LOOKING BACK ON 2015

LOOKING BACK ON 2015


Deliberately scaled back this year, with the average weekly haul only three reviews.
But plenty of wonderful memories to share; here's a baker's dozen of performances I would happily have re-visited … and in some cases did so.
Nicely spread between London and the provinces, Essex and the rest, professionals and amateurs.
In Warwickshire, two very different pieces: Oppenheimer, with the always admirable John Heffernan, and the beautifully re-imagined Edwardian Love's Labours Lost [and Won].
Much more of the Bard at Shakespeare's Globe, but I've picked out All The Angels – about the genesis of Handel's Messiah, and the deliciously entertaining Nell Gwynn, now transferring [like Farinelli and the King] to the West End, but not, alas, with Gugu Mbatha-Raw in the title role.
Up and down the A12 to Colchester and Hornchurch, both enterprising producing houses still. The Elephant Man at the Queen's was superbly done, and Bully Boy made an auspicious opener at the Mercury's newly re-fitted studio.
Plenty of tasty seasonal fare this winter – my favourite perhaps The Little Match Girl at Sadler's Wells, due to travel up to Ipswich after the Christmas break.
Small- and medium-scale tours continue to bring theatre to all parts of the country. [And how wonderful to see Flintlock join their ranks !] Let The Silver Sword stand for them all.
Chichester Festival Theatre – getting a new Artistic Director in 2016 – fielded excellent musicals again this year – but the unexpected discovery was Somerset Maugham's For ServicesRendered, faultlessly revived in the Minerva.
A musical revival, not from the Chichester stable, was the Old Vic's hit of the year, High Society, with the bonus of Joe Stilgoe at the grand piano.
Classic musicals from local companies too: CTW's powerfully intimate Sweeney Todd, and a phenomenal Cats from CYGAMS in the Cramphorn, who also gave us a great Hairspray in the Civic.
And in the tiny, hard-working Brentwood Theatre, many impressive productions, including a beautifully realised Pinter Birthday Party from the College Players.

production photograph of CYGAMS' Cats by Barrie White-Miller

THE FIREWORK-MAKER'S DAUGHTER

THE FIREWORK-MAKER'S DAUGHTER

Royal Opera at the Linbury Studio

29.12.2015



Philip Pullman's charming tale is set in a non-specific Orient. A fairy story of elephants, mountains and fireworks. Like all the best stories, it has something to say to everyone; the young children and the adults in the audience equally enchanted.
The novella, now 30 years old, has also been a successful play, and now it is a proper opera, with music by David Bruce and a libretto by Glyn Maxwell.
John Fulljames's colourful production is deliberately, delightfully simple – shadow puppets [by Indefinite Articles] on all sorts of screens, OHP projections, and some stunning costumes. All to relate the adventures of feisty proto-feminist Lila – the girl who never gives up. She's desperate to follow in the firework-making footsteps of her ageing father Lalchand. He's unwilling to pass on skills and trade secrets, so Lila embarks on a quest to find the fire-fiend. She's joined by her friend Chulak, by Hamlet the white elephant, and by the optimistic, kind-hearted pirate Rambashi.
In the end, of course, father and daughter are reconciled, Hamlet finds his long lost love Frangipani, and Lalchand's fireworks win the day.
Bruce's fine, bright score – infused by eastern influences - gives many opportunities to the young singers, accompanied by CHROMA with Alice Farnham conducting. Lalchand – sung when I saw the show by Nicholas Merryweather – has a lovely aria to his daughter. Most of the lyrical lines are given to Lila herself – the excellent Lauren Fagan [seen this year in Orpheus by candlelight] – and to the elephant, beautifully done by American counter-tenor Tai Oney. Peter Kirk brings a cheeky charm to the elephant boy Chulak, and Ross Ramgobin is the audience favourite as Rambashi, not to mention the King, complete with stilts, fingernails and the flashiest frock in the show.
The evening is crammed with inventive inspiration, starting with the Linbury foyer, with fly-away powder, Firework cupcakes and rockets in the ceiling. The Echoes on Cruel Mountain, Hamlet's billboard bottom, and the firework competition at the end, with Herr Puffenflasch using sand, Signor Scorcini oil, to finger-paint the pyrotechnics before our eyes.

It all feels refreshingly hand-made. A taste of the lyric stage for the ROH's youngest opera-goers, and a timely reminder that magic can be made without microphones or electronics of any kind.

CHRISTMAS AT BLACKMORE

CHRISTMAS AT BLACKMORE

Stondon Singers 

at the Priory Church of 

St Laurence

22.12.15

Full house this year for the Stondon Singers' traditional concert of carols and Christmas music. As usual, a bracing mix of old and new, the familiar and the discoveries, conducted and introduced by Christopher Tinker.

New to me was Jacob Handl, 16^th century Slovene, whose Mirabile Mysterium was a challenging combination of the archaic and the modern. The evening ended with a favourite of mine since school days, Peter Cornelius's The Three Kings, sung from the west end of this ancient church.

A première: Alan Bullard's attractive setting of Shepherds Guarding Your Flocks, followed by Berlioz' Shepherds' Farewell. Two twentieth century pieces, beautiful in their simplicity, Rutter's Candlelit Carol and Britten's Hymn To The Virgin, with English and Latin alternating antiphonally.

Mark Ellis was the soloist in Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on Christmas Carols, splendidly performed, with Michael Frith at the organ. It concludes with an old version of a well-known carol from Somerset – let the last verse stand as season's greetings to you all:

God bless the ruler of this house,
And long on may he reign,
Many happy Christmases
He live to see again!
God bless our generation,
Who live both far and near,
And we wish them a happy, a happy New Year.

SLEEPING BEAUTY

SLEEPING BEAUTY
The Essex Group at Witham Public Hall
20.12.2015

Gary Sullivan's Sleeping Beauty – bringing the shameless excitement of panto to Witham – takes some liberties with the tale, but gives generous opportunities to its performers of all ages. The script revels in some entertaining flights of linguistic fancy and rhyming fun.
The production has a professional feel – flashy merchandise, strong, outgoing performances, slick choreography, impressive pyrotechnics and a hi-tech mirror ball.
And there are some excellent people in the company. Engaging the audience and providing much of the on-stage energy, Josh Handley's lively Jester Jack, a perfect panto performance. A nice foil for the coarse-grained Nanny Sally of writer/director Gary Sullivan. 
Jackie Parry has all the menacing moves for a boo-able Maleficent, another strong characterization. Very promising work from many of the youngsters: George Bedwell as the Squire to Julian Harris's “stunning looking Prince”, Lily Downes as Subservient, sidekick to the Wicked Witch, and Ben Blackborow working incredibly hard as a bumbling aviator, a village idiot, Walnut and Dreyfus the Dragon.
Shona Ekins makes a charming, feisty Fairy Nuff, marshalling her tiny corps de ballet, “representing the whole fairy kingdom”. Nice, confident performances, beautifully costumed. Super frocks for the dancers, too, even for the trees in the “obnoxious forest”. And of course some gorgeous creations for the Dame, including a great super-hero reveal.
The musical numbers are polished and energetic – a Hairspray kick-line, something sweet from Anastasia, and for the happy-ever-after ending, Grease and Walk the Moon. A little more music would have been welcome, and a little less innuendo, perhaps.
Essex Group are back in panto mode next year – nine performances of Puss in Boots for Christmas 2016 – but before then, the ever-popular Oliver!, coming to the Public Hall in April.

MERRILY ON HIGH!

MERRILY ON HIGH!

Chelmsford Singers at the Cathedral

19.12.15

David Willcocks, doyen of choral Christmas, who died in September at the age of 95, was well represented in this upbeat selection box for choir, audience and brass.

Ding Dong ! Merrily on High, with decorative organ filigree from Laurence Lyndon-Jones, O Come All Ye Faithful, God Rest You Merry Gentlemen, and a rousing Hark the Herald to start, with fanfare from the excellent Westminster Brass. We were treated to four instrumental pieces from them, including a jolly Sussex Carol, two sleigh rides from East and West, and a Christmas Cracker which turned out to be more of a garland, a string of carols from Realms of Glory to Wenceslas.

The choral highlight was Cecilia McDowall's brand new Cantata for Christmas, A Winter's Night. An inventive sequence of five English, German and French carols linked by instrumental bridges from brass quintet, percussion and organ, given an impressive, joyous performance by the Singers. The quintet also featured in Rutti's Three Carols; the Presto climax a rhythmically exciting Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day.

Plenty of opportunity for us to match our lung power against the might of brass and organ, including a lighter Willcocks arrangement of Jingle Bells. Musical Director James Davy, sporting a festive scarlet bow tie, confessed to blowing the entire budget for this Christmas Concert on the band, imploring us to jingle our car keys in lieu of Sleigh Bells ...