Well I got a chance to chat with friend of The Matinee Tony and Grammy Award winner Alex Lacamoire when I went to see The Wiz which is playing at New York City Center as part of their summer Encore series. Alex as the musical director, along with Thomas Kail, director, and Andy Blankenbuehler, choreographer, has brought something very special to the New York stage. These three worked together in the same capacities on In the Heights which won the Tony for Best Musical in 2008. I call them the holy trinity. It seems everything they touch is golden. (Alex also worked with Andy on the dance arrangements for 9 to 5 which is currently on Broadway.)
The Wiz performers are electric. There's not a slacker on the stage. Not that there weren't standouts. Grammy winning singer Ashanti makes her NY stage debut as Dorothy. She plays the part with childish innocence. I thought she played it graciously low key, leaving the big performances for those playing stronger characters. Her voice is angelic, a joy to the ears. The big performances are by LaChanze who plays Aunt Em and Glinda the Good Witch, Dawnn Lewis as Addaperle the Good Witch of the North and Tichina Arnold as Evillene The Wicked Witch of the West. All give incredible performances and own the stage. And the gorgeous Orlando Jones as the Wizard is a neon green bundle of energy. The Scarecrow (Christian Dante White), Tinman (Joshua Henry) and Lion (James Monroe Iglehart) are all well-cast. One other performance that stood out for me was Juson Williams as the Gatekeeper. He steals the scene as he pompously hands out the green glasses to Dorothy, the Scarecrow, Tinman and Lion as they enter the Emerald City. It's a small part but very memorable. He also plays one of the adorable Munchkins who wear inverted laundry baskets covered with the laundry that has blown in from the tornado. The laundry baskets conceal stools that enable these average-size actors to move freely on stage and appear munchkin-size. They also wear fright wigs adorned with clothespins. And the yellow brick road is depicted by the dancers wearing yellow high tops. All very clever. The choreography is spectacular. Andy Blankenbuehler is the new Fosse. His work has such a modern signature look to it. I would say he's probably my favorite living Broadway choreographer. The tornado ballet is absolutely amazing with the dancers embodying the storm. And not only is he good at creating the moves, he's great at casting his dancers who are the cream of the crop, including one of the finalists from last year's tv show "So You Think You Can Dance" the fabulous Will (William B. Wingfield). The score is wonderful including "Ease on Down the Road", "Everybody Rejoice" and "Home". And our Alex conducts on an elevated platform and is on stage throughout the show. I've said it before, I'll say it again, he is one of the nicest show biz people I've ever met. One of the nicest people I've ever met, period. I can only wish for him an incredible career.
It's a shame that this is a limited engagement since it's one of the best musicals I've seen in recent months. It's definitely Broadway-worthy and hopefully we will be seeing it there. I would love to take my daughter to see it. I did take my 11 year old friend, Evan, and he loved it. (There are pictures of Evan with Alex, Ashanti and Juson on The Matinee Gallery, page 16.) So if you're planning a trip to NY between now and July 5th, run and get your tickets before it whizzes on down the road.
Friday 19 June 2009
Wednesday 20 May 2009
Haunted at the Royal Exchange
This is a brand new play. We went in to this one with an air of excitement as quite by chance we bumped in to friend of the show, Sue Jenkins, who told up she had heard it was excellent. It would appear her sources were spot on. The stage was constructed out of a perspex allowing some interesting projections and uplighting. The theatre is set in the round at the Royal Exchange which must have set someo challenges as there is i full size door in the plot. They got around this by. . Yes you guessed it. . . Making it out of perspex. The outer ring of the stage revolved and proved very effective as a platform for introducing the characters to the right stage position. There are quite a few extra bits hidden but i will let you spot them yourself when you see it. The play itself has a great mix of comedy and serious moments. Brenda Blethyn is superb in her role as an ex housewife thats finds herself having to be the main bread winner. The story twists and turns right up to the last minute leaving you with the feeling that you understood it but dont ask me to explain it. All the cast were superb. This one is a must see.
Saturday 16 May 2009
Songs of sister act is nuntastic
Rowetta starred in this concert style musical. The london community gospel choir were outstanding. The whole show has had a revamp with more audience participation, including a rather funny segment where three nuns get up and sing from the audience. Ok maybe i should explain that you are encouraged to come dressed as nuns. Rowetta is a very generous performer. Costantly bigging up the whole cast but she does stand out with a superb voice that sent shivers down my spine. A word of warning. If you go expecting to be sitting down for most of the show you will be in for a shock. The audience was up on their feet before the first number was up. And the interval was a chance to sit down and rest. Madame Aries seemed to enjoy herself and i dont know who sang more. Her or the people on stage. Strongly recomended
Monday 11 May 2009
High school musical at the lowry
It was cheesey kitch and a bit silly. But they do all of the above very well. The sound was a bit off but the audience of mainly youngsters loved it. Actually it was very entertaining. High energy wins over high art when disney comes to town. Go and see it and try not to smile.
Saturday 9 May 2009
Updating the Matinee technology
As part of our ongoing comittment to being the best and the first to bring you reviews, from monday we will be testing a remote solution to these blogs. Please bear with up as we implement this tech
Friday 17 April 2009
West Side Story 2009
It's been 52 years since the then 40ish year old Arthur Laurents wrote the book for West Side Story. This time the 91 year old has also directed it. I've seen the movie countless times, know the entire score backwards and forwards so there's a special place in my heart for this play which takes place in the gang-ridden streets of New York City in the 1950's depicting the turf wars between the Anglo Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks and the impact it has on the Anglo Tony and the Puerto Rican Maria who are torn between ethnic loyalty and intense love for each other.
I'll cut to the chase. Is it good? Yes. Does it live up to the original? Not exactly. I'll start with what I loved about it. The original Jerome Robbins choreography was lovingly recreated by Joey McNeeley, himself a Robbins protege, and is as breath-taking as ever. The dancers are superb. I loved Karen Olivo as Anita. She's one of those electrifying presences like Idina Menzell or Kristin Chenoweth, people who you would go to see in anything. The Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim score is one of the best ever written. The sets of the mean streets of NY are fabulous. Where I feel it falls short is the casting for the most part. I'm not going to point fingers, but aside from Karen Olivo and a couple of the Puerto Rican girls, the singing and speaking voices were not strong or dynamic enough. The original Broadway cast album is so imprinted in my mind that I couldn't help but compare the voices with those of the original cast. And the songs and dialogue in Spanish are a mistake in my opinion. While the use of Spanish is an earnest attempt at making it more authentic, the audience, especially those not familiar with the story, lose a lot. My husband said he wished the pajama party scene in Maria's bedroom had been in English. He said he thought it was probably very funny but most of the audience didn't know what was going on. Two of the songs were done in Spanish as well. "I Feel Pretty" and "A Boy Like That". "A Boy Like That" was sung by Anita to Maria chiding her about the love for this man who just killed her brother. Those were important lyrics to the story.
Should you see it? Absolutely, it's classic Broadway. There's more good about it than bad. Jerry, Jade and I all enjoyed it very much, even with the flaws. But after you see West Side Story, go see "In the Heights" which is a more relevant look into the lives of Latino immigrants in the New York City of today. Sure, there still are the occasional turf wars but New Yorkers are so used to new and different ethnicities moving in and most of us have embraced the differences. To me, it's one of the things that makes New York City so wonderful, the diversity.
Thursday 16 April 2009
Sherie Renee Scott is Ravishing in Everyday Rapture
I sure hope Sherie Renee Scott doesn't have any plans after May 31st when the limited run of Everyday Rapture at off-Broadway's Second Stages ends because this phenomenal play, in my opinion, is Broadway-bound. How do I describe it? It's a musical but not a musical. It's a play with music. That's probably the best description but not like any play with music I've ever seen. It's a one-woman show with a cast of four. Sherie Renee Scott wrote this semi-autobiographical piece with Dick Scanlon, who previously wrote the book and lyrics to Thoroughly Modern Millie. Miss Scott plays herself with Lindsay Mendez and Betsy Wolf playing her backup singers/quasi-spiritual leaders, The Mennonettes, and Eamon Foley playing broadwayislove09@earthlink.net, a 15 year old obsessed with musical theatre who posts a video of himself on youtube lip-synching to Sherie Renee Scott singing "My Strongest Suit" from Aida in which she starred as Princess Amneris. But it's mostly Miss Scott taking the audience anecdotally through her life from her rural Kansas childhood to her adult life in Manhattan through soliloquy and parodies of familiar songs from Judy Garland's "Dear Mr. Gable" to George Harrison's "Give Me Love". And she does it brilliantly. How much of it is true and how much is artistic license, one doesn't know for sure but who cares. This is great theatre. She tells of her childhood growing up half-Mennonite (the lower half) with some of her fondest memories watching Judy Garland movies with her full-Mennonite cousin Jerome who was later shunned by this branch of the Christian church historically known as a peace church given their commitment to nonviolence and pacifism. Then to her 27 year Rumspringer (the time in which Mennonite young adults are permitted to "experience the real world" before deciding to join the church) in Manhattan where she discovers what it really means to live.
I didn't realize until I was riding home on the train and reading the playbill that the play was directed by Michael Mayer who directed another favorite of mine, Spring Awakening. Ironically throughout the show there were things that reminded me of Spring Awakening. The simplicity of the sets for one and the efficiently beautiful orchestrations presented with only a guitar, a bass, a violin and drums.
There's only one problem for Sherie Renee Scott, if Everyday Rapture does make the jump to Broadway she'll have to commit to it for the long run because no one could play her like her. And Eamon Foley as the youtube boy on the internet would be hard to replace as well. The faces alone that he made were so funny I had to look away so I wouldn't embarrass myself laughing hysterically. We saw him in 13, The Musical and he was a standout in that show too. We had met him and I had taken a picture of him with Jade which we brought with us to have him sign which he did graciously. He's absolutely adorable and I'm sure has a bright future ahead of him. There's a new picture of Jade with him sporting a new haircut. Check it out on page 14 of The Matinee gallery at http://www.matineeshow.co.uk/.
I didn't realize until I was riding home on the train and reading the playbill that the play was directed by Michael Mayer who directed another favorite of mine, Spring Awakening. Ironically throughout the show there were things that reminded me of Spring Awakening. The simplicity of the sets for one and the efficiently beautiful orchestrations presented with only a guitar, a bass, a violin and drums.
There's only one problem for Sherie Renee Scott, if Everyday Rapture does make the jump to Broadway she'll have to commit to it for the long run because no one could play her like her. And Eamon Foley as the youtube boy on the internet would be hard to replace as well. The faces alone that he made were so funny I had to look away so I wouldn't embarrass myself laughing hysterically. We saw him in 13, The Musical and he was a standout in that show too. We had met him and I had taken a picture of him with Jade which we brought with us to have him sign which he did graciously. He's absolutely adorable and I'm sure has a bright future ahead of him. There's a new picture of Jade with him sporting a new haircut. Check it out on page 14 of The Matinee gallery at http://www.matineeshow.co.uk/.
Monday 2 March 2009
40 Years and still going strong
After a long wait, I finally got to see my premier musical theatre idol after Tommy Steele last night at the Lowry, on what is cited to be her last UK tour. Britain’s first lady of the stage: Miss Elaine Paige. -Who has shared her initials with 2 fantastic ladies, whom she was going to portray tonight. Anyone tell me their names for some Brownie points?
The show opened to an orchestral medley of her most famous songs ‘Memory’ ‘Don’t Cry For Me Argentina’ and ‘With One Look’ before the petite Miss Paige ran onto the stage to sing her opening number full of energy ‘Life Goes On.’ The money note at the end she hit effortlessly, as she did with every number in the show. A bland opening costume –black velvet ‘skinny’ pants, a purple ‘quilt’ type jacket and a new hair do to suit!
This sliced nicely into ‘Tomorrow’ from Annie, and Paige’s version of it was practically the same as on her 1980’s ‘Stages’ album. After this, she introduced herself to the audience and said that she was ‘celebrating 40 years on the West-End stage, and this was the first time she has played the Lowry’s stage.’
She then went into quite a boring version of ‘Easy to be Hard’ from Hair, which she told us was the first song she sang on the West-End stage. This went nicely into ‘Broadway Baby’ from Follies, which was interspersed with anecdotes and stories from her life on the stage, backed up by a nice lighting trick which projected a Broadway-themed effect on the walls of the theatre. A very funny tale was of her starring in a show about premature ejaculation. “It was all over in the first scene!”
Next was a song especially written for this show by the 2 new lyricists of the Mary Poppins’ additional material, called ‘Small Packages,’ –which was Paige detailing how she has lost many roles on stage due to her height. The riot of a song detailing her wishes to be higher ended with Paige stood on top of a step ladder belting out the last notes. I think it a travesty that this song is not on her new live album, which will be detailed later in the review, and I sincerely hope it will be released elsewhere. She then danced with these step ladders for a little bit of the tune to ‘Shall We Dance’ from the King and I, before singing 'Hello Young Lovers' -again, not on the album.
After ‘I Don’t Know How To Love Him’ –again, reminiscent of her ‘Stages’ album, we had a nice little story about meeting Dustin Hoffman and how he influenced her to continue a career in the theatre, which went into his and Bette Midler’s ‘Shoot the Breeze’ –which IS included on the album. Next we had Lennon & McCartney’s ‘Yesterday,’ which was Paige’s audition song for Evita.
She explained to us that she was offered a role in Les Miserables, but couldn’t take it due to Chess. Tonight was her chance, and she sang a fantastically powerful version of ‘I Dreamed A Dream,’ before walking offstage. A Spanish Guitar medley of Evita tracks followed, before Paige came back on with a full-length red sequinned robe for a powerful version of ‘Don’t Cry For Me Argentina.’ Whoever says that her voice has ‘deepened’ or her songs have to be re-pitched are wrong. There was nothing different than this rendition than in the Original London Cast recording of Evita. Even her terrible diction of the line ‘I never invited them in’ was the same. A 5 minute ovation closed the first act.
‘As If We Never Said Goodbye’ from Sunset opened the second act, dressed and performed as the one and only Norma Desmond –wearing her original cloak from Broadway, turban and sunglasses and a long sparkly black dress. It was fantastic to see how she actually performed that certain song, with the hand actions of disillusioned woman. Fantastic. She removed her garb after this behind the Piano, did her hair and donned an apron to sing ‘By the Sea’ from Sweeney Todd –a song she’s never sung in concert before, or recorded up until this album.
‘I Get A Kick Out Of You’ followed, with a memory about meeting the Queen Mother and getting cramp during a courtesy at a performance of ‘Anything Goes.’ After this, she left the stage again to a scorching orchestral working of the Overture from Chess, incorporating ‘One Night In Bangkok.’ –It’s a shame that isn’t on the Live CD too, as it was truly fantastic. Paige returned to the stage in a shorter black velvety dress and sang ‘Someone Else’s Story’ from Chess –available on her album ‘Essential Musicals.’ This led, of course, into ‘I Know Him So Well’ without too much of a mention of Barbara Dickson, sat on a chair by the piano, singing solo –as unlike on the new Live CD.
Following this, she went to the back of the piano and changed her shoes to flats, put on a brown wig and red lipstick and hobbled to the front of the stage. Edith Piaf. She once again took on the character, and shouted at the orchestra leader, Chris Egan, a la Piaf, and sang my favourite from her Piaf album, the quirky ‘La Goulante Du Pauvre Jean,’ into ‘Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien’ and finally a massive applause followed the passionate ‘Hymne a l’Amour’ which she immersed herself in.
She sang ‘Cry Me A River’ –not the version you’re all thinking of, but one from her earlier albums, and left the stage. A standing ovation followed, before she returned to the stage in a long black velvet coat with diamante cuffs and down the front –glittering, to a fantastic version of her immortal ‘Memory,’ before leaving the stage, only to return to another ovation to close the show with a powerful ‘With One Look.’
Easily, Paige is the best ‘star’ I’ve seen on stage –her charisma for a 61 year old is fantastic. Her ‘Does my bum look big in this?’ comment drew wolf-whistles from the audience, and her continuous jokes kept the crowd please, breaking up nicely anecdotes and music. For a height of under 5 feet tall, her stage presence is much bigger.
Chris Egan provided arrangements and Piano playing for the fantastic band that accompanied Ms Paige, and the lighting was absolutely fantastic –often corresponding to the colour of dress she was wearing, and a net of fairy light-types hung on the back curtain, often changed colour in synch with the spots. In the interval, when queuing for my ice-cream, a ‘roadie’ went to the lighting desk and I heard quite loudly ‘Ms Paige is very pleased with the lighting.’ No wonder! It was great!
As said about this new ‘Live CD.’ A fantastic release of some new recordings, and a wonderful recording of the concert. The problem is that I feel it could have been made a double CD, and incorporated all the songs and chats, as opposed to cutting 5 of them out –one of them, the quirkiest in the show. It is also dubbed ‘her first live CD’ and she mentions this frequently in the programme and stated that it “now feels right to release a live recording.” The fact is, she released a live recording of her 1991 tour….Sorry EP, you’re wrong there m’love!
Now all I have to do is to wait and see whether the proposed Live DVD for release on the 9th of March comes into fruition or not, and if it does, has these missing tracks on!
Seb Lassandro
The show opened to an orchestral medley of her most famous songs ‘Memory’ ‘Don’t Cry For Me Argentina’ and ‘With One Look’ before the petite Miss Paige ran onto the stage to sing her opening number full of energy ‘Life Goes On.’ The money note at the end she hit effortlessly, as she did with every number in the show. A bland opening costume –black velvet ‘skinny’ pants, a purple ‘quilt’ type jacket and a new hair do to suit!
This sliced nicely into ‘Tomorrow’ from Annie, and Paige’s version of it was practically the same as on her 1980’s ‘Stages’ album. After this, she introduced herself to the audience and said that she was ‘celebrating 40 years on the West-End stage, and this was the first time she has played the Lowry’s stage.’
She then went into quite a boring version of ‘Easy to be Hard’ from Hair, which she told us was the first song she sang on the West-End stage. This went nicely into ‘Broadway Baby’ from Follies, which was interspersed with anecdotes and stories from her life on the stage, backed up by a nice lighting trick which projected a Broadway-themed effect on the walls of the theatre. A very funny tale was of her starring in a show about premature ejaculation. “It was all over in the first scene!”
Next was a song especially written for this show by the 2 new lyricists of the Mary Poppins’ additional material, called ‘Small Packages,’ –which was Paige detailing how she has lost many roles on stage due to her height. The riot of a song detailing her wishes to be higher ended with Paige stood on top of a step ladder belting out the last notes. I think it a travesty that this song is not on her new live album, which will be detailed later in the review, and I sincerely hope it will be released elsewhere. She then danced with these step ladders for a little bit of the tune to ‘Shall We Dance’ from the King and I, before singing 'Hello Young Lovers' -again, not on the album.
After ‘I Don’t Know How To Love Him’ –again, reminiscent of her ‘Stages’ album, we had a nice little story about meeting Dustin Hoffman and how he influenced her to continue a career in the theatre, which went into his and Bette Midler’s ‘Shoot the Breeze’ –which IS included on the album. Next we had Lennon & McCartney’s ‘Yesterday,’ which was Paige’s audition song for Evita.
She explained to us that she was offered a role in Les Miserables, but couldn’t take it due to Chess. Tonight was her chance, and she sang a fantastically powerful version of ‘I Dreamed A Dream,’ before walking offstage. A Spanish Guitar medley of Evita tracks followed, before Paige came back on with a full-length red sequinned robe for a powerful version of ‘Don’t Cry For Me Argentina.’ Whoever says that her voice has ‘deepened’ or her songs have to be re-pitched are wrong. There was nothing different than this rendition than in the Original London Cast recording of Evita. Even her terrible diction of the line ‘I never invited them in’ was the same. A 5 minute ovation closed the first act.
‘As If We Never Said Goodbye’ from Sunset opened the second act, dressed and performed as the one and only Norma Desmond –wearing her original cloak from Broadway, turban and sunglasses and a long sparkly black dress. It was fantastic to see how she actually performed that certain song, with the hand actions of disillusioned woman. Fantastic. She removed her garb after this behind the Piano, did her hair and donned an apron to sing ‘By the Sea’ from Sweeney Todd –a song she’s never sung in concert before, or recorded up until this album.
‘I Get A Kick Out Of You’ followed, with a memory about meeting the Queen Mother and getting cramp during a courtesy at a performance of ‘Anything Goes.’ After this, she left the stage again to a scorching orchestral working of the Overture from Chess, incorporating ‘One Night In Bangkok.’ –It’s a shame that isn’t on the Live CD too, as it was truly fantastic. Paige returned to the stage in a shorter black velvety dress and sang ‘Someone Else’s Story’ from Chess –available on her album ‘Essential Musicals.’ This led, of course, into ‘I Know Him So Well’ without too much of a mention of Barbara Dickson, sat on a chair by the piano, singing solo –as unlike on the new Live CD.
Following this, she went to the back of the piano and changed her shoes to flats, put on a brown wig and red lipstick and hobbled to the front of the stage. Edith Piaf. She once again took on the character, and shouted at the orchestra leader, Chris Egan, a la Piaf, and sang my favourite from her Piaf album, the quirky ‘La Goulante Du Pauvre Jean,’ into ‘Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien’ and finally a massive applause followed the passionate ‘Hymne a l’Amour’ which she immersed herself in.
She sang ‘Cry Me A River’ –not the version you’re all thinking of, but one from her earlier albums, and left the stage. A standing ovation followed, before she returned to the stage in a long black velvet coat with diamante cuffs and down the front –glittering, to a fantastic version of her immortal ‘Memory,’ before leaving the stage, only to return to another ovation to close the show with a powerful ‘With One Look.’
Easily, Paige is the best ‘star’ I’ve seen on stage –her charisma for a 61 year old is fantastic. Her ‘Does my bum look big in this?’ comment drew wolf-whistles from the audience, and her continuous jokes kept the crowd please, breaking up nicely anecdotes and music. For a height of under 5 feet tall, her stage presence is much bigger.
Chris Egan provided arrangements and Piano playing for the fantastic band that accompanied Ms Paige, and the lighting was absolutely fantastic –often corresponding to the colour of dress she was wearing, and a net of fairy light-types hung on the back curtain, often changed colour in synch with the spots. In the interval, when queuing for my ice-cream, a ‘roadie’ went to the lighting desk and I heard quite loudly ‘Ms Paige is very pleased with the lighting.’ No wonder! It was great!
As said about this new ‘Live CD.’ A fantastic release of some new recordings, and a wonderful recording of the concert. The problem is that I feel it could have been made a double CD, and incorporated all the songs and chats, as opposed to cutting 5 of them out –one of them, the quirkiest in the show. It is also dubbed ‘her first live CD’ and she mentions this frequently in the programme and stated that it “now feels right to release a live recording.” The fact is, she released a live recording of her 1991 tour….Sorry EP, you’re wrong there m’love!
Now all I have to do is to wait and see whether the proposed Live DVD for release on the 9th of March comes into fruition or not, and if it does, has these missing tracks on!
Seb Lassandro
40 Years and still going strong
After a long wait, I finally got to see my premier musical theatre idol after Tommy Steele last night at the Lowry, on what is cited to be her last UK tour. Britain’s first lady of the stage: Miss Elaine Paige. -Who has shared her initials with 2 fantastic ladies, whom she was going to portray tonight. Anyone tell me their names for some Brownie points?
The show opened to an orchestral medley of her most famous songs ‘Memory’ ‘Don’t Cry For Me Argentina’ and ‘With One Look’ before the petite Miss Paige ran onto the stage to sing her opening number full of energy ‘Life Goes On.’ The money note at the end she hit effortlessly, as she did with every number in the show. A bland opening costume –black velvet ‘skinny’ pants, a purple ‘quilt’ type jacket and a new hair do to suit!
This sliced nicely into ‘Tomorrow’ from Annie, and Paige’s version of it was practically the same as on her 1980’s ‘Stages’ album. After this, she introduced herself to the audience and said that she was ‘celebrating 40 years on the West-End stage, and this was the first time she has played the Lowry’s stage.’
She then went into quite a boring version of ‘Easy to be Hard’ from Hair, which she told us was the first song she sang on the West-End stage. This went nicely into ‘Broadway Baby’ from Follies, which was interspersed with anecdotes and stories from her life on the stage, backed up by a nice lighting trick which projected a Broadway-themed effect on the walls of the theatre. A very funny tale was of her starring in a show about premature ejaculation. “It was all over in the first scene!”
Next was a song especially written for this show by the 2 new lyricists of the Mary Poppins’ additional material, called ‘Small Packages,’ –which was Paige detailing how she has lost many roles on stage due to her height. The riot of a song detailing her wishes to be higher ended with Paige stood on top of a step ladder belting out the last notes. I think it a travesty that this song is not on her new live album, which will be detailed later in the review, and I sincerely hope it will be released elsewhere. She then danced with these step ladders for a little bit of the tune to ‘Shall We Dance’ from the King and I.
After ‘I Don’t Know How To Love Him’ –again, reminiscent of her ‘Stages’ album, we had a nice little story about meeting Dustin Hoffman and how he influenced her to continue a career in the theatre, which went into his and Bette Midler’s ‘Shoot the Breeze’ –which IS included on the album. Next we had Lennon & McCartney’s ‘Yesterday,’ which was Paige’s audition song for Evita.
She explained to us that she was offered a role in Les Miserables, but couldn’t take it due to Chess. Tonight was her chance, and she sang a fantastically powerful version of ‘I Dreamed A Dream,’ before walking offstage. A Spanish Guitar medley of Evita tracks followed, before Paige came back on with a full-length red sequinned robe for a powerful version of ‘Don’t Cry For Me Argentina.’ Whoever says that her voice has ‘deepened’ or her songs have to be re-pitched are wrong. There was nothing different than this rendition than in the Original London Cast recording of Evita. Even her terrible diction of the line ‘I never invited them in’ was the same. A 5 minute ovation closed the first act.
‘As If We Never Said Goodbye’ from Sunset opened the second act, dressed and performed as the one and only Norma Desmond –wearing her original cloak from Broadway, turban and sunglasses and a long sparkly black dress. It was fantastic to see how she actually performed that certain song, with the hand actions of disillusioned woman. Fantastic. She removed her garb after this behind the Piano, did her hair and donned an apron to sing ‘By the Sea’ from Sweeney Todd –a song she’s never sung in concert before, or recorded up until this album.
‘I Get A Kick Out Of You’ followed, with a memory about meeting the Queen Mother and getting cramp during a courtesy at a performance of ‘Anything Goes.’ After this, she left the stage again to a scorching orchestral working of the Overture from Chess, incorporating ‘One Night In Bangkok.’ –It’s a shame that isn’t on the Live CD too, as it was truly fantastic. Paige returned to the stage in a shorter black velvety dress and sang ‘Someone Else’s Story’ from Chess –available on her album ‘Essential Musicals.’ This led, of course, into ‘I Know Him So Well’ without too much of a mention of Barbara Dickson, sat on a chair by the piano, singing solo –as unlike on the new Live CD.
Following this, she went to the back of the piano and changed her shoes to flats, put on a brown wig and red lipstick and hobbled to the front of the stage. Edith Piaf. She once again took on the character, and shouted at the orchestra leader, Chris Egan, a la Piaf, and sang my favourite from her Piaf album, the quirky ‘La Goulante Du Pauvre Jean,’ into ‘Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien’ and finally a massive applause followed the passionate ‘Hymne a l’Amour’ which she immersed herself in.
She sang ‘Cry Me A River’ –not the version you’re all thinking of, but one from her earlier albums, and left the stage. A standing ovation followed, before she returned to the stage in a long black velvet coat with diamante cuffs and down the front –glittering, to a fantastic version of her immortal ‘Memory,’ before leaving the stage, only to return to another ovation to close the show with a powerful ‘With One Look.’
Easily, Paige is the best ‘star’ I’ve seen on stage –her charisma for a 61 year old is fantastic. Her ‘Does my bum look big in this?’ comment drew wolf-whistles from the audience, and her continuous jokes kept the crowd please, breaking up nicely anecdotes and music. For a height of under 5 feet tall, her stage presence is much bigger.
Chris Egan provided arrangements and Piano playing for the fantastic band that accompanied Ms Paige, and the lighting was absolutely fantastic –often corresponding to the colour of dress she was wearing, and a net of fairy light-types hung on the back curtain, often changed colour in synch with the spots. In the interval, when queuing for my ice-cream, a ‘roadie’ went to the lighting desk and I heard quite loudly ‘Ms Paige is very pleased with the lighting.’ No wonder! It was great!
As said about this new ‘Live CD.’ A fantastic release of some new recordings, and a wonderful recording of the concert. The problem is that I feel it could have been made a double CD, and incorporated all the songs and chats, as opposed to cutting 5 of them out –one of them, the quirkiest in the show. It is also dubbed ‘her first live CD’ and she mentions this frequently in the programme and stated that it “now feels right to release a live recording.” The fact is, she released a live recording of her 1991 tour….Sorry EP, you’re wrong there m’love!
The show opened to an orchestral medley of her most famous songs ‘Memory’ ‘Don’t Cry For Me Argentina’ and ‘With One Look’ before the petite Miss Paige ran onto the stage to sing her opening number full of energy ‘Life Goes On.’ The money note at the end she hit effortlessly, as she did with every number in the show. A bland opening costume –black velvet ‘skinny’ pants, a purple ‘quilt’ type jacket and a new hair do to suit!
This sliced nicely into ‘Tomorrow’ from Annie, and Paige’s version of it was practically the same as on her 1980’s ‘Stages’ album. After this, she introduced herself to the audience and said that she was ‘celebrating 40 years on the West-End stage, and this was the first time she has played the Lowry’s stage.’
She then went into quite a boring version of ‘Easy to be Hard’ from Hair, which she told us was the first song she sang on the West-End stage. This went nicely into ‘Broadway Baby’ from Follies, which was interspersed with anecdotes and stories from her life on the stage, backed up by a nice lighting trick which projected a Broadway-themed effect on the walls of the theatre. A very funny tale was of her starring in a show about premature ejaculation. “It was all over in the first scene!”
Next was a song especially written for this show by the 2 new lyricists of the Mary Poppins’ additional material, called ‘Small Packages,’ –which was Paige detailing how she has lost many roles on stage due to her height. The riot of a song detailing her wishes to be higher ended with Paige stood on top of a step ladder belting out the last notes. I think it a travesty that this song is not on her new live album, which will be detailed later in the review, and I sincerely hope it will be released elsewhere. She then danced with these step ladders for a little bit of the tune to ‘Shall We Dance’ from the King and I.
After ‘I Don’t Know How To Love Him’ –again, reminiscent of her ‘Stages’ album, we had a nice little story about meeting Dustin Hoffman and how he influenced her to continue a career in the theatre, which went into his and Bette Midler’s ‘Shoot the Breeze’ –which IS included on the album. Next we had Lennon & McCartney’s ‘Yesterday,’ which was Paige’s audition song for Evita.
She explained to us that she was offered a role in Les Miserables, but couldn’t take it due to Chess. Tonight was her chance, and she sang a fantastically powerful version of ‘I Dreamed A Dream,’ before walking offstage. A Spanish Guitar medley of Evita tracks followed, before Paige came back on with a full-length red sequinned robe for a powerful version of ‘Don’t Cry For Me Argentina.’ Whoever says that her voice has ‘deepened’ or her songs have to be re-pitched are wrong. There was nothing different than this rendition than in the Original London Cast recording of Evita. Even her terrible diction of the line ‘I never invited them in’ was the same. A 5 minute ovation closed the first act.
‘As If We Never Said Goodbye’ from Sunset opened the second act, dressed and performed as the one and only Norma Desmond –wearing her original cloak from Broadway, turban and sunglasses and a long sparkly black dress. It was fantastic to see how she actually performed that certain song, with the hand actions of disillusioned woman. Fantastic. She removed her garb after this behind the Piano, did her hair and donned an apron to sing ‘By the Sea’ from Sweeney Todd –a song she’s never sung in concert before, or recorded up until this album.
‘I Get A Kick Out Of You’ followed, with a memory about meeting the Queen Mother and getting cramp during a courtesy at a performance of ‘Anything Goes.’ After this, she left the stage again to a scorching orchestral working of the Overture from Chess, incorporating ‘One Night In Bangkok.’ –It’s a shame that isn’t on the Live CD too, as it was truly fantastic. Paige returned to the stage in a shorter black velvety dress and sang ‘Someone Else’s Story’ from Chess –available on her album ‘Essential Musicals.’ This led, of course, into ‘I Know Him So Well’ without too much of a mention of Barbara Dickson, sat on a chair by the piano, singing solo –as unlike on the new Live CD.
Following this, she went to the back of the piano and changed her shoes to flats, put on a brown wig and red lipstick and hobbled to the front of the stage. Edith Piaf. She once again took on the character, and shouted at the orchestra leader, Chris Egan, a la Piaf, and sang my favourite from her Piaf album, the quirky ‘La Goulante Du Pauvre Jean,’ into ‘Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien’ and finally a massive applause followed the passionate ‘Hymne a l’Amour’ which she immersed herself in.
She sang ‘Cry Me A River’ –not the version you’re all thinking of, but one from her earlier albums, and left the stage. A standing ovation followed, before she returned to the stage in a long black velvet coat with diamante cuffs and down the front –glittering, to a fantastic version of her immortal ‘Memory,’ before leaving the stage, only to return to another ovation to close the show with a powerful ‘With One Look.’
Easily, Paige is the best ‘star’ I’ve seen on stage –her charisma for a 61 year old is fantastic. Her ‘Does my bum look big in this?’ comment drew wolf-whistles from the audience, and her continuous jokes kept the crowd please, breaking up nicely anecdotes and music. For a height of under 5 feet tall, her stage presence is much bigger.
Chris Egan provided arrangements and Piano playing for the fantastic band that accompanied Ms Paige, and the lighting was absolutely fantastic –often corresponding to the colour of dress she was wearing, and a net of fairy light-types hung on the back curtain, often changed colour in synch with the spots. In the interval, when queuing for my ice-cream, a ‘roadie’ went to the lighting desk and I heard quite loudly ‘Ms Paige is very pleased with the lighting.’ No wonder! It was great!
As said about this new ‘Live CD.’ A fantastic release of some new recordings, and a wonderful recording of the concert. The problem is that I feel it could have been made a double CD, and incorporated all the songs and chats, as opposed to cutting 5 of them out –one of them, the quirkiest in the show. It is also dubbed ‘her first live CD’ and she mentions this frequently in the programme and stated that it “now feels right to release a live recording.” The fact is, she released a live recording of her 1991 tour….Sorry EP, you’re wrong there m’love!
Monday 9 February 2009
South Pacific Captures the Essence of Rodgers and Hammerstein
Every year I get theatre tickets for the family for Jerry's birthday and somehow whatever show I get is fabulous. This year was no exception. I was able to get house seats for Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific which won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical as well as six others. South Pacific is housed in the Vivian Beaumont Theatre at Lincoln Center which is not actually in the theatre district near Times Square but is considered a Broadway-class theatre and shows that play here are eligible for the Tony Awards. The Beaumont differs from traditional Broadway theaters because it's designed as an amphitheatre with a thrust stage which is an open stage that extends into the audience on three sides and is connected to the backstage area by its upstage. The actors can enter from behind the stage, right or left stage or off each side of the front of the stage into passages that go below a tier of seats known as vomitory entrances. There's not a bad seat in the house. Did I mention we had house seats, sniff. Actually the seating area is not that large, only 1,080 seats which is considered only medium-sized for musicals, but the stage is huge. This is the first Broadway revival of South Pacific since it originally played on Broadway from March 1949 to January 1954 and they could not have picked a more perfect venue. This is the most lavish, beautifully staged production I've ever seen thanks in great part to the theatre itself. Because of the configuration of the stage and the fact that it is a raked stage, meaning the rear of the stage or upstage is at a higher elevation than the front of the stage or downstage. (This is turning into Musical Theatre 101.) Because of the raked stage they were able to create a beach in the background where the cast could run off over the dunes or set up umbrellas and sunbathe or come in off boats. You truly get the feeling you're on a beach. It's brilliant.
Anyway, the gorgeous overture begins and the front of the stage moves back to reveal the orchestra beneath the stage. Then the stage returns towards the audience and there we are in the beautiful open-air home of plantation owner Emile de Becque with two adorable children singing Dites-Moi. They're scooted off by a servant as Emile de Becque and army nurse Nellie Forbush enter. The perfection of the show was not diminished by the fact that Paul Szot who usually plays Emile de Becque (he won the Tony for Best Actor in a Musical Revival) was on leave fulfilling some previous operatic commitments. David Pittsinger's rich baritone voice is a joy to behold and he played the part with the necessary elegance, while Broadway favorite Kelli O'hara, plays the army nurse from Little Rock, Arkansas with the contrasting personality of a hick from a small town in the deep South of the US. Two people from different parts of the world and different walks of life who have recently met and are fast falling in love. By the end of the first scene we have already heard "Cockeyed Optimist", "Wonder How it Feels" (twin soliloquys), "Some Enchanted Evening" and a reprise of "Dites-Moi" by the children. So the tone is set, we're off to a good start. It's spectacular.
South Pacific, with book written by Oscar Hammerstein and Josh Logan (which is based on James Michener's "Tales of the South Pacific") tells the intertwining stories of two couples falling in love in the Pacific during WWII with underlying themes of racial and cultural tolerance. There's also the love story of young Lt. Cable and the Pacific Island beauty, Lyat.
South Pacific, with book written by Oscar Hammerstein and Josh Logan (which is based on James Michener's "Tales of the South Pacific") tells the intertwining stories of two couples falling in love in the Pacific during WWII with underlying themes of racial and cultural tolerance. There's also the love story of young Lt. Cable and the Pacific Island beauty, Lyat.
Ben Brantley, chief critic of the New York Times wrote "I know we’re not supposed to expect perfection in this imperfect world, but I'm darned if I can find one serious flaw in this production." And I felt the same way. This revival triumphs with director Bartlett Sher at the helm. The careful attention to detail made everything so perfect, the music, the casting, the acting, the ambiance, the authenticity of the sets and costumes all added up to a breath-taking theatre experience.
Critics said similar things about the original Broadway production. It is considered by many to be the greatest musical of all.
But, although both the original production and this revival are considered near perfection, the 1958 film adaptation fell short. It had many flaws and was considered to be very one-dimensional.
The original Broadway production of South Pacific was nominated for ten Tony Awards and won all of them, including Best Musical, Best Score and Best Libretto. It was the only musical production ever to win all four Tony Awards for acting. This production was nominated for eleven Tony's and took home 7 and it's worthy of every award it's been given.
But, although both the original production and this revival are considered near perfection, the 1958 film adaptation fell short. It had many flaws and was considered to be very one-dimensional.
The original Broadway production of South Pacific was nominated for ten Tony Awards and won all of them, including Best Musical, Best Score and Best Libretto. It was the only musical production ever to win all four Tony Awards for acting. This production was nominated for eleven Tony's and took home 7 and it's worthy of every award it's been given.
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