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It’s turning into rather a
special winter in London theatre with a number of notable productions competing
for your attention and wallet.
Michael Grandage is one of very
few directors in history whose popularity warrants his taking over a big venue
for an entire year. He’s taken up residency at the Noel Coward Theatre to
present a series of star studded productions kicking off with Simon Russell
Beale as the cross-dressing leader of an entertainment troup in post-WW2-Malaya,
in a revival of Privates on Parade. He originally directed it at the Donmar
Warehouse and during his time as artistic director there he established an
unwavering house style in which excellent actors play texts simply and directly
in shafts of light on a sparsely furnished stage. Time and again this approach
has proved revelatory when top actors have embraced a concept that presents
their performances and the script in high definition. So it proves again. An
excellent cast give full value to writer Peter Nicholls’ dramatisation of a
group of social misfits, several of them openly gay, deployed to entertain the
troups in squalid and then terrifying wartime conditions. The players’ attempts
at glamour against the odds is full of pathos and often laugh-out loud funny.
The fact that they aren’t very good but try so hard is superbly epiomised by
Russell Beale fronting shoddy musical numbers in shabby drag whilst a bloody
and pointless conflict rages around him. Highly recommended.
In contrast, at the Old Vic,
the musical staging is premiere league, as you would expect from a revival of
the 1950’s Broadway classic, Kiss Me Kate, from legendary director Trevor Nunn
and celebrated choreographer Stephen Mear with terrific new musical
arrangements of Cole Porter’s songs from Gareth Valentine. It’s a story of a beleaguered
company of actors trying out a musical of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew in
a sweltering Baltimore Theatre where the off stage sparring of its stars begins
to mirror that of the characters they play. The emphasis is on comedy when a
mix-up over a gambling debt and the multiple infidelities of the performers
introduce gangsters and a presidential campaign into proceedings. I love this
show and have enjoyed several first class revivals. On this occasion the wise
cracking script is played a little too carefully to catch fire but the singing
and dancing from this charismatic cast will send you out into the winter night
with a smile on your face.
If you love great Shakespearean
acting then you’ll relish the current production of Julius Caesar at the Donmar
Warehouse where Harriet Walters in the male role of Brutus and Francis Barber
as Caesar are so skilled that you soon forget they’re the wrong sex. Indeed the
whole female cast are so convincing in Shakespeare’s tale of vaulting ambition and
civil war that there’s no need for Phyllida Lloyd’s distracting women’s prison
setting. I wish she’d just let these extraordinary actors, usually excluded
from the chance of great classical rolls by their gender, get on with playing
the story. There are two all male Shakespeare productions currently playing at
the Duke of York’s Theatre. I hope the next step is a production where the best
actors for the roles are cast regardless of whether they’re male or female.
This revival proves the plays are quite robust enough to take it. A word of
caution, Lloyd’s prison concept extends to you having to watch from plastic
chairs for over two hours without an interval. I found the discomfort very
distracting.
Privates on Parade **** (Four Stars)
Noel Coward Theatre, December 1-March 2
Author: Peter Nichols, Denis King (music)
Director: Michael Grandage
Cast includes: Simon Russell Beale, John Marquez, Joseph Timms, Sam Swainsbury,
Harry Hepple, Angus Wright
Kiss Me Kate **** (Four Stars)
The Old Vic, London
Cast:Adam Garcia, Alex Bourne, Hannah
Waddingham, David Burt, Clive Rowe
Director: Trevor Nunn
Design: Robert Jones
Choreography: Stephen Mear
Musical direction: Gareth Valentine
Julius Caesar *** (Three Stars)
The Donmar Warehouse
Donmar Warehouse, November 29-February 9
Author: William Shakespeare
Director: Phyllida Lloyd
Cast includes: Harriet Walter, Jenny Jules, Frances Barber, Cush Jumbo, Ishia
Bennison, Clare Dunne, Charlotte Josephine, Jen Joseph, Carrie Rock
You can buy tickets to Kiss Me Kate and loads of other shows here from our secondary ticketing partner Viagogo,
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