2020: Show Highlights

For the first 73 days of the year, theatres were operating at their absolute peak. Audiences were packed into auditoriums, watching world-class theatre. As we neared the 16th of March, we knew a shutdown was coming. 

Broadway had closed and the U.K knew that we would likely go dark. But no one could possibly have predicted that we'd end up with a year like we've had.

But before the shutdown, and now during it, there have been some shows that I wanted to highlight as having meant something personally to me.
There are some great productions that don't make the list which I loved - like Sally Cookson's beautiful production of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, Kings of Broadway at the Palace (just after the second lockdown) and Fourth Wall's stunning cabaret series at the Hippodrome - but some shows this year just hit home to me and I wanted to make a note.

None of these are in an order, it's just a list.

                       

A Christmas Carol @ Old Vic

I wasn't sure what I was expecting to get out of A Christmas Carol, but it was a whole lot more than I expected.

I had a Christmas day in January and saw this and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe in the same day. In the audience at both shows were large groups of school children. Normally this fills me with dread (bad behaviour, teenagers generally being disruptive) but I  couldn't have been more thrilled with them. 
Getting to watch a group of young people (a lot of whom I imagine didn't go to the theatre any other time of the year) experience the magic of a proper piece of theatre was really wonderful. 

It was also really wonderful to see the Old Vic revive the show again as part of their In Camera series in the last few weeks. It translated to screen wonderfully, with the brilliant Andrew Lincoln as probably the best Scrooge the Old Vic have produced yet.

I hope it continues to be a staple of Christmas at the OV for years to come.

Pantoland at the Palladium

So, my last London show of the year (due to a Tier increase) was this year's Palladium Panto.

Being honest, I went expecting to have a bit of a giggle and see a few friends for the last time this year. But I ended up having one of the most fun nights at the theatre I've had in years (probably ever.)

There wasn't an ounce of plot in this show, but I think that's pretty standard for a Palladium Panto. What there was, however, was every Panto gag and routine, huge musical numbers and dance routines, and FILTH, all in the space of two hours.

Julian Clary is a genius, and made life hysterically difficult for the rest of the cast. Beverley Knight kept coming on to sing her face off. Elaine Paige was CAMP and delivered two of her biggest hits. Gary Wilmot sang every tube stop to the tune of the can-can. Nigel Havers and Paul Zerdin were just comedy stars. Charlie Stemp and Jac Yarrow had virtually nothing to do, but made the most of the moments they did. Diversity were great.

But the thing I will remember most from that night is the audience reaction at the end. 
We all knew it was the last time we were going to be in a theatre for a while, and we were all very emotional as a result. I'm not sure I can remember an evening where an audience was so vocal with their appreciation at the end of a show before. The cast had to take eight bows, as we applauded and cheered for over six minutes. A thousand people made the noise of double that in the historic London Palladium.

To know it was the final night of theatre for a while (again) hit hard. But we will be back, brighter and shinier than ever before.

The Last Five Years @ Southwark Playhouse

The Last Five Years really is one of my favourite musicals. I'm a big fan of the reverse timeline plot and the way things are revealed within it. 

Saying that though, I've never seen a production that I was totally happy with. I've never bought the way of doing it where Jamie and Cathy aren't present in each others stories. Its a reason I think the film is the superior version of the show (with two fantastic performances). 

But it was the Southwark Playhouse production that returned in October after being cut short that finally gave me the complete production. The actor-muso element of the production works so well because it has Molly Lynch and Olly Higginson playing each other's songs. Having Jamie on stage whilst Cathy is singing Still Hurting, and having Cathy there playing the piano all through Nobody Needs To Know just adds something that I knew the piece needed but couldn't quantify. 

Southwark Playhouse did the most spectacular job of keeping everyone safe and comfortable, whilst still having a wonderful time in the theatre. I'm glad it got a brilliant return for a month, even if it once again bad to be cut short. 

Jesus Christ Superstar: The Concert @ Regent's Park Open Air Theatre

When I saw the Regents Park production of Jesus Christ Superstar in 2017, I found it distinctly 'meh'. I saw it in daylight, so no lighting or atmosphere, and I always think that did it a disservice. 

That said, it's a good score, and when you have superb voices singing it.

I bloody LOVED this concert staging.

I mean calling it a concert is ridiculous, because all of Drew McOnie's Olivier award-winning choreography is recreated to it's fullest potential. Open Air Theatre really did pull out all the stops, reassembling previous casts, restaging to suit the social distancing requirements, but at no point losing what the core of this production is.

Ricardo Afonso and Pepe Nufrio truly are two of the most talented vocalists I've seen in a long time. Roaring their way through Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's rock score, there are two midshow standing ovations every night (Superstar and Gethsemane) - they sure knew how to write a showstopper.
Backed by an ensemble of some of our greatest talents, it was such a treat, and a well-needed return to the theatre in the summer.

(Full thoughts on this available here )

Romantics Anonymous @ Bristol Old Vic

If I can thank 2020 for one thing, I thank it for this show.

When I walked into this show, I knew it was about chocolate. 
When I walked out of this show, I'd finally found a piece of theatre where I found myself staring back at me, warts and all.

Romantics Anonymous is truly the perfect chocolate box of a musical, with two central characters who are imperfect introverts. Angelique and Jean-Renee spend these two hours finding themselves, with the help of their fellow 'les emotif anonymes' and workers of the chocolate factory. 

It's a riot of a show. It's hilarious and heart breaking. There is a scene so funny that I honestly almost fell out of my chair, immediately followed by a scene that tugged at my heart so hard I found it hard to breathe. Top that off with a score that is every bit as varied, and you have a show that is, to me, perfect.

On top of that, I got to experience this show with dear, dear friends and got new friends because of it. Theatre is such a community and I think that is one of the things I miss the most at this time...

Wise Children, and Emma Rice specifically, have done great things in the face of the year we have endured. As part of their work from now on, all their shows will include streaming options, after 10,000 people across the world watched the streaming of Romantics. This can only be a positive, as theatre will become more accessible to those who cannot travel, or who cannot afford it.

(Full thoughts on what was undoubtedly my show of the year are available to read here)

Waitress @ Adelphi Theatre

Now, lord knows I was not particularly kind about this production when it opened in London. There were just so many bad decisions (or decisions that didn't make sense) but they truly managed to pull it back in 2020. 

I saw Waitress on Broadway in 2018 and was not thrilled by it (but I didn't think the cast were particularly strong...) so I resisted seeing it in London until Sara Bareilles popped by for a bit, and then I realised this show has a huge amount of heart.  You can see yourself in at least one of the characters (I mean, I can anyway) and the score truly has got some absolute bangers in it (I mean sitting in the same room whilst Sara sings She Used To Be Mine like her life depended on it is something I probably won't ever recover from.)

It's a shame it ended sooner than it did, as I feel like it had settled and was finally in it's stride. I hope the tour goes ahead and we get a great cast out on the road with this show.

Ocean At The End Of The Lane @ Dorfman, National Theatre

I had to rearrange my tickets for this 3 times and almost missed the damn thing. 

But thankfully I caught the last matinee of this absolute TREAT. 

I couldn't work out how they were going to put this novel on stage, because it crosses worlds, with huge battle scenes and extensive magic. But they really made a great job of using a small stage, old tricks and some clever staging to truly make you feel as if you'd been transported to another time and place. I  didn't think it was going to be my cup of tea, but I really enjoyed it!

I am not a fan of the Dorfman at the National cause the sightlines are a nightmare unless you're in the expensive seats. But for this show, it worked a treat because I had the most interesting view. I could see the show, but I was at such an angle I could also see the audience, and thus the kids in the audience. Watching children at (for some of them) their first proper piece of theatre was so great. I knew how some of the tricks worked, and how the magic worked, but seeing the wonder on their faces trying to work out how a woman kept appearing from different doors was so heartwarming. 

Very pleased this will transfer to the West End in 2021 - I will absolutely be returning to see it again! 

Turn Up London

It would be wrong in this year of streaming to not include at least one piece of streaming. And the one to pick was obvious.

In response and support to the Black Lives Matter movement, creatives Ryan Carter and Nicole Raquel Dennis (with the backing of Fourth Wall Live) produced Turn Up London: an artist fundraising event in reply to the outcry that happened across the summer after the death of George Floyd. The idea of black people, built by an incredible array of black artists.

Set against the backdrop of the beautiful Cadogan Hall (which I miss TERRIBLY), we were given over two hours of astonishing performances (both virtual and live from the stage.) There are too many to list them all, and the concert was about us as a  collective, but a few highlights that I can still clearly remember are: 

• Obiama Ugoala's blistering rendition of Make Them Hear You from Ragtime
• The astonishing duet of For Good from Wicked's first black Elphaba and standby Glinda (Alexia Khadime and Brittney Johnson)
• A four Motormouth version of I Know Where I've Been
• Claudia Kariuki and Danielle Steers show-stopping version of No More Tears

It was one of those things during the first lockdown, when we couldn't get into an audience anywhere. But we felt like we still had theatre, evenif we had to watch it on a screen.

Bring on Turn Up London 2021!

City of Angels @ Garrick Theatre

No matter how hard it tries, City Of Angels never seems to run for as long as it should do. The original production ran on Broadway for just over two years, for four months in the West End, and the first incarnation of this revival ran for only two months.
The West End revival got less than two weeks of shows before it was forced to close due to the pandemic.

In just two weeks of shows, the cast were well on their way to having this tricky material cracked. I saw second preview so there were a few things to tighten up but the thing that really shone with this show was it's cast. Some of our absolute best performers were in this show: Hadley Fraser, Rebecca Trehearn, Rosalie Craig and Rob Houchen, alongside newbies to the West End Vanessa Williams and Theo James. It truly was a delight of a cast.

There's rumours that once we can get audiences in theatres again, we are going to get this cast together again for a concert of the show for a week or so, which would be utterly fabulous. It's a brilliantly funny show, that really packs a punch with a cast this talented.

A Little Night Music: In Concert @ Holland Park Opera

For five years, I have been asking for a repeat of the 2015 concert production of A Little Night Music that Alex Parker conducted, with Janie Dee and Joanna Riding. I honestly didn't think we'd ever get them together to do it again.

What I really didn't expect was for the first live piece of theatre after lockdown to be... this!
(Full thoughts on this wonderful day are here)

I love A Little Night Music. I love it's premise, its music, it's simplicity and it's poignancy. But what I love most about the show is when a spectacular cast bring it  to life. 

Janie Dee and Jo Riding are two of my absolute favourites and they show it in spades why they are so good. Their comedic timing, their ability to pull on your heartstrings, their wonderful voices; all just so great. Accompanied a cast that was outrageously good (getting to see a heavily pregnant Laura Pitt-Pulford blast out The Miller's Son once again was a real treat) and a orchestra battling to stay afloat, it was magic. 

Truly a night I will never forget. As we sat in the grounds of Holland Park Opera, 200 people were at the chateau awaiting the arrival at the Armfeldts for a weekend in the country. Being there with friends, seeing people I admire perform this material, and sitting through a biblical rainstorm to get to the end of it. I truly will never forget the evening for as long as I keep going to the theatre (which I hope will be many years to come.)

*

I see a lot of theatre in a normal year (somewhere around 90-100) and even in the most abnormal year, I still managed to see 56 pieces of theatre. As a result of that, it's impossible to remember all the shows that I see in great detail. But this year will be different. In this year I think I will remember almost every single show I saw, and how it made me feel in the worst of times. 

I think I can confidently say that this year has reaffirmed just how special time in a theatre is. The times we have spent together, as a group, since the pandemic began, have been some of the absolute best of my life. 

Theatre, above anything else, is about a moment. A single moment that you cannot recreate exactly. There are moments this year, performances I have seen and audiences that I've been in that I'd give so much to see again. But we have the future. We are going to be back as we were before. It might take us some time to get there, but the theatre community's unbreakable spirit has proven this year that we will rebuild. We will come back home. And I will be there, with bells on, in the front row, cheering on all the wonderful people who will make it happen. 

Its been a hard year for everyone, but a hard year when your life (work and leisure) completely shut down in March and is getting knockback after knockback on the road to recovery. 

I've never been as proud to work in the arts as I am at the moment. My work colleagues this year have become some of my closest friends. My closest friends have become my family. We have ridden the storm and managed to battle through. We've been some of the lucky ones and I'll never take that for granted. 

Be kind to yourself these next few months. We can see the way out. The vaccine is here and being rolled out. We just have to hold our nerve for a little while longer (and I know that is easier said than done.). 

All my love to your fabulous creatures - I'll see you at the first show of Come From Away with all my best friends. We'll be the ones having another breakdown when the cast walk on stage.

 

Back at the start of a moment❤️

2020: Performance Highlights

Well ladies and gentleman, I think we can all agree that 2020 has been one giant clusterfuck.

I began writing this post earlier this week, as my usual top ten performances of the year. But I’ve had a change of heart as to how I should go about it this year.

Essentially, this last week has been fucking mental and everything changed again. Once again we are back to having to live one day at a time, as this country goes up the spout. My change of heart is thanks to a friend who also reluctantly did a roundup of the year actually, but I guess the sentiment is for everyone.

Basically, it feels wrong to put shows in an order. It’s been a devastating year for the Arts, and it just feels wrong to rank from 10 to 1 like normal. Everyone who managed to make theatre happen in this godforsaken year was, frankly heroic, and they deserve to be recognised as such. It just isn’t fair to pit people against each other right now.

So, I’m going to group together people in the same show in no particular order. You’ll still get the same thoughts from me that you’d normally get, just in a slightly different way

Gavin Creel and Sara Bareilles  in Waitress

It was no secret that I had issues with the London transfer of Waitress - literally none of their casting/marketing decisions made sense, or had any real logic behind them.

But then, at the end of January, two Broadway stars arrived in the West End, and everything changed.

Getting to see Sara Bareilles play the part that she wrote the voice for was hugely moving. Whether or not she is the greatest actress in the world is sort of beside the point, because she pours every piece of herself into the score that she wrote and makes it come alive in a way no one else possibly could. Whether it's in the scenes where she's funny or feisty, or in one of her soaring ballads when she is singing for her LIFE, there isn't a moment that doesn't have a purpose.
Joined on stage by one of her best friends (the utterly delightful Gavin Creel), the audience is treated to one of strongest connections between two people that I've seen for a long time. The material between the two goes beyond a clique, and they show that in spades.

Hadley Fraser and Rebecca Trehearn in City of Angels

When I say City Of Angels assembled the best cast we've probably ever seen in the West End, I don't know that I am exaggerating. It's sort of criminal that they never made it to their opening night, and only got a couple of weeks of previews. But the two people I always think of when I think of the show are Hadley Fraser and Rebecca Trehearn.

Hadley Fraser holds together every show he's a part of, and none more so here as the leading writer, Stine. Ever present, even if not directly involved in the scene, he is shaping the narrative, holding  the focus, and singing up an absolute storm. 
As usual, Rebecca Trehearn walks away with the show with one number. You Can Always Count On Me is the show highlight and Rebecca gets to show just how funny she is. 

I can only hope that more people will get to see this group of people deliver this material in the future. City of Angels is never with us for long enough, and this production is too brilliant to not get the full run it deserves.

Jodie Jacobs in cabaret at the Hippodrome

When we came out of the November lockdown, my first thing back was Jodie Jacobs' cabaret at the Hippodrome. It was literally the stagiest night you've ever seen - I sat down with my pal (socially distanced before you all bark) and realised I knew the people infront, behind and across from me. All the stagey gang were in for a brilliant night.

The fact that Jodie Jacobs isn't one of our biggest musical stars and that she doesn't just have the pick of the West End is CRIMINAL. Her voice is outrageous, her comic timing is second to none, and she can emotionally sucker-punch you when you're least expecting it. 

She's just an absolute star and I frigging love her. 
WRITE SHOWS FOR JODIE JACOBS AND GIVE HER ALL THE ROLES.

Janie Dee in A Little Night Music

If I hadn't put this in, the person I sat next to at this show would have personally hunted me down and murdered me (with good reason let's be real.)

Janie Dee is one of my favourite performers and she basically single-handedly pulled me from a deep depression (cause by this this godforsaken year.)

The first thing to happen post-lockdown was a concert production of A Little Night Music at Holland Park Opera, produced by Dee and Alex Parker. It was another chance to see lots of the 2015 cast (I'll talk about this all in my other post) but I really have to just briefly mention Janie.

We sat in the torrential rain for nearly two hours, and watch Janie Dee deliver a masterclass. Stepping out from under the canopy into the rain to deliver Send in the Clowns took on such a different reading. We laughed until we cried, as did most of the cast. We almost caught hypothermia but man it was worth it.

Andrew Scott in Three Kings

I didn't watch an awful lot of streaming theatre, because frankly it hurt too much to not be able to be in a theatre watching these shows.

But you make an exception when Andrew Scott decides to do a play.

One man shows are difficult, especially when it's streamed. Trying to hold an audiences attention for nearly 90 minutes is hard. But then you have Andrew Scott, who could honestly read his way through the phone book and we'd probably all still give it a standing ovation.

He's just...incredible. He's funny, he's dramatic, he's moving and he's honest. That's the thing with Andrew, it's his honesty. It makes him one of our finest actors.

Ricardo Afonso in Jesus Christ Superstar: The Concert

Seriously though gang, Ricardo Afonso is one of the absolute best male vocalists working in musical theatre. When we reopen I have a list of shows for him to lead.

Getting to see him rip his way through the score of Jesus Christ Superstar was really bloody special. It was one of my first shows back post-lockdown, and the first time I'd had some singers belt in my face for a while. And it reminded me how much I've come to rely on it. 

Ricardo bookends the show with Heaven On Their Minds and Superstar, and just gets more and more vocally outrageous as it goes along. On top of that, his performance becomes more moving, more desperate and more intense. I saw him in We Will Rock You about 12/13 years ago and he was UTTERLY BRILLIANT. It's just thrilling to watch - I'm really glad that I caught it.

 Carly Bawden and Marc Antolin in Romantics Anonymous

God, where on earth do you even start with these two?

I've talked a lot about why this show means a lot to me (see here: What If We Tried Something New? - Thoughts on Romantics Anonymous (hardtoseethelightnow.blogspot.com) ) but it essentially was the first time I saw myself staring back at me from the stage. In both Carly Bawden and Marc Antolin's performances I saw an introverted person who's questioning their right to love.

Watching Marc Antolin sing 'If She Loved Me' was like being unable to breathe. The journey in the space of two minutes that he takes you on is so moving, I get chills just thinking about it. Add to the mix the slow burner performance of Carly Bawden who begins to flourish as the show goes on and you have two leading performances that you'll never forget.

I saw this show live 3 times in January (twice in a day...!)  and then live again in September when Wise Children bought it back for one night to the Bristol Old Vic. It was a strange bookend to the first lockdown, and getting to experience it with lots of friends was just so wonderful.

The complexities of the performances these two give will stay with me for a long time, and I hope we are allowed to have it back in London again soon...

2020 wasn't what anyone expected, but the one thing it did do was cement to everyone just how important the Arts are.
No matter what the Government say, or don't say, or don't do, we have to keep the faith. Performances like these are going to be part of the healing of the country in 2021 and beyond. The Arts will be there to help the country, and the world, make sense of what we have been through, and be able to put ourselves back together again...

I Know That We're Gonna Dance Again

I've written about all the negatives over the past few months, so it seems only fair that I write something about one of the positives that has FINALLY happened.

On Monday morning, 1385 organisations received the much needed news that they had been successful in receiving a grant as part of the Culture Recovery Fund. For those that don't know, this is from the Government's 1.57 billion 'rescue package', that arts organisations applied for back in August. 
One of the organisations who received a much needed grant was my place of work, and my home: The Theatre, Chipping Norton.

It's a really strange thing when your place of work is so much more than that, and it actually is your home. If you didn't know, I essentially grew up in that theatre, and it has literally been my home from home for the last 18 years (and my full time employer for 6 and a half years).

The pandemic has stopped the arts in their tracks, and threatened the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands (with tens of thousands having already been made redundant or forced to take employment elsewhere.) This funding has secured our staffs employment through the winter and into early next year, when we plan to reopen fully in the Spring of 2021. I think in reality that's optimistic (largely due to the government's shambolic response to the situation)  but we're planning and adapting to our ever changing surroundings. It's what we artists do: we look at what is around us and react.

Inevitably, not everyone was as lucky as we were. Two thirds of applications were successful, but that means that around 700 applications weren't. Which is really rough. There are organisations that are going to really struggle in the coming months, and some of them won't survive. And that's really hard. 

There was a way of getting all our venues through this if the crisis had been acted on sooner, and the Government had invested in us the way that we really deserve, but hey, we are where we are. If you have any money that you could donate to one of these venues, who will be frantically working out how they are going to keep going, you'll never know how much they appreciate your generosity. 

Herbert Kretzmer (the lyricist of Les Miserables) died this week. It's a real loss to the theatre community, but he truly left us with some of the most hopeful words in the musical theatre canon. If you're looking for a lyric about hope, there isn't one better than this:

"Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise"

I'll Shout And Start A Riot, Be Anything But Quiet

I'll be honest before I start: I have no idea where this is going, because where do you even start with the last few weeks, eh?

The world began to make a little sense again towards the end of July, and for most of August. Almost every industry was able to operate in some way. Theatre was able to happen outdoors, hospitality was able to operate and the economy began to move, with the infection rate staying lower.
We knew that it was unlikely that we were going to be able to operate like this for a long time, because the winter was going bring with it a second wave. We had been told this virtually from the beginning. But it didn't make it any easier when the false sense of security you've been lulled into started to get taken away again. With the introduction of the 'rule of six' and ever increasing local lockdowns, things are starting to become that much harder again. Add to that the cold, wet and short days, and I think we are in for a challenging time.

By the time that some of you read this, the decision will be out from the Arts Council as to who gets what from the emergency funding that the Government put together (basically the section of the 1.5 billion that has been given to ACE to distribute).  They have today  (Friday) announced a delay to this, due to an unexpected Parliment debate on the Arts, so we are in limbo for a bit longer.

My job's future literally relies on the outcome, and that's a lot to take in still. I don't think I've got to grips with the fact that this job I love may not be mine in a very short space of time. I know that it hasn't been mine for over 6 months now, but there was always the 'being able to come back to it' thing that kept me going.
Having spent the past couple of weeks in full-time (helping another department) and how having a few days a week for the next few weeks, it all felt a little 'normal'.  Who knows what's to come. 

But a lot has happened in the last few weeks that I want to address and put my thoughts against.

The Business Secretary has managed to get himself on my list of  "members of the Conservative Party who are absolute morons."

In a statement in Parliament, he discuss the way in which the Government will be supporting people from sectors that cannot currently work into new and different jobs, but more crucially, "better jobs."
Now, lets clear one thing up: I don't need you to help me get a better job. What I, and the hundreds of thousands of people like me, need is meaningful, substantial and  properly structured support to help us keep the jobs that we already have. It's just ridiculous that after seven months, they still haven't got their head around this. We are such a viable industry, we just need support now in this time before we can get going again. It's an investment. 

Our  theatre  industry is the second most popular reason people visit  this country, behind 'Heritage'. To question our viability at a time like this it absolute madness. The Government will be relying on us to help boost our economical recovery. We generate £6 for every £1 of invested funding. It is exhausting to still be saying this, at this stage into the pandemic. And yes, we fully appreciate that there is a pandemic going on. But we have ways that we can operate. You just have to help us with insurance and investment until we are back to full houses. We make six times more than we take from the Government. 

(That'll do on that, but do some reading on the stuff that's been said by Rishi Sunak too...)

It's been... tiresome watching the two most well-known members of the musical theatre industry fight it out over the last six months, and I've got my problems with both the approaches they've taken.

First the positive spin: Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Look, I would honestly rather ANYONE was trying to save theatre as much as Andrew is at the moment. It does his ego no good, the fact that he is the 'voice of the West End.' But the fact is he is the man with  the money and the loudest voice, and thus here we are. 

He's also the man who is actively doing the most. Take the pilot event that he pulled together at the Palladium with Beverley Knight performing. With the amount of equipment, technology and just sheer man power he put in to getting that to happen, it deserves all the credit. The first person to prove it can be done in some way. He continues to work with our useless Culture Secretary, providing evidence for Parliament and offering expertise where he can. He is less than perfect but at least he is trying. 

On the other hand, we have Cameron Mackintosh, who unfortunately has done nothing but show us just who he actually is. And that isn't a compliment. 

Cameron has decided that he won't be reopening any of his shows until there is a vaccine. Okay, I guess that's an acceptable viewpoint. But, we already know that even when a vaccine is ready, we won't all able to have it for at least 2 years. There's 65+million people in this country alone. But more than that, is he really going to do NOTHING with his shows until then? It just seems... odd. 

It's also been hilarious watching Andrew and Cameron indirectly jab at each other over the horrendously messy closure of Phantom in the West End during lockdown. The brief version is the cast were released from their contracts, because Her Majesty's Theatre (where it plays in London) is practically falling down and the show is still running on fixtures from 1986. Cameron released a statement saying the production was closed, Andrew came back with it wasn't and they would be bringing it back, then Cameron said it's done, then Andrew said it isn't and back and forth it went. Like two bickering schoolgirls, now ain't the time gals. 

However, my main problem with this man, is the fact that he made 850 members of staff redundant the second he was going to have to start contributing any money to the furlough scheme. He wouldn't even contribute the National Insurance and tax, which was the first month's contribution. And my main reason for being so angry? Cameron's net worth is the same amount (approx) as the entire Culture Recovery Fund. Let that fucking sink in for a minute. I'm sorry if people don't agree with being angry at that, but I am. That shit stinks. 

I think a lot of us (myself included) had decided to not pay to much attention to him and let the stories you hear be white noise because he produces a lot of fantastic shows. But I've kind of reached the point with Cameron where I have to seriously question my moral compass as to whether I can buy tickets to his shows anymore. The only place I can make my point noted is in not giving him my money. I have done the same thing with the Young Vic following Kwame and Idris being bellends over Tree and I have to truly think long and hard about whether I can see Hamilton, Mary Poppins or Les Miserables again...

On a more positive note, I'm becoming more and more impressed by Sonia Freidman as this fiasco continues to unfold. She has so far written two spectacular articles for the Telegraph, which I'd highly recommend reading - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/what-to-see/theatre-stands-brink-ruin/ and https://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/what-to-see/government-has-brazenly-announced-willingness-discard-mental/ . It's great to see someone articulate this all in a succinct and powerful way.

It's been really interesting, and incredibly telling to see what side of the court the big names would fall on throughout the pandemic. We've already talked about where Andrew and Cameron sit, and neither of their stances are hugely surprising. Nica Burns is reopening some of her shows, socially distanced, rather than making her employees redundant. It's an interesting stance to take, in the fact that she is going to working at a loss.
Sonia is working on the fact that she won't be reopening her shows until we are at Stage Five of the plan put in place by the Government, which sees theatres able to reopening without needing social distancing in place.
In reality, we are probably a way off being able to do that, but there are a number of things to say before writing it off as being years away.

Firstly, there is still no logical reason why you can sit packed in on a plane, but you can't do the same in a theatre. I know that in all seriousness you shouldn't really be doing either, but it's quite simply not fair to be doing one and not the other. We have the facility to make it as safe, if not safer being in the theatre. We have adapted to the every-changing situation and can continue to do so, but the only way that we are going to do that safely is with the capacity for full audiences.

Theatre isn't going to survive on social distanced audiences. There is about to be mass unemployment as the furlough scheme ends and theatres sit and wait for what money they might receive from the Culture Recovery Fund. There has already been one delay to the results of applications being announced (their reason: more people applied than we expected!) and the earliest any money is being distributed is December. November and beyond is going to be horrific. Some places are managing to do some business, but no one is going anywhere in great numbers.
As I've said before, the funding we've been allocated by the Government is going to mothball venues whilst they go down to minimal staff. It saves no jobs, and does not put theatres in strong positions to reopen. It's kind of like putting a plaster on a knife wound.

                Time to spin the dial a little bit, and move the focus from theatre to cinema.

You've no doubt heard the news that No Time To Die - the latest in the James Bond franchise - has once again shifted it's release date (this time to the Spring of 2021). This news is a devastating blow to a sector already struggling to get through the pandemic. 
With all blockbuster releases continuing to push their release dates because of the state of the world, the hopes of the industry were resting firmly on Bond, following Christopher Nolan's Tenet failing  to jumpstart cinema-going  back in August. Now, there is nothing set to be released of public-wide significance until early 2021. Even that is probably unlikely as things will continue to be pushed back.

As a result of all this, Cineworld (one of the UKs largest cinema chains) has announced potential plans to close all of its 120+ sites until sometime in 2021 when there are titles being shown that will warrant being open and being able to pay their staff. 5500 people look set to be made redundant due to this catastrophe. And to make that worse, employees found out on  the front row
I fully appreciate the situation that film distributors find themselves in: No Time To Die will have cost millions upon millions to make, and they want to make that back. But one film needs to take the hit for the sake of cinema's survival. Someone needs to go first, to ensure that we have an industry in which we have cinematic releases, big blockbuster films, and the movie going life that we know and love.

It's also interesting to note that I've been to the cinema twice since they reopened in July. Both times I have felt incredibly safe, and that is due to the extraordinary lengths that cinemas have gone to to ensure that they are covid-secure, but still enabling an enjoyable experience. The staff have outnumbered the audience both times, but there has been calm and personal customer service, with clear instructions on how they are operating.
They fought to be able to open at the earliest opportunity; whether that was the best decision remains unclear. But they opened in good faith, with an autumn/winter line up of films that was sure to be able to kickstart them to their former flory.

I wonder whether the closure of cinemas, and the dire situation they find themselves in, with move the needle on the theatre situation. Theatre is seen as something posh, rich people attend, whereas cinema is accessible for everyone (by and large). I hope that more people will stand up and shout at the inadequate support we have been given, and the way it continues to happen not fast enough.

Where do we go from here? The question I continue to ask myself every day. 

The only way is forward I think, as the world only spins that way. This has completely been a learning curve over the last few months, watching people you have admired and seeing how they have reacted to the pandemic (some admirably, some not). 

I think my plea for the next few months to you is this: theatres are going to do their absolute best to produce a Christmas show for you this year. Go and support them and see it. They are almost certainly doing Christmas Carol, but they will have thought about an exciting way they can do it. And the venues that you visit will be safe, secure, but most of all inviting. We are desperate to have you back in our auditoriums, in our bars, in our foyers and seeing live theatre. 

The bottom line is we need you to come and see our Christmas shows this year, maybe more this year than ever before. Our futures literally depend on how our audience numbers do this year. If you love your local theatre, cinema or arts venue, and have enjoyed being able to visit them these past few weeks and months, I implore you to spread the love with everyone you know. 

Hang on in there guys. 

I'll see you in the National Theatre foyer for a filter coffee soon ❤️xx

What If We Tried Something New? - Thoughts on Romantics Anonymous

For a little while in the last month or so, the world began to look like it did in January and February. An almost distant memory when the world made a lot more sense and there wasn't a 24/7 never ending sense of doom all over the news and the internet.

The main thing that the beginning of the 2020 had was a show that I truly could not have foreseen the effect it would have on me. A show that would cause me to travel a 150 mile round trip twice in a fortnight to see it three times (twice in one day) because I loved it so much.

That show, of course, is Wise Children's magnificent production of Romantics Anonymous.

If at any point this year I have spoken to you about theatre, this show has undoubtedly come up. I'm mad about it in every possible way, and its for a reason that is completely new to me.

When you watch theatre, it's not often that you find yourself staring back at you on stage. But that is what I find in Romantics Anonymous.
The central performances from Marc Antolin and Carly Bawden as Jean-Renee and Angelique stop me in my tracks, because I am these people.
Let me explain.

Romantics Anonymous, based on the 2010 French film Les Emotifs Anonymes, is the first musical from Emma Rice's production company Wise Children. It looks at the life of two socially anxious people: a woman who quietly works as a chocolate maker, hidden away from the world, and a man who is struggling to keep his chocolate factory afloat following the death of his father. 
It's a story where you know the ending from the beginning: you know these people are going to be together by the time we get to the end. It's more a musical about discovering why these people have the imperfections that they have, and how they learn to live with them, and each other.

The first time I watched the show, I was completely enamoured by the way Emma Rice's book, alongside Michael Kooman and Christopher Dimond's music and lyrics created a world that revolved around chocolate, and then every so often you found your heart-strings tugged at so tightly that you can barely breathe. 
This is none more prominent in the number "If She Loved Me", sung by Jean-Renee. He has followed Angelique to the support group Les Emotifs Anonymes (which stays in French, because, as Angelique puts it, who would go to something called 'Emotionals Anonymous'?) because he has realised that he can't live without her.

It's all in Dimon's beautiful lyrics, alongside Marc Antolin's incredibly understated performance. The song is the show's '11 o'clock number' in a sense, but it's sort of not the musical that has one. It's the moment where the stakes are the highest, and he has one last shot to not lose the woman that he loves. 

"I'm not good with words, I'm just not equipped,
perhaps I'm afraid and so I stay tight-lipped,
but I could be something to see, if she loved me."

A song had never made me feel that way before.
Sure, I've had emotional reactions to songs before (the two main examples being Defying Gravity and Being Alive), but there is something about If She Loved Me that gets me in a way nothing has before. The lyrics honestly could have been written about me, especially me at  the beginning of the year. 
It's a feeling that I can't really explain, but it's just one of those moments in musical theatre where you see yourself looking back at you, and it's a lot to take it.
Je suis emotif and all that.

I'd be wrong to not quickly discuss the cast of this show (I could honestly write an essay on Carly Bawden and Marc Antolin and maybe I still will).

Bawden and Antolin have such a connection on stage that is like dynamite. There are no huge numbers that they belt to profess their love, it's all done through the smallest of gestures and the simplest of melodies. 

Sandra Marvin superbly gives life to Angelique's man-eating mother, and Magda (who has worked at the Chocolate Factory since 'the beginning of time'), alongside Me'Sha Bryan as Suzanne and Harry Heppel as Ludo (who's performance is so understated that you can't help but love him.)

But it is Gareth Snook who almost pulls the rug out from underneath everyone in his spectacular performance as Madame Marini, who is so over the top and ridiculous that the audience is in hysterics before he's uttered a word.
The world needs more Madame Marini's

 

So, lets talk about exactly what Wise Children managed to achieve last week. 

Emma Rice, Wise Children's artistic director, managed to pull together the majority of the cast, crew and musicians from the beginning of the year, got them to bubble together for a week, rehearse the show for another week, then tech and dress the full show. 

On top of that, they performed it to a digital audience for 5 nights, and then a socially distanced audience of around 150 on the final day.
Because of them bubbling together as a unit, the show was performed in it's entirety, without the need for social distancing.

Just let the logistics of that all sink in for a moment.

Even though we are in the strangest of times, these people have given up seeing any family or friends (I mean, anyone other than other members of the company) for three weeks. That might on paper not sound like a huge amount but it is when you think about it.

I essentially wanted to write this as a bit of a love letter to Emma Rice.
I've always been a fan of her work, from the first piece of hers I saw at the Globe (her superb production of Twelfth Night - who'd have thought Le Gateux Chocolat singing I Will Survive would work so well?!) and then her Kneehigh production of The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk (starring Marc Antolin). 

But it was when she started Wise Children that I properly discovered what an 'Emma Rice show' was, and realised it was absolutely my type of theatre. 

I loved Wise Children and I thought that Mallory Towers was one of the best pieces of theatre that I saw in 2019 (and was very much looking forward to seeing it again this summer until 2020 happened). She has such a distinct way of creating the worlds in which her pieces happen, and the quirkiness is what makes her style so unique and engaging.

In her pre-show speech before the show on Sunday, Emma (along with Tom Morris, the artistic director of the Bristol Old Vic) was met with a deafening applause that went on and on and on. It was an intensely moving thing, to be there in a small audience, to celebrate the achievement to playing to an online audience of 10,500 over the five shows and then get to do it to real people.
Emma said something that has stuck with me since Sunday, and it really is so true of how we are all feeling now.
"We are meant to be together, we are meant to be on this planet and we are meant to tell stories"

I don't think there was a dry eye in the house by the time she was done speaking, and that was before the show had started.
For a week, Emma Rice managed to create some normality in these weird times. Apart from there being less people in the auditorium, we saw a full production with it's full cast, and it was utterly wonderful

I love this show with all of my heart, and for it to be one of the first shows that I came back to after the longest period without theatre was incredibly special. 
These people, this show, this theatre, this music - it's all so personal to me in a way that I don't think any show has ever been (or possibly will ever be again.) You so rarely get a show that is 'your show' and I think this truly is mine.

We are being forced to adapt with the times for the foreseeable future, and in the grand scheme of things that is fine. We get that the world is going through a lot, and that we have to do things differently for a while. And we are capable of doing it. The thing we are not capable of is doing it without help.

I'm not gonna press any more on the last few weeks and the state of the world (mainly because I'm doing that in another blog post where I write a response to the absolute horror show coming from our Government) but know that it is still ongoing, like everything else...

Jesus Christ Superstar The Concert @ Regents Park Open Air Theatre - Review

Theatre was allowed to happen outdoors this summer, so Regents Park did the unthinkable and managed to stage a full musical, socially distanced, and make it more hard-hitting than it's original outing
 

It's not something that gets taken for granted at the moment - the experience of live theatre. Nobody could have predicted the situation we have found ourselves in this year, and with little to no end in sight, it's going to be a long road yet to recovery.
However, we were told, back in July, that theatre could happen outdoors, socially distanced (by both audience and actors) and so the Open Air Theatre team jumped into gear and have welcomed us back into the world that we love in the best possible way.

It's a strange, yet incredibly uplifting experience arriving at the theatre in the heart of Regent's Park. The team are working exceptionally hard to make the audience's time as comfortable but safe as possible. On a socially distanced capacity, the audience goes down from over 1,000 to 390, so it feels a little strange. Temperature checks are done before entrance to the site, and all patrons are required to wear a face mask throughout their visit. However, you soon forget any of this is 'not the norm' and settle in for an evening of musical theatre.

Drew McOnie has perfectly reconstructed his choreography from the previous incarnation of the production, and adapted it to fit the slightly different staging that is in use here. Rather than the original set, Sheader has repurposed the steps staging from last year's Evita to make keeping to the guidelines easier.
Nothing is lost, in fact everything is gained.
There's something so hypnotising about people standing in formation on levels going up, and dancing with their whole bodies. McOnie's movement is not what you would instantly imagine it to be, but the way he was manoeuvred his cast is mesmerising. 

The team have made the sensible decision to largely bring back familiar faces in order to stage this in a pretty short space of time. Director Timothy Sheader has cleverly double-cast the leading roles of Jesus, Judas and Mary Magdalene in order to cover themselves against illness and to give themselves maximum flexibility with no set schedule.
What that does mean, however, is that fans are playing a bit of a lottery trying to see specific cast members. A few weeks into the run, people seem to have spotted a pattern, but with reduced capacity, a  lot of tickets had already gone. Not a criticism, just an observation!

On this particular afternoon, I was lucky enough to see Pepe Nufrio as Jesus, Ricardo Afonso as Judas, and Maimuna Memon as Mary Magdalene - and I really mean lucky!

This score is no easy ride for either man in terms of vocal load, but Pepe Nufrio really flies high with his performance as Jesus. The first moment we see him - when the entire cast pull down their face coverings (such a brilliantly thought-through piece of direction by Sheader) - you see Jesus full of hope and full of love for his followers. His character arc certainly builds throughout the show, until he stops the show with his unbelievable performance of the legendary Gethsemene.
It truly is the definition of a showstopper - watching a man in pain and anger ask the question he will never receive an answer to: "why?"
Nufrio is wonderfully supported Maimuna Memon as Mary, who is gives such a round performance. With a beautiful rendition of "I Don't Know How To Love Him", Memon manages to perfectly capture the confusion Mary finds herself in.

But for me, the show belongs to the sensational Ricardo Afonso, who's portrayal of Judas is one of the best male musical theatre performances I've seen in the last couple of years.
The vocal load of Judas is one thing, but to see the emotional horror that Afonso goes through is magnificent. He gives mind, body and soul to that performance and it's utterly breath-taking to watch. 
Opening the show with an almighty rendition of Heaven On Their Minds, his performance builds and builds to the 11 o'clock showstopper - Superstar. Afonso deservedly has the audience on it's feet. The crowd have missed being able to cheer at spectacular performances, and this is one that deserves the recognition.

It's not just the three leads of this production that need mentioning. 
It is ridiculous the ensemble of people they have bought together, even in smaller parts. Seeing Cedric Neal as Simon singing for his life is sensational, as are Ivan De Freitas Nathan Amzi as Caiaphas and Annas. Shaq Taylor brilliantly plays Herod in a way I had never seen before (head to toe in gold!) and the stellar David Thaxton blows the metaphorical roof off the Open Air Theatre as Pilate. Thaxton truly comes on and storms the stage and it's fantastic to hear a voice like that.

The shows is currently in it's final week, and has been sold out for pretty much it's entire run. So much so, that an option to sit out on the lawn and watch it on a screen was added. 

It's been really exciting to see theatre quickly adapt to our new surroundings and constraints, and still be able to come together to show our appreciation for the thing that we love: theatre.

I will never take for granted again just how lucky we are to have theatre, and just how important it is. If the Government could cotton on to the fact that it's a  'viable' business sometime soon, that'd be super great.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

It's A Return

 

Just when you believe things may be slowly getting back to normal, the world looks like it's going to go absolutely mental once more.

From Monday, I am going back to work for the first time in over five months.
Now lets not get ahead of ourselves. I'm only going back to cover someone's holiday, and then sporadically for another couple of weeks. There is still no part of my actual job to do yet (or not enough of it to justify having to start paying my wages again) but I'm grateful for anything right now.
Our theatre is also a cinema, and we are re-opening three days a week, to test the waters and see what the appetite is for our audiences. We are one of the lucky ones in the fact that we have the facility to do that whilst we cannot stage full theatre/comedy/music. Cinema is significantly cheaper to run, and we need approximately 20 people per screening to cover our base costings. With a capacity of around 65 with social distancing, it's a gamble we are going to take for now.

Theatre is not really functioning in any way yet, and that is one of the points I wanted to make mainly here. 
It's great to hear this morning that Nimax and Nica Burns will be reopening some of their theatres from the  end of October, and with that Everybody's Talking About Jamie looks set to be the first West End musical to return before the end of the year. 

But it's important to remember that this is far from over. 
A second wave is looming. Whether the country will go back into lockdown remains to be seen. Personally I can't see it, because there is no way the economy would survive and the Tories couldn't magic another furlough scheme out of the air - that was a one time thing. Everyone  is still struggling, and unable really to plan with any certainty, and with winter on it's way, everything just feels that bit more gloomy...

I've been at home now for 27 weeks, and not working for 23 of them. 
In some ways this all weeks like it's gone on for about 10 minutes, but in other ways I truly feel like I've lived through a millennium. I know people are talking about mental health a lot at the moment, and I imagine most people are getting fed up of it, but it really has been hard. 

It was all semi-manageable because we thought we could see an end in sight. There was talk that the summer might kill it off (that was just optimism I guess), but we got through it because we had good weather, could spend time in our gardens, and had an hour a day outside. With the winter on it's way, and the  the threat of going back to where we were once more, it's hard to think positive.

But, work tomorrow. 
A little bit of normality, even if it's just for a short while...

So let the sun come streaming in
‘Cause you’ll reach up and you’ll rise again
If you only look around
You will be found

Dear Evan Hansen - Pasek and Paul