment.

Well it isn’t Christmas without hearing a decent Messiah and for a long time it looked as though this was going to be my first Messiah-less Christmas for many decades. So thanks HPO for making this happen, despite all 2020’s problems, and for the stunningly beautiful Christ Church which supports HPO by allowing them to use the premises without charge.

About 20 years ago I bought Nick a grey fleece – effectively an outdoor jacket. And just for fun, as it was a Christmas present, I had his name embroidered on it.

It was one of my more successful gift ideas because he wore it and wore it. After a while it started to look scruffy – or I thought so – and I spent the last 10 years of his life trying to separate him from it and coax him into something a bit smarter. To that end I bought him several jackets but it was always that bloody fleece which found its way to the front of the cupboard.

When, after his death last year, I sorted out Nick’s clothes for the charity shop I smiled at the fleece and the little arguments we’d had about it. So I kept it and now wear if for gardening with the sleeves rolled up. And do you know what? It’s very cosy and comfy and I can see exactly why Nick was so attached to it. It’s much better than the decades-old anorak I used to use for outdoor dirty jobs and which I really have now thrown out.

And I think of him whenever I put it on – not in a maudlin or sad way but with a grin.  It’s just a case of “Thanks, Nick. This apparently indestructible garment is still keeping one of us warm, at least.” He’d grin too.

Please support my forthcoming book The Alzheimer’s Diaries: a love story if you haven’t already and tell lots of people about it. Crowdfunding currently stands at 50%, thanks to 174 lovely supporters. https://unbound.com/books/alzheimers-diaries/