'Allegra' review — Maureen Lipman bursts into song in Peter Quilter's whimsical play

Read our review of Allegra, directed and choreographed by Stephen Mear, now in performances at the Harold Pinter Theatre to 8 August.

Summary

• Peter Quilter's play Allegra comes to the Harold Pinter Theatre
• The title character is an elderly woman who can't stop singing
• It stars the showbiz legend and Olivier winner Maureen Lipman

Maureen Lipman, age 80 and with a damehood to her name, needs scant introduction as an entertainment industry stalwart who has been making audiences laugh for decades – whilst branching out into serious fare like Neil Simon’s Lost in Yonkers along the way.

But even this redoubtable talent can’t make a satisfying whole of Allegra, Peter Quilter’s bizarre play that dresses up a societal broadside within the broadest possible whimsy. Two decades ago, Quilter and Lipman collaborated on the West End show Glorious!. That 2006 Olivier winner told the real-life story of the vainglorious soprano Florence Foster Jenkins, who thought that she sang gloriously even if no one else did. (Meryl Streep, working from a different script, played the same part onscreen.)

Allegra moves the delusional needle on, positing the title character as a (fictional) old dear who simply can’t stop singing, much to the chagrin of the villagers whose volume of complaints have led to the arrival at her door of Officer Rogers (Bailey Patrick), a local copper. (Surely the local constabulary would have more important fish to fry: aren't there any misspent yoof?)

A devotee of Mozart, Allegra boasts a repertoire that runs from Elvis to Oklahoma! – the latter a sly nod to Lipman’s time in the National Theatre revival of that show, with Hugh Jackman, back in the day.

Allegra’s younger brother, Ronen (John Middleton, gamely playing a human punching bag), shows up to proffer support and enlists the aid of a Czech carer and cook, Anna (Elizabeth Bower), who before long is serving up dumplings and twirling a parasol as she and Allegra come together in song. Luckily, no one makes hot chocolate, since the containers in the cupboard are mostly filled with the ashes of Allegra and Ronen’s father, who was reportedly very tall.

As directed and choreographed by a second showbiz veteran, Stephen Mear, the action now and again pauses so that Allegra can launch into one or another time-honoured standard. On occasion the audience gets roped into a singalong: I’ve never before heard “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” - one of the defining songs of my childhood – in quite this context. Elsewhere, we’re treated to a shamelessly twee “Tiptoe Through the Tulips”.

We’re meant to believe that Allegra’s slides in and out of reality are in truth rather remarkable, and that the citizenry are wrong to castigate this one-off maverick in their midst: individuality must be celebrated, particularly when it comes offering hope amidst gatheringly dark times – as is the case with the determinedly chipper Allegra. (There’s a side issue about overmedicating the elderly that anyone with ageing parents will likely recognise.)

In truth, this woman’s unique skill set is mostly irksome, and the script does an about-face near the end that arrives entirely by authorial fiat. Suddenly, the same townspeople that are ready, Crucible-style, to burn Allegra at the stake have decided she’s indispensable, at which point our frizzy-haired heroine’s songbook turns to “Dream A Little Dream of Me” and all’s well that ends well. If only.

Allegra is at the Harold Pinter Theatre to 8 August. Book Allegra tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: Allegra (Photos by Marc Brenner)