The Car Man – Sadler’s Wells

I tend to see very few dance shows. It’s not that I don’t like dance, I just don’t know enough about it to take a punt on things. So when I do go I try and see the big guns, and this time I decided to trust the hype surrounding their current tour, and went to see Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures at Sadler’s Wells. They are of course one of the most acclaimed dance companies in the UK, but I’d somehow never seen them before.The Car Man is a very clever adaptation of Bizet’s Carmen (see what they did there?!). A large company of stunning dancers perform to the familiar tunes of the 1875 opera, arranged here by Terry Davies for a small ensemble in the pit.

What Bourne has done with the Carmen story is ingenious: if you know the opera you will love the way it has been adapted, and if you don’t, you will be gripped by the hugely exciting plot anyway.First seen in 2000, The Car Man is set in Harmony, a tiny town somewhere in America, sometime in the 50s. There is very little to do in Harmony, sex and violence are the only diversions available to its inhabitants.
The show is incredibly sexy and Bourne’s choreography manages to portray sex in a way that is both graphic and stylised at the same time, with steamy but always beautiful results.The character of Carmen here becomes Lana (Zizi Strallen), a bored wife who gets off on having the whole male population lusting after her; Luca (Marcelo Gomes) seems to encompass aspects of both Don José and Escamillo from the original; he is the car man of the title who comes to work in the town’s garage, owned by Lana’s husband. In a move I found particularly clever, Bourne creates the character of Angelo (Liam Mower), who for me mirrored the Micaela of the original, adding an extra layer to Luca’s raw sexuality. He is passionate and violent with the woman but suddenly tender and almost caring with the young boy.Luca’s arrival in Harmony causes the drama to escalate pretty quickly and Act 1 already ends on a hugely dramatic moment that had us all gasping.

I’ll say no more about the plot as the twists and turns in the story are what make it so exciting, but I can tell you that the company is incredibly tight and very exciting to watch. Bourne’s choreographic language had me spellbound throughout: it’s physically impressive (the dancers glisten with sweat throughout, which doesn’t do any harm to the sexiness of the piece!) but also full of humour and great storytelling. This feels like watching a play, or a film even, that just happens to have no text. There is some vocalisation in certain crowd scenes, but the story is very much trusted to the movement.

Finally, the three central performances are truly special. Strallen is the perfect temptress, I knew of her from her musical theatre career and was so impressed to see what a strong dancer she is. Gomes as Luca is an irresistible force that seems to destroy everything he touches, and Mower is heartbreaking as young Angelo. This role has the most complex character journey, he is the ultimate victim but also the only manifestation of true love in a pretty desolate world.

The Car Man is on at Sadler’s Wells until Sunday 9th August, and if you have access to Sky Arts you can even watch the whole performance this Monday 3rd August from the comfort of your own living room, how brilliant is that?!

TIP: If you don’t manage to catch this one (shows sell out pretty fast) then why not book for Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty this Christmas? I know I will! There are £24 tickets at the back of the First Circle and £12 tickets at the back of the Second Circle. Sightlines are good at Sadler’s Wells and the shows are big so you get a good show from up there too.

Gypsy – Savoy Theatre

⭐️2016 Winner of 4 Olivier Awards: Best Lighting (M.Henderson), Best Musical Revival, Best Supporting & Lead Actress in a Musical (L.Pulver & I.Staunton)⭐️

Now you don’t need me to tell you that Gypsy is the best thing in the West End right now; Jonathan Kent’s gorgeous production has been going for months now and has received rave reviews from all sides since it first opened in Chichester last year. I only saw it recently and I went in thinking it couldn’t possibly live up to the huge expectations in my head. Turns out, it really is as good as they say.

I’d only previously seen this Broadway classic on film, in the 1962 version starring Rosalind Russell as Momma Rose and Natalie Wood as Louise (the daughter who later turns into the Gypsy of the title), which I didn’t like. I remember thinking “what’s all the fuss about?! Why is everyone obsessed with this show?”. I don’t think the film does the material any justice at all, and having seen it on stage I am convinced that the theatre is the only medium for it. There is something about the songs… you really have to be there, in the same space as the actors and have that connection that only a live performance can provide.

I’ve listened to various recordings too and I’m more convinced than ever that this is the case: yes you can here the impressive voices of Patti LuPone and Bernadette Peters on the album, but you are missing out on the live, physical energy that emanates from the force of nature that is Momma Rose.Here in London, we have Imelda Staunton starring as the ultimate ‘stage mother’, and she can most definitely sing the part. But the brilliance of her performance goes beyond the singing, and I think that is a testament not only to her as an actor, but also to the book of the show, the work of Arthur Laurents.Momma Rose is determined to turn her daughters into vaudeville stars: she first tries with the talented Baby June (a scarily skilful and hilarious enfent prodige played by Scarlet Roche on this particular night), and when that daughter leaves to make a life of her own, Rose turns to the quiet elder one, Louise, considered perfectly useless until that moment.

Staunton’s interpretation of Rose is often very funny, but the most impressive thing is watching how she becomes frantically obsessed; for such a tiny and lovely woman she really turns ugly and terrifying the more things don’t go her way. She is menacing but somehow still heartbreaking in the poignant moments when she realises her daughters don’t need her anymore.

Her incredible performance culminates in “Rose’s Turn”, the last song in the show, where I swear we see Staunton go through every human emotion. This is what I mean about the physical effect of a performance, I was sat all the way up in the Gods and I was shaking by the end of the number, so strong and affecting was her energy.

But enough about Rose. The central performance is so overwhelming that it can easily cast a shadow over everything and everyone else in the show, but this is a formidable cast all round. Dan Burton in particular impresses in his big number “All I Need is The Girl” where he gets to show off his strong voice and some seriously smooth dancing. Then there’s Gypsy Rose Lee: there must be a reason why the show is called Gypsy and not Rose, right? Lara Pulver is fantastic in her quiet transformation from gawky tomboy Louise into the breathtaking diva she becomes once she embraces a career as a stripper under the name Gypsy Rose Lee.

This is a universally acknowledged success of a show and a definite Theatre Truffle for me.

Gypsy is on until late November 2015 at the Savoy Theatre on the Strand. You can book tickets at the venue or online through ATG.

TIP: I booked the £32.50 tickets up in the Grand Circle, it’s not exactly cheap, but it is compared to the top price of £90! And it is completely worth it: we won’t get another Gypsy in years and Imelda Staunton is unmatchable.

Luckily this is a big show so it still looked and felt amazing even from up there. Plus, on a week night when the theatre wasn’t completely full, I ended up moving to the 2nd row of the Grand Circle after the interval, which was just perfect! NB. Avoid row A and F up there: there is a rail straight in front of you that will really get in the way.

To Kill A Mockingbird – Barbican Centre

Stage adaptations of well-loved novels are always tricky, but Christopher Sergel‘s ingenious turn on Harper Lee’s classic To Kill A Mockingbird is a most successful one. From the very beginning the show feels like a love letter to the book: it’s respectful of the material and manages to maintain the familiar first-person narration alongside the acting. The latter is provided by a strong ensemble cast who successfully create the world of the Deep South and its inhabitants with just a few props and costumes. They move around Jon Bausor‘s essential but evocative set in what feels like a fluid choreography.

At the centre of the action there are three young performers who were so, so good that I had to keep reminding myself they were only kids. On the performance I saw, Scout was played brilliantly by Rosie Boore who nailed the tomboy charm of the character. She had great chemistry with both Billy Price as Scout’s brother Jem and Milo Panni as adorable mini-gentleman Dill. A lot of the show rides on these characters and the way they react to the events in the story, and these young actors more than rose to the challenge.

We are introduced to the name of Atticus Finch early on by the children, but we are made to wait a while before Robert Sean Leonard appears on the scene. And boy is it worth the wait! He brings us a tired and stern man to begin with, but he lets us see more and more of Atticus’ kindness and strength, with a crescendo that culminates in the court scene. The house lights go up and we, the audience, are addressed by him as the jurors in Tim Robinson’s trial. This moment sent chills down my spine: it was passionate and heartbreaking at the same time, the appeal of a man who knows there is no chance in hell things are going to change, but that doesn’t mean he’s not  going to give it his all.

The trial scene is uncomfortable to watch, as it should be, and, like the kids, we can’t quite believe how Robinson (played by Eke Chukwu on the night, who movingly embodied the injustice of the situation) could be condemned. The attacks on him and on negroes in general are pretty hard to swallow for a modern audience, but director Timothy Sheader does a brilliant job of this and other difficult passages.

This production (originally created for Regents Park’s Open Air Theatre in 2013) is a true tribute to the novel and it struck me as the best possible way to tell this particular story. I went in expecting a good show with competent performances, I left having been blown away by the brilliance of it. A definite Theatre Truffle.

To Kill A Mockingbird ends its UK tour next Saturday 25th July at the Barbican Centre. The remaining performances are mostly sold out, but do try for Returns on the day, this is an adaptation worth seeing.

The Motherfucker with the Hat – NationalTheatre (Lyttleton)

Stephen Adly Guirgis‘ 2011 play ‘The Motherfucker with the Hat’ is a welcome breath of fresh air in the National’s programme. I was intrigued by the title, the poster and, I’ll admit, the fact that Ricardo Chavira (a face well known to me from endless hours of watching Desperate Housewives) was to star in it; the blurb didn’t give much away and nothing really prepared me to just how incredible the show would be.

Guirgis’ writing, which won him this year’s Pulitzer for Drama for ‘Between Riverside and Crazy’, has an intoxicating rhythm that clicked with me from the get go. It’s fast, it’s sharp and it flows almost  like a musical composition. Copious amounts of swearing is to be expected, the hint is in the title so you can’t really complain about it, and you really shouldn’t! This is creative and hilarious swearing and it’s an essential part of the play’s ‘score’.

Director Indhu Rubasingham does great justice to the text and gets the best out of her strong cast.  The central performance given by Ricardo Chavira is spot on, he is hilarious and honest as ex-con Jackie trying to clean up his act, and you find yourself rooting for him in spite of all his shortcomings in a life that has not been an easy one. His on/off girlfriend Veronica is fiercely portrayed by Flor De Liz Perez (the actors and the characters are Latinos,  something so rarely seen on the London stage; more please!), the second American import in the cast. Perez skilfully inhabits Veronica’s wild character and she gets to dish out some of the best swearing in the show, which she totally nails. The central relationship is completely believable and the chemistry is perfect, both in love and hate.

Then there’s Jackie’s sponsor, Ralph. A self-professed asshole, brilliantly played here by Alec Newman (British, but you honestly wouldn’t know it), who manages to make him very funny although he is infuriating and one of the ugliest characters I’ve ever seen on a stage. I kept waiting for someone to break a chair on his head or something; there’s a great fight scene towards the end, choreographed to perfection by Kev McCurdy, which is very satisfying to watch. Ralph’s un-loving wife Victoria is played by the other Brit, a very funny fed-up and at times heartbreaking Nathalie Armin.

But the real heart of the show for me was Cousin Julio, the glorious Yul Vazquez who originated the role in New York and was nominated for a Tony Award for it. And you can see why! Apart from being the master of scene-stealing and the kind of comic actor that makes you want to clap everytime he finishes a sentence, he represents Jackie’s family and what family means for Latinos. His performance is beautiful to watch and he has such a strong chemistry with Chavira and Newman that kept me thinking I wish I could just hang out with these guys for a bit!

The Motherfucker with the Hat is on at the National Theatre unil the 20th August. I urge you to catch it because it’s a definite truffle and because there is nothing else like it in London and there probably won’t be again for ages.

Tip: The best way to get good seats at the National Theatre for an affordable price is through the Friday Rush: every Friday at 1pm they release a certain number of £20 tickets for the following week’s performance.

⭐️  Nominated for 2 Evening Standard Theatre Awards ⭐️