alinewaites

KING TUT
A Pyramid Panto
Scripted by John Savournin
Lyrics and Arrangements by David Eaton
John Savournin is one of the most talented and charismatic performers in the business and his performance as Lord Conniving and his transformation into an Egyptian Vizier is certainly startling. Head and shoulders above all the others! (Panto jokes are catching)
The Charles Court Opera Pantos are one of the most popular events of the Christmas season. They have now taken root at the Kings Head in Islington and I am told that the whole season is practically a sell out. They are famed for their singing of Gilbert and Sullivan operas and their witty, intelligent plots.
This panto was penned by Savournin and his musical director David Eaton and it is a bit of a mishmash of a plot with a lot of old panto gags tagged on and chucked at the highly appreciative audience. The plot concerns a group of explorers searching for the tomb of Tutankhamen, they discover a magic stone and are transported back in time to the palace of the young king himself where they all undergo a kind of transformation.
Personally I think they try too hard to follow the panto ethic and the story is over laden with double entendres that are deliberately set up rather than seeming accidental and their reaction to the audience’s laughter is a knowing leer instead of the surprise at their dirty minds. But nevertheless the customers are having a happy time.
Alys Roberts is a delight as the boy king Tut and her relationship with Philip Lee as Clive the Camel is very touching and is the only real humanity in the play.
The thing that worried me right from the start was having a hero who farts when he gets near his beloved. An accidental fart can be enjoyed by children and young men from public schools but not a good basis for the character of a hero. The heroine Evelyn, played by Francesca Fenech, is a lady of luscious dimensions and a powerful voice. She takes on the role of Principal Boy in khaki shorts and a painted-on moustache – more comfortable to her lover Philip Carter (Matt R J Ward).
There are some interesting stunts, when the villain becomes an armchair and gets sat upon by the overs and again when both the lovers develop an extra pair of legs each.
The production values are terrific. The sets by Sean Taylor are beautiful with Egyptian Hieroglyphics and glitter with great lighting by Nicholas Holdridge, the costumes of Savournin and Alys Roberts by Mia Wallden are exceptionally glamorous. In contrast, the lovers both wear English style khaki shorts and solar topees.
This is an audience pleaser in the main. But for me – a Curate’s Egg.

Miss Julie
By August Strindberg
Newly adapted by Howard Brenton
At Jermyn Street
Miss Julie was first presented in 1983 in Paris. It was of course considered shocking as it offended  too many prejudices, the characters behaved in a naturalistic manner, it criticised the great divide in the class system, and there was near nudity on stage. It was just too Real. It is a story full of real passion and much sex. The actual act is performed off stage although the lead up to it is graphically performed in front of us.
The action takes place in the kitchen of an aristocrat’s mansion. Kristin the cook  enters the excellently appointed kitchen without preamble as if she was at home and begins to prepare food. We are convinced that this is a naturalist play when the smell of kidneys cooking wafts over the audience and we wait patiently for her to finish the washing up in real time.
Kristin is somewhat loosely engaged to Jean the Count’s valet. Jean is a young man of ambition, determined to better himself in any way he can. He has travelled and discovered there other things in life than polishing boots and answering his master’s bell. We do not know why he came back. He says he is in love with Julie, the Count’s daughter but maybe he just thinks she might provide the way out of his present situation. Julie’s motives are just as inconsistent as his. She treats him with contempt and then seduces him reversing their relationship and beginning a kind of war in the survival of the fittest..
This is a new edition of the play by Howard Brenton which he wrote from a literal translation of the work. It seems very authentic, looking at a group of people as they really are, changing their minds, their attitudes, their relationships to each other.
Louie Whitemore’s set is stunning – the most perfect, practical kitchen, sparkling and clean with copper saucepans and the costumes are attractive and appropriate for the time and place.
The play is well directed by Tom Littler, Jermyn Street’s new artistic director and the piece is exceptionally acted by Charlotte Hamblin as Julie, James Sheldon as Jean and Isabella Urbanowicz as Kristin.
A highly successful interpretation of this famous play.

Eve Ferret’s cabaret
At the Lounge Leicester Square

There is no cabaret artist in the world like Eve Ferret. Her thick red hair, bundled up on top of her head, her voluptuous body loosely swathed in a peignoir she is a true force of nature.
She has been a veteran theatrical presence since the days of Blitz “No not the wartime one. The night club” After appearing in several movies as an ideal heroine of the popular Hammer films, she took time off to deal with family matters and re-entered the cabaret scene three or four years ago,
Her accompanist is Simon Wallace, a genial chap who obviously has no idea what she is going to do next. He strikes up the overture and in she sweeps with her big warm smile, and begins to sing with her strong bluesy voice, then after a few bars, stops to say hello to the audience all of whom will become friends by the end of the evening even if they are not already.
Eve does a lot of talking with dozens of stories about her early days, the movies she was in and the stars she worked with. She makes mock of the fact that she is not always the luckiest card in the pack. She does a number where she describes herself as ‘Last Night’s Pate. Constantly reminding herself not to swear, she still does, but who cares? We will love her whatever she does. We happily join in when she requests it. and we throw around her big dolls when she asks us to.

Her songs are mostly autobiographical. Although she doesn’t believe in crying n public, all her emotions turn into songs. She can fall in love with the wrong person like everyone else ‘Congratulations’, she sings wryly, ‘You got me’. Her most passionate plea is ‘Don’t change me’ which is her outcry for indulgence and understanding. A woman must be her own person. Eve could be a great dramatic actress as well as a serious songstress
But whatever her adventures, she is still the Pimlico Belle-She lauds the area where she was born and where she has always lived. She loves her borough.

Towards the end of her set she gets some fun out of her parody of the Garland torch song ‘The Man That got Away’.
”The Night is bitter” she sings “I’ve spent the night on Twitter” as she enlarges on the hazards of the technological phenomena.
Here last number is ‘It’s not over till it’s over’

I overuse the word Wonderful, but in her case it is completely justified.

Jamaica Inn
By Daphne Du Maurier
Tabard Theatre
Daphne Du Maurier’s creepy thriller set in deepest Cornwall is Adapted by Lisa Evans and Directed by Anastasia Revi.
It is a play heavily dependent on the set by Maira Vazou and atmospheric lighting by Ben Jacobs. Jonathan Bratoeff provides appropriate music and much of the wreckers’ scenes are sung through – adding to the general strangeness of the country side and the images of men working on the ocean, wrecking and murdering for the richness on board ships.
Kinberley Jarvis plays Mary Yellan the innocent (to begin with) heroine who has merely come to Jamaica Inn to take care of her half mad Aunt Patience. She reckons without the cruel man Joss Merlyn, who is married to her Aunt. He has beaten her into submission and she clings to him submissively and with the love of an illtreated animal – hoping for a few crumbs of kindness if she joins in his nefarious crimes. Helen Bang has her own sweetness which she brings to bear in the character of Aunt Patience. It is no wonder that Mary wants to help her, but does not know how as her aunt is so obsessed by her love for the bullying husband. An interesting casting note – both Mary and her Aunt have exactly the same shade of Titian hair. Is it an accident or where they chosen for their appearance? Even if that is the case, it succeeds brilliantly as they both did a great job in their varied roles.
Mary is made of stronger material than her Aunt. She has been running a farm on her own and she considers she has equal strength of any man. She is apprehensive but not fearful of the wreckers who come to the pub to get drunk before every wrecking. Josh protects her from molestation,– and in a way admires her courage and confidence.
Another man is secretly part of her life. Joss’s younger brother, the horse thief, played by Samuel Lawrence– he and his Brother are not on speaking terms, so he only calls when he knows his brother is absent. He is a much friendlier and kinder person than Joss and treats Mary with a measure of respect. As does her other champion she meets while lost on the moors –( which happens quite often – not surprising) He is the strangely pallid local Vicar played by Peter Rae.
This is a thriller that actually thrills and nothing turns out to be as it seems. It is often difficult to work out where they are and the time scales of the plot. This probably cannot be helped with such a big melodrama on such a small stage and with so many of the cast doubling up .
But the show is as creepy and thrilling and one feels very satisfied by the ending after all the traumas are over and the true culprits are revealed.

The tailor-made man *****
By Claudio Macor
This beautifully directed show is one of the most entertaining running in the Off West End circuit. It tells the story of William Haines who was the biggest film star A list off his generation. He was charming, intelligent, very handsome but he was an individualist. Everybody loved him except those in charge at MGM studios – names Louis B Mayer and his cohorts. They hated him because he was the lover of another young man. He was what Louis contemptuously called A Faggot – but he was a huge favourite and so his private life was kept carefully out of the papers. The two greatest gossip writers in Hollywood, Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper were sworn to secrecy and Billy’s great friend was Marion Davis, the girlfriend of William Randolph Hearst.
Even so Billy just refused to behave in the way MGM players were supposed to play – with utmost propriety – at least in public, but Billy was proudly and unashamedly in love with his partner Jimmie Shields
Mitchell Hunt is every inch the movie star Billy and Tom Berkeley is warm and loving as Jimmy. Their scenes together are full of humour and affection – never mawkish or oversentimental. They were known as simply the happiest couple in Hollywood. Louis B Mayer became more and more irritated by his number one star and tried to marry him off to Pola Negri.
Plays about the old Hollywood are always fascinating to watch, but often they are not as well presented as this one. The set is beautifully elegant and adaptable, and the costumes of the ladies are simply divine – all the work of designer, Mike Lees, who used actual twenties and thirties costumes, reinventing the dresses, and making them fit the different shapes of twenty first century actresses, Yvonne Lawler and Rachel Knowles. They play all the actresses, with huge energy, without inhibitions and obviously enjoy themselves hugely using all the affectations of the two great movie periods.
At last Billy blots his copy book completely and Louis manages to destroy every evidence of his existence at MGM. His plan was to make Hollywood rid of him for ever. Which is why we have never heard of him in list of old Hollywood movies.
The play is great fun all the way. By turns funny, witty, moving all the way through. But I must give voice to my admiration for Dean Harris who gives a positively stunning performance as Louis B Mayer. He was a man of varying moods and he tells us a little of his pre Hollywood story with great feeling. He longs for his old life without having the stress of running the studio with recalcitrant stars like William Haines. He makes us understand his fury and easily brings us on to his side at various moments throughout the story.
Such clever writing by Claudio Macor and loving, inventive direction by Bryan Hodgson..