LONDON TRIP REVIEWS

Nov 99

Four nights in London

People moan about the prices of West End theatre and more generally about the costs of a night out in London a lot. Well, I can tell you now that it's possible to have a great night out for as little as £12 - provided you're willing to venture off the beaten paths of the West End. Tempted by the irresistible prospect of seeing the gorgeous Ex-Trainspotter Jonny Lee Miller live on stage, I headed for the Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn, only a 20-minute bus ride away from Oxford Street to see Four nights in Knaresborough.

Walking down Kilburn High Road, I decided that I couldn't see a play on an empty stomach and entered a clean-looking fish & chips-shop. Two young guys were in charge of the shop and provided me not only with great food for as little as £3.50, but also with a very nice chat - quite a change from being on your own in the West End's fast food outlets.

The play cost only £8.00 on midweek nights and although we sat on benches, it was comfortable enough. "Four nights in Knaresborough" may be a somewhat misleading title, as it is the story of the four knights who killed Thomas Becket in Canterbury before hiding in Knaresborough Castle for a year. One could now dread a profound soul-searching play full of philosophical ramblings, but writer Paul Corcoran delivered a marvellous comedy that seemed to be a first cousin to television's infamous "Black Adder". But it wasn't just witty dialogues and contemporary swear-words, it was also touching, as it showed how the knights tried to cope with their own deed and especially Brito's struggle to win the heart of their landlady Catherine.

Jonny Lee Miller (Brito) was the star of the play of course and proved that he wasn't just the pretty boy from the movies, but a very good young actor, too. The rest of the cast performed equally well and the audience enjoyed themselves very much, though that piece of medieval dental surgery carried out in the first act is certainly not for the fainthearted... I hope that the play will survive beyond its run at the Tricycle Theatre and reaches a larger audience, be it in the West End or elsewhere.

My next theatre visit couldn't have been more different as I had booked a ticket for the latest "blockbuster musical" to arrive in London - Disney's Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre. Arriving in Wellington Street rather late, I had no time for a decent dinner, but went for a coffee and a piece of extremely sweet chocolate cake at the nearest Starbucks instead. I'm not too happy with those coffee shop chains sprouting all over London, but at least they serve really decent coffee. Then I entered the Lyceum and waited for the big spectacle to blow me away. Sad to say it didn't happen. Sure Julie Taymor's direction and costumes are great and certainly deserve the praise they received on Broadway, but throughout the show I kept thinking "Why on earth didn't they leave the animated movie alone?" It's one thing to have cuddly animated lions on screen, but quite another to have actors portraying the animal population of Africa - and reducing most of the cast to hardly more than puppeteers to have convincing animals. Timon, the chipmunk (or whatever he is) was clearly the audience's favourite, but will anyone remember the actor behind the cute puppet? I doubt it. The same goes for the three hyena's Shenzi, Banzai and Ed - all of them marvellously played, but what did the actors do more than steering the heads of the puppets and lending them their voices? The lucky ones who played the lions at least got more to do than that, but it were only two pictures that stuck to my memory - that of Mufasa (Cornell John) and young Simba (Ross Coates) under the starry sky as daddy lion sang "They live in you" and later on, that of the grown Simba (Roger Wright) as he sang "Endless Night" full of self-doubts. "Lion King" should certainly be seen, if only to admire the imagination of Julie Taymor who brought the movie to life on the stage, but although it's a huge improvement from the drab soulless spectacle that was "Beauty and the Beast", it's not the fabulous blockbuster that the ads made us believe it was.

Personally I wish that Disney would leave their lovely animated movies alone and rather produce fresh shows for the stage that don't suffer from the liabilities of the movies, such as the talking animals or big action scenes (I wonder if anyone who hasn't seen the Lion King-movie could make sense of the "Stampede" that ultimately leads to Mufasa's death?).

The next show I saw was a lot more to my liking - Spend, spend, spend by the so-far unknown team Steve Brown and Justin Greene. An original story at last instead of a dull novel adaption or a tear-jerker it's the story of pools winner Viv Nicholson and does not only provide us with witty lyrics and an engaging story but also makes you think. She won an awful lot of money and squandered it all away - but would we really react so differently? I know I wouldn't. I'd spend, spend, spend, too. It was great to see the wonderful Barbara Dickson live on stage again as the older Viv, who works at a hair-dresser's now and tells her tale while a younger actress takes over as the young Viv. This actress, newcomer Rachel Leskovac, surely is the greatest discovery in a long time. She seemed to be bursting with energy throughout the show and had a great voice. It was also nice to see a rather small, sturdy girl getting to play such a fantastic role instead of the leggy, slim beauties you usually see on the stage.

It was also great to see Steven Houghton (as Viv's husband Keith) back on the West End stage after a long spell in the world of television, where he made his name as a firefighter in "London's Burning" which also got him into the Top Ten with his version of "Wind beneath my wings" he sang in one episode. The music may not have the great, memorable tunes of Lloyd-Webber's calibre, but there's enough to keep you entertained for two and a half hour, most notably the duet "Who's gonna love me?" between the two Viv's, as the young one learns about Keith's death in a car crash. Unforgettable also the song "Spend, spend, spend" at the end of the first act which has the cast flashing the two fingers to the audience. It may not be one of the big musicals, but I hope that - like "Blood Brothers", to which it is often compared - it will find its audience and play for a long time to come.

Pajama Game had initially been on my list of must-see shows for this trip, but after it received such an overall bashing from the critics I changed my mind. Now left with not much to choose from at the half price ticket booth and a free afternoon on my hands, I thought that Pajama Game might be a less painful choice than Tess of the d'Urbervilles which got even worse reviews - and I had never liked Hardy's novel anyway. So it was off to the Victoria Palace Theatre, which must be one of the most uncomfortable and most boring theatres of London. With the memory of the two previous musicals in the back of my mind, I enjoyed the sheer fun that was "Pajama Game", bringing back the good old days when musicals were all about singing and dancing. However, the setting in a pajama factory was dull to really engage anyone and it was simply too obvious that Babe and Sid would get each other. Much hype had been made around the avantgarde designs of artist Frank Stella - well, they were interesting and I can't say, they were "wrong", but I think it may have been better to present this rather unknown musical in a more conservative way while using Stella's creativity for one of those shows that have been played to death and could really do with a fresh and different approach. At least the tunes and the dancing made the visit worthwhile, not to forget the great cast. So Leslie Ash (Babe) is a TV-star who can't really dance. So what. She looks the part, she sings well and I imagine that for those who have seen her regularly on television, it must be great to see her live. It was also nice to see Graham Bickley free from the restraints of carbon copy-shows like "Les Miserables" where every individualism is lost forever, to play Sid and make this role entirely his own. The supporting cast was good, too, and despite the flaws "Pajama Game" can still make for an enjoyable evening out.

My next - and last - visit to a London theatre brought me to the Barbican to see Taming of the Shrew in the Pit. As I had never been there and heard several complaints how difficult it is to find your way, I was a bit worried about arriving on time - but found that it's really easy to find your way from the tube station to the theatre if only you're able to read the signs that are displayed everywhere. I was rather surprised at seeing just how huge the whole Barbican is, when you walk between the high towers of the complex.

I fell in love with the Pit the moment I entered it as I love those small intimate studio theatres that bring you really close to the actors. Being the feminist I am (oh yes), I always thought that "Taming of the Shrew" was one of the most difficult Shakespeare plays to stage and I was curious to see how director Lindsey Posener had solved the problem of the "battle of the sexes". He achieved his aim by placing the subplot in a modern context and makes Sly (who becomes Petruchio in the real play) a drunken lout who has just been thrown out of a country pub. At the end of the play, after Katharine has delivered the speech about male dominance (which always makes me cringe), Sly is back lying on the floor in his contemporary casual wear, when Katharine and Bianca appear dressed in very sexy modern clubwear, ridiculing him before entering a club from which loud dance music is blaring and he is left thinking that he must have dreamed the whole thing. In-between we got three hours of great acting, especially by the wonderful Stuart McQuarrie as Petruchio who was so likeable you couldn't help feel sorry for him about Katharine's constant bitching and harping. Monica Dolan was a wonderful bitch, though in some scenes like the wedding when Petruchio shows her off by wearing a ridiculous female garment, she could have been ever stronger. For some it may appear that "seeing Shakespeare in London" is a typical tourist-thing to do, but if you have been starved for of well-staged plays for years as we are in Germany, you'd welcome a production like this one like a bottle of ice-cold Coca Cola in the Gobi desert. It certainly wasn't my last visit to the Barbican!

END

(Nov 1999 / Nikki / fire.fighter@okay.net