alinewaites

AND NOW Brian Rix. We started a theatre in Kilburn/Maida Vale in the seventies called ‘The Broadway’. The theatre was haunted by a ghost who walked across the stage on his knees. The theatre had been built inside another, bigger theatre so the stage was higher up. The ghost was walking on the original stage. There was a door up to the Gods. The cleaners wouldn’t go up there, but it was fascinating. It had a strange sound like echoes of ghostly music and chorus singing. There must have been some explanation but we never found out – it was very interesting.
At the weekends it was used as a Bollywood Theatre. There were queues outside the theatre as we left on Saturday night and they were all locked in until Monday morning. At least that is what we ere told – but we never saw anybody go in or out once the movies had started.
Another plan he had was to use the Regent Theatre to do our shows, but we turned it down because there was no bar!!!
Then he became a Lord and concentrated on his campaign for mental health.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HxhxrccGX4

13 the musical
At the Ambassadors Theatre
Music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown
Book by Dan Elish and Robert Horn
13 has a degree of sophistication which is staggering in a teenage show. Delightful music, athletic choreography and a witty script. It is played with an entire cast of teenagers.
The BTA is a remarkable organisation that trains young people to perform in musical theatre. Not only do they get expert training in this most disciplined of genres but they also get a chance to appear in the West End alongside professional performers. They are the ensemble and they dance up a storm in the choreography of Ewan Jones He also directs the show with such expertise that every single joke – and there are many – are played with total aplomb and sincerity.
The professional actors take it in turns to play the lead roles, so one can only comment on the cast of the press performance.
Milo Panni plays the leading role of Evan. Milo is a young man with terrific singing voice, perfect comedy timing and already a veteran of stage and film. He plays a boy of nearly thirteen who is about to have his bar mitzvah. He wants it to be a success and invites all his friends, but is devastated when his parents’ divorce, and he must leave his much-loved New York to live in a remote town in Indiana. His ambition now is to find a new lot of friends to invite to his big party.The local bully and sex king Brett (Lewis Ledlie) is terminally stupid and a bully, but Evan needs friends so plays along with him, and his followers.
This production has a classy team. Patrice, Evan’s girlfriend is played by Madeline Banbury an actress who achieved stardom at the age of eight. Archie a young man suffering from a terminal disease is played by the marvellous Ethan Quinn who practically ran away with Ragtime at the Charing Cross Theatre. In this he is a brave kid who laughs at his disability and manages to steal every single scene. The local sexpot is played by Isabella Pappas who was nominated for an Olivier Award last year.
There are so many wonderful professionals about to appear regularly in our lives in the future. And the high standards among the ensemble proves that there is a lot of talent we still have to discover.
With musical director Chris Mo and his musicians, the songs are delightful and carry the story beautifully, the lighting and sound are perfect and the set by Tom Paris is simple and cleverly fashioned from the current show at the Ambassadors
This is a show to see, to love and to enjoy.

Anyone who knows anything about the community of ‘Good Companions’ will know that Aline is a writer, producer, entrepreneur, performer, enabler, and still as beautiful as ever, and it is people like her who should be celebrated as ‘the backbone of the profession’. More than most, she has contributed in so many ways in the field of entertainment. Personally, her Victorian Songbook published by Michael Joseph, her celebration of music hall and pantomime, at the Pindar, and her mellifluous voice for years on the radio (remember her ‘Gwen’ in ‘Mrs Dale’s Diary’?), are truly memorable. Her latest oeuvre ‘She That Plays The Queen’ has just come out, and is available on Amazon.

Pinocchio at the Ambassadors Theatre ****
Book by Brian Hill
Music and Lyrics by Neil Bartram
Adapted from Carlo Collodi’s classic tale
The wonderful British Theatre Academy employs the talents of over 250 young people during the summer.
This year it is Pinocchio – it has two professional actors who appear in every showing. Martin Neely as Geppetto and Lizzie Rees as Blue Fairy/Narrator are widely experienced actors with exceptional singing voices and perfect diction. Lizzie Rees is a lovely Blue Fairy – the reincarnation of Gepetto’s beloved late wife. And Martin Neely is an attractive and lithe Gepetto. The BTA are fortunate to have the talents of these professional actors who are a wonderful example to the children that make up the rest of the cast and the ensemble
On the press night Pinocchio was played by Nathaniel Purnell who shares the role with Lucas Cooper. Purnell is a bigger Pinocchio than expected but manages to play a child in his scarlet shorts and his dancing is exceptional. He gives a performance that is equalled by the charismatic James Sampson as Lampwick, the naughty boy, who is sadly missed when he turns into a donkey but happily that same fate does not apply to our hero.

The two villains Fox and Cat are portrayed by the very tall Zane Heath and the tiny Tilly Hopkins. They work well in their duets – numbers like the seductive ‘Money Grows on Trees’. The dancing puppet twins are sweetly played by Jessica Brown and Alice Bonney
There are some marvellous set pieces. The Terra di Ragazzi is a great number. ‘The Land of Boys’ is where Lampwick takes Pinocchio to get away from school and interfering grown-ups and it is rendered by the entire company dressed as boys.
This is a musical comedy of an Italian children’s book rather than a Disney version and it is remarkably unpatronizing. The songs are tuneful even if bits of them are nicked from Sondheim and Hamlisch. One wonders about the copy right on these songs, but as one has been singing them ever since the show happened It is probably more of an advantage to the masters than to the undoubtedly catchy music of Neil Bartram.
I was a little put off by the mention of Puppets, but the ones used are very stylish and they only happen at the very beginning of the show. Handled by Tabitha Knowles
This is an elegantly constructed performance and is just as fascinating to adults as to children. I have seen a couple of excellent Pinocchios recently and this was definitely the best.

I LOVED LUCY
By Lee Tannen
At the Arts Theatre
The Extraordinary thing about the TV series I LOVE LUCY is its longevity. It ran from 1951-1957
Having spent seven weeks in the US at the beginning of the year. I watched re runs of Lucy every morning on T.V, and apart from a little mental adjustment for political correctness, it is just as endearing and funny as it was then. Lucy was a female clown, and her husband Desi Arnaz was a perfect foil for her idiocy.
In this play, we find out that the pompous Desi was a drunkard and a womaniser and the ditzy Lucy an intelligent and well organised woman – just the opposite of the characters they played.
As director Anthony Biggs says Lucille Ball was a trailblazer. A woman with her own TV studios, married to a Cuban and still working in her seventies. All unusual for the nineteen fifties.
But this play takes place ten years before her death in 1989 and concerns a true love story between her and a young gay man Lee Tannen. Tannen is the author of this play about their sometimes-passionate relationship. She relied on him as escort, confidant, and backgammon player, a game neither of them played very well
Lee Tannen’s story began when, as a devoted fan of the Lucy shows, he found out that he was distantly related to her and took advantage of this to meet his idol. This led to an extraordinarily close relationship. Even though he had a long term special other on the opposite side of the continent, his affair with Tom never got in the way of his friendship with Lucy.
Sandra Dickinson is an American actress who made her life here in England. Her portrayal of the great comedienne is uncanny and completely believable. Her love for the young man is palpable and her frenzied rage when he opposes her is thunderous. This is a portrait of one highly respected, powerful lady and the young gay man who loved her. Tannen is played in this production by Matthew Scott a young man who has just finished in “An American in Paris” on Broadway. They are the only two performers on stage and they have great rapport
The play was produced earlier at Jermyn Street Theatre, and it was so well received that it has transferred to the Arts theatre. What is interesting about this first night of the transfer is that so many of the people in the audience had already seen the play before and they came to enjoy it again. I was in the audience on the press night at Jermyn street and sat next to the author, very much aware of his wrapt attention to the show as he noted every laugh, obviously still planning a future production. I felt a bit like a joke tester.
So, like the others I saw it again and am happy to say I Loved Lucy – and still do. She died in 1989. But through the respect paid to her by Lee Tannen and the excellence of this production, Lucy is alive and well – very funny, very moving and to be seen at the Arts Theatre
This is a love story without sex but no less powerful for that.

TREATING ODETTE ****
By Jennifer Selway

French born Odette was a simple housewife and mother who was enlisted as an SOE during the second world war. She was captured by the Gestapo, horribly tortured by refusing to identify members of the Resistance, and was imprisoned in a windowless and freezing cell in Ravensbruck prison until the end of the war. She was awarded the George Cross and the Legion d’honneur for her incredible bravery.
Having heard the war office needed pictures of France she sent them her photogaphs of Bourgogne and was asked to join the special operations executive.
she was caught by the Gestapo and resisted the most horrible torture. Burned on her back by a red not poker, her toe nails were all pulled out, but they did not kill her because, as a relative of the Prime Minister, she was needed as a bargaining tool so she was held as a hostage in Ravensbruck prison where she endured life in a tiny windowless, dark cell and sometimes food was denied for a week at a time. It was usually freezing cold but on one occasion the heat was turned high and she was almost cooked by the heat.
In 1950 Herbert Wilcox made a film of her life, starring his wife Anna Neagle Odette worked as an advisor on the movie and became close friends with the actress. The play begins with Neagle performing a torture scene and Odette advising her on a technical point.
The author then paints the rest of her picture in the famous Cyclax Beauty Salon in Mayfair (beautifully imagined by Emily Bestow) and creates conversations between the two friends and Patricia, the young beautician who tends them both. The girl was also in the services during the war – as a land girl and then in the Wrens.
Gradually, between the three of them Odette’s story is told. There are so many fascinating details. He commanding officer was Captain Peter Churchill and she adopted his name to save her life. The enemies assumed she was Churchill’s wife, related to the English Prime Minister, and therefore could be used as a bargaining tool.
Th grisly story is brought out in a series of chats between Neagle, Odette and the beautician who was taking care of them. and all three girls play together beautifully though I felt they were a bit static and remained too long in the same place. The chair was always the centre of the play, because the play relied on the conversations between them.
Jessica Boyde, who is half French was perfect casting for Odette and Anna Neagle was quite brilliantly played by Red Gray who has a perfect nineteen fifties English accent. The beautician was played by Charlotte Peak to give a little more closeness for the action..
My feeling is that, although it was a beautiful set and seemed perfectly in taste with the times. I felt it seems a bit too big a room and the action was confined to tiny spots of it.
The direction was fine by John Plews and the design by Emily Bestow was exquisite but could possibly have been brought in a little
The author then paints the rest of her picture in the famous Cyclax Beauty Salon in Mayfair (beautifully imagined by Emily Bestow) and creates conversations between the two friends and Patricia, the young beautician who tends them both. The girl was also in the services during the war – as a land girl and then in the Wrens.
Gradually, between the three of them Odette’s story is told. There are so many fascinating details. He commanding officer was Captain Peter Churchill and she adopted his name to save her life. The enemies assumed she was Churchill’s wife, related to the English Prime Minister, and therefore could be used as a bargaining tool.

The whole play reflects the horrors of war and illuminates the extent of human endurance.

THE HIRED MAN
Adapted by Howard Goodall and Melvyn Bragg from three books by Melvyn Bragg.
Music and Lyrics by Howard Goodall.
Melvyn Bragg’s three books about life in Cumbria in the early twentieth century have been adapted by the author and the composer Howard Goodall into a musical which is being revived at the Union Theatre in Southwark.
For those who are constantly complaining about the musical revivals from the USA, here is a thoroughly British show with typically English credentials. Both author and composer are well know to the British Public from their Television appearances.
Bragg’s story is inspired by the lives of his grandparents and great grandparents. John Tallentire ( Ifan Gwilym-Jones)arrives in the tiny village asking for a job as a hired man in on the Pennington’ farm. He is accepted and he waits for his wife Emily (Rebecca Gilliland) to arrive. Later he realises that the agricultural industry is not going to make him the money he needs and he elects to go down the mines instead. During the time he is away, Emily has a brief affair with Jackson Pennington, the local ladies’ man. The mines are dangerous and the work is hard. There is an explosion, men are killed and some of the minor try to start a Trades Union. One of the best scenes in the piece is the Union Song (Men of Stone)
In act two, the children of Emily and John have grown up and the world is at war with Germany. The war sequence is horrific and several of her cast disappear in the trenches, including one of the Tallentire children.
I think the main trouble with this production is not the actual direction, the songs, choreography (though would the village girls do cartwheels and show off their bloomers?) and the harmonies all of which are fine. It is just that, unless you know the stories – and I don’t – the plot is very difficult to follow. I didn’t even know that the baby in act one was now seventeen years of age. This made it very confusing. I thought the plethora of Tallentires must be John and Emily’s brothers and sisters.
I have had my ears tested recently and I think that there is a problem with the acoustic of the new Union Theatre. I am told that sound was suggested and turned down. There is a large cast and they move about a great deal. It is a shame and I hope that maybe the actors can be persuaded to give the words a little more welly. Although it is not a standard type of musical, it still needs to be heard.
There is some good grouping and a feeling of togetherness among the villagers, especially when there is an accident down the mine and when they all go to war.
My basic problem with this piece is the total lack of comedy. Usually people in wars manage to raise quite a lot of smiles. But this is depressing. I feel that when the world is in a disturbing state politically we need something a bit more uplifting to cheer us up.
This is just my feeling and I know that many people find this their favourite musical and that it is something worthy of respect. Yes, maybe but I would like a laugh or two when I go to the theatre.
Yes Ok, Great for people who liked gloom and misery but that ‘aint me. Sorry.

BOYS IN THE BUFF
BY Chris Burgess
At the Stockwell Playhouse
Well I found the Lost Theatre. Thank goodness, this is the last time I shall be able to do that joke. Because. Hurray, the name has been changed to Stockwell Playhouse – though it still says Lost Theatre on the door.
Anyway, The Stockwell Playhouse is a very well-equipped first floor theatre, with a lift from the ground floor box office up to the well-designed auditorium which allows good views from every seat. It also has studios up above the theatre for rehearsals. There is a bar which is a bit on the small side and the customers tend to hang about in the corridor, blocking the lift. It would be good if the bar area could be extended.
The current show is ‘Boys in the Buff (terrible title) a musical cabaret with four attractive young men and one divinely voluptuous young woman. This is just like a Windmill show in reverse, with the boys in an assortment of sexy and revealing costumes and the girl fully dressed throughout. The show is supposed to be about body image and there are many good jokes and witty lyrics about the subject but it is definitely aimed at the Pink Pound and most of the audience on press night was made up of men. Nothing wrong with trying to make money out of theatre – it doesn’t happen all that often. Nevertheless, there are songs dealing with plastic surgery, acne, the gymn, make up, acne, photoshops, narcissism, exhibitionism, size queens, and so on. Most interesting was the number about the kind of terrible bullying children put up with. Words like Spotty, Fatty, ginger and so on. These subjects are all vital and all useful.
The clever thing about the show is the casting and the differences between the personalities of the four men. There is Max (Adam O’Shea) an ex twenty stone weakling, who has dieted and exercised himself slim, fancies himself as an intellectual and does a musical version of To be or Not To be dressed as Marlene on a chair and performing exaggerated dancer moves throughout. Imagine Dietrich quoting Shakespeare and doing cartwheels. There is a gay man (Shaun Roddick) who had kept his secret for years before he came out and proud. Phil (Julian Quijano)is the shy one who is ashamed of showing his body but of course is brought round by the end, and there is the cocky (forgive the expression) and keen to display his body on every possible occasion. This is played by actor William Frazer.
All the boys cope well with Sam Rayner’s cheeky, Bob Fosse style choreography. Of course there are many references to The Full Monty – whether they actually do the full thing you will have to find out for yourself.
The script by Chris Burgess deals with body image and how it can obsess the ‘selfie’ mentality.
It was a happy, not at all intellectually demanding evening A kind of theatrical holiday enlightened on the Press Night by a performance from Tezza – a happily rotund member of the audience.
aline

Last night. Found the Lost Theatre – now happily to be called The Stockwell Playhouse. So this is the very last time for that joke.
The Stockwell Playhouse is a very well equipped theatre with a decent sized stage and well designed auditorium with good views from every seat.
The show was ‘Boys in the Buff (terrible title) a cabaret with four attractive young men and one divinely voluptuous young woman. A kind of male Windmill show with the men doing the stripping and the one girl who stayed dressed throughout and acted as narrator. The boys were well chosen with widely differing personalities. Two of them straight actors but they coped Ok with Sam Rayner’s cheeky, Bob Fosse style choreography. The script by Chris Burgess deals with body image and how it can obsess the ‘selfie’ mentality.
It was a happy, not at all intellectually demanding evening A kind of theatrical holiday enlightened by a performance from Tezza – a happily rotund member of the audience.