EVERY GOOD BOY DESERVES FAVOUR

National Theatre at the Olivier

06.02.09

It's a year since I last saw this inventive revival. I gave it five stars then, and it seems even better now.

There's not a word or a movement wasted.

Julian Bleach gives a superbly physical performance as Ivanov – the one who is actually mad, and has an orchestra in his head – strutting, capering, conducting in a wildly manic parody. Jonathan Aris is the doctor who seems eccentric, to say the least, and Adrian Schiller is the political dissident whose son – played much more convincingly this year, by Shea Davis when we saw it, by Wesley Nelson for other performances – is used as a lever by the brutally repressive authorities.

Orchestra and ensemble are all on top form, and the production continues to gather plaudits from critics and audiences …

JIVIN' MISS DAISY

Chelmsford Jazz Club at the Cramphorn

07.01.10

Chelmsford Jazz Club was founded 25 years ago, and this concert was a great way to celebrate.

Though the club more usually features small combos, there are occasionally bigger bands, and Simon Thorpe's eight-piece outfit, playing authentic arrangements from the era of Basie, Ellington, Henderson and Barnet, certainly proved popular with a packed Cramphorn.

They began with Basie's In Case You Didn't Know, and ended with Spencer Williams' Everybody Loves My Baby. My favourite, and I don't think I was alone, was the Gershwins' That Certain Feeling, given a stylish big band gloss.

Their vocalist, the excellent Anjali Perin, whose warm, smooth voice, with crystal clear lyrics, made the most of classics like Blue Skies, and Brooks Bowman's East of the Sun, with a nicely understated guitar solo by Colin Oxley. She gave us a couple of Porter numbers, and the poignant ballad What's New, featuring Nick Dawson's piano and Simon Finch's trumpet.

It's a while since I was at the Jazz Club's monthly Sunday lunchtime meeting. I was impressed not just with the standard of the music, but by the warm welcome, and the sound system, each musician sensitively miked and mixed. As the wag next to me remarked, only the band's neckties were too loud...

Next meeting, on March 7, brings the Matt Wates sextet back to the Cramphorn.

WHOSE LIFE IS IT ANYWAY ?

Theatre at Baddow

30.01.10

Brian Clark's intriguing play deals, not with euthanasia or assisted suicide, but with the patient's right to choose the time and manner of his death, to wrest control of his own life from the professionals. It first saw the light on television almost forty years ago. Since then it has been revived, adapted and updated.

Wisely, directors Matthew Jones and John Mabey returned to the 70s and the original version. Ken Harrison is centre stage, bedridden and paralysed. Around him the hospital staff bustle and flit. Out of his sight, symmetrically behind him, office space in a décor of anonymous pastel.

Roger Saddington gave a quietly assured reading of the stricken sculptor, wise-cracking with the pretty Junior Nurse [Vicky Wright], roused to fury by the inveterate optimist Mrs Boyle [Annette Michaels]. The end of their scene together was one of the strongest moments for me, in a production that did not always engage the audience in this perennially relevant debate.

But this is by no means a one-man show. A dozen other characters join Ken on his quest to die with dignity. Helen Quigley was the Sister with the heart of stainless steel, with Caroline Wright as the sympathetic young doctor, and Joanna Poole as Miss Kershaw, the barrister who speaks for Ken in the “courtroom”.

Two key characters were John, the orderly, who perhaps stands for the love of life that Ken has lost, played here with a cheeky cynicism by Iain Miller, and Emerson, the omniscient consultant who never doubts for a moment that valium is the answer, played with aplomb by Robert Bastian. A performance which was all the stronger for showing compassion, and vulnerability, towards the end.

photograph: David Pridmore

ROTARY CLUBS MUSIC AWARDS

St Cedd's School

29.01.10

I had no idea the devil played the banjo. Though I suppose we shouldn't be surprised.

Lucifer's Banjo, a Study in Repeated Notes, composed in 1997 by Martin Butler, was one of the pieces that won this competition for the talented pianist Sasha Millwood, impressing the adjudicator with his tight rhythms. It was certainly a spectacularly energetic piece, making an effective contrast with the Beethoven Sonata which Sasha played first.

The standard of the entries was remarkably high. Three singers took part, all very talented, and well served by the warmer acoustic of St Cedd's London Road. I loved April Goss's Schubert, Jessica Hope's Schumann, and Oliver El-Holiby's Purcell, immaculately sung from memory.

Samantha Davis played a stylish black alto sax, Cara Chan, another pianist, gave us a beautiful Mozart Sonata, Leslie-Jean Stowe, violin, contrasted a stately Handel Sonata with an aggressive Hungarian Dance by Rachmaninov.

Runner-up on the night, Josephine Wilkins impressed Ann Griggs, the adjudicator, with the sense of freedom she brought to a colourful Fantaisie for flute by Gabriel Fauré.

Sasha will now go on to compete at Regional Level in a competition to be held in Chelmsford Cathedral on February 20.

ALADDIN

at the New Wolsey Theatre Ipswich

25.01.09

A wok 'n' [spring] roll panto ?

Great ! But can we afford it ?

Well, we'd need a Twankey, of course. Aladdin himself, Abenazar, Genie of the Lamp, Wishee and Washee, the Beijing broker's men … [ only one ? doubling pantomime dragon with Aladdin ] A rocking band, backing singers …

If you've been amongst the happy punters at the Wolsey, you'll know how the riddle was solved.

Recession panto par excellence, with a multi-talented company of ten scarcely ever off stage.

Like the People's Republic of China, this was a democratic show.

Francesca Loren's agile monkey, for example, also played sax, trombone and an impressive trumpet in the old Orbison number [shades on, everyone] In Dreams.

And Julian Harries' disgraceful Dame also played keyboard – the ingenious live sound effects were also done on the synth.

Shirley Darroch's Genie had some of the best vocal moments. The most effective number dramatically was Close to You, with an outrageous vocal quartet in the wings.

Just occasionally I might have wished for more panto [there were few routines, and no laundry] and less music. But director Peter Rowe, who co-wrote this piece back last century, and MD Ben Goddard kept the forces mobilized from warm-up to instrumental encore. And Foxton's set, cleverly changing from street to palace, with lanterns, dragons and an old joke all of its own, was superb.