The THREEPENNY OPERA at the Olivier, National Theatre: Macheath's Back In Town...

Back in 1982 Richard Eyre's National Theatre company - when not owning the Olivier stage in GUYS AND DOLLS - also appeared in the Cottesloe in John Gay's THE BEGGAR'S OPERA and, again on the Olivier stage, they also appeared in Bertolt Brecht's SCHWEYK IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR.  Now add Bertolt Brecht to John Gay and you get THE THREEPENNY OPERA, now being revived on the Olivier stage - how cyclical is theatre life!

I last saw Brecht and Kurt Weill's savage musical in 1989 on Broadway in a Victorian-themed production directed by John Dexter with a lacklustre Sting as Macheath and it also marked the last time I saw Georgia Brown on stage as she played Mrs Peachum with her usual full-throated singing (Georgia had played Lucy Brown in a 1956 Royal Court production).  However I know the show best through the 1976 New York cast recording with Raul Julia as Macheath, Caroline Kava as Polly Peachum and Ellen Greene as Jenny Diver.

After the disaster that was WONDER.LAND I was worried what director Rufus Norris would do with another musical on the Olivier stage but we are on firmer ground here and I enjoyed his inventive and surprising production very much.  We saw it in preview and certain longueurs will hopefully tighten up.

The big surprise in the casting was that Rory Kinnear is playing Macheath. the murderous anti-hero at loose as London readies itself for a coronation parade.  I knew he would be able to play the part with ease but I was surprised how well he sang it too, although his way of hitting the consonants in the lyrics got a bit wearing.  However he was an excellent Macheath, a darkly evil focus for the show's action.

What Norris' production proved beyond all else is that the best roles go to the women in the cast - the poor men didn't stand a chance.  Like his namesake in THE BEGGAR'S OPERA, Brecht's Macheath may love the women but they constantly betray him or leave him confounded and here Kinnear has his hands full with four full-on performances from Haydn Gwynne as the vengeful Mrs Peachum, Rosalie Craig as her lovelorn but shrewd daughter Polly, Sharon Small as a very Scottish Jenny Diver and Debbie Kurup as Lucy Brown.

I blow hot and cold with Rosalie Craig as a performer - I found her a rather anonymous Rosalind in AS YOU LIKE IT on the same stage - but here she gave a sparky performance as Macheath's latest conquest Polly Peachum and was also in excellent voice with great renditions of "Pirate Jenny" and "Barbara Song".  She was also nicely bitchy in her "Jealousy Duet" with Debbie Kurup's Lucy Brown, her rival for Macheath.

Sharon Small was also very good as the prostitute Jenny Diver whose lust for Macheath doesn't stop her betraying him to the Peachums and Haydn Gwynne was almost unrecognizable as the tottering, unfaithful wife of the crime boss Peachum who runs all the beggars in London and who reveals that she too has been Macheath's mistress in the past.  Her whole look appears to be based on Otto Dix' famous portrait of the notorious Weimar German cabaret dancer Anita Berber.

Despite these heavy-hitting actresses, there was much to enjoy in Nick Holder's bulky but brutal Peachum - especially when he appears in a Louise Brooks bobbed wig - and there was excellent supporting performances from Matt Cross' wonky policeman Officer Smith and George Ikediashi - better known as the cabaret singer Le Gateau Chocolat - was in resonant voice as The Balladeer who ushers the show in with "The Ballad of Mack The Knife".

Simon Stephen's adaptation promised filthy language along with immoral behaviour but I was very disappointed in the swearing to be honest - I could have done with more!  Shepherd gives a particular gay spin to Macheath's relationship with the police chief Tiger Brown which actually worked within the dynamic of Brecht's original - Macheath will do *anything* to get away with his crimes - but Shepherd also changes the final moments of the play which sits less successfully.

Rufus Norris' production constantly surprised and used the bare Olivier stage well.  Vicki Mortimer's set mainly consisted of wooden frames and sheets of brown paper to be slashed or burst through - Norris said he wanted a set that looked cheap to stage - and the irony is it probably cost a fortune!  Paule Constable's lighting design is also hugely effective.

Kurt Weill's score might have been written in 1928 but it still sounds as cutting-edge as Macheath's machete, and is wonderfully vibrant under the musical direction of David Shrubsole and the seven other onstage musicians.

We are seeing it again in two weeks - what better recommendation can you have than that?  The production is currently booking up until October.

The 2010 Chrissies!

As 2011 lies before us, all unknown and untouched, it's time to done your gayest apparel as I whisk you to the most important award ceremony of the season... The Chrissies! As is tradition we start with the THEATRE AWARDS:

Best Drama/Comedy:

AFTER THE DANCE by Terence Rattigan at the Lyttleton, National Theatre

nominees - ALL MY SONS (Apollo); KING LEAR (Donmar); LONDON ASSURANCE (National Theatre); SPRING STORM (National Theatre)

Best Musical:

HAIR at Gielgud Theatre nominees - SOUTH PACIFIC (Lincoln Center, NY); CINDERELLA (Sadler's Wells); PASSION (Donmar); A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC (Walter Kerr Theatre, NY)

Best Actor (Drama/Comedy):DAVID SUCHET (All My Sons, Apollo) nominees - DEREK JACOBI (King Lear); RORY KINNEAR (Hamlet); SIMON RUSSELL BEALE (London Assurance); JONATHAN PRYCE (The Caretaker)

Best Actor (Musical):GAVIN CREEL (Hair, Gielgud) nominees - DAVID PITTSINGER (South Pacific, NY); SAHR NGAUJAH (Fela! National Theatre); ALEXANDER HANSON (Little Night Music, NY); KEVIN MAMBO (Fela! NY)

Best Actress (Drama/Comedy):NANCY CARROLL (After The Dance, National Theatre) nominees - ZOE WANAMAKER (All My Sons); DEBORAH FINDLAY (The Glass Menagerie); HARRIET WALTER (Women Beware Women); FIONA SHAW (London Assurance)

Best Actress (Musical):ELENA ROGER (Passion, Donmar) nominees - TRACIE BENNETT (Over The Rainbow); LAURA OSNES (South Pacific, NY); SHERIDAN SMITH (Legally Blonde); JENNA RUSSELL (Into The Woods)

Best Supporting Actor (Drama/Comedy):ADRIAN SCARBOROUGH (After The Dance, National Theatre) nominees - OLIVER FORD DAVIES (The Crucible); PETER McDONALD (The Caretaker); RON COOK (King Lear); SIMON PAISLEY DAY (Private Lives)

Best Supporting Actor (Musical):NICK HOLDER (Assassins) nominees - BRYCE RYNESS (Hair, NY); MICHAEL XAVIER (Into The Woods); ANDREW SAMONSKY (South Pacific, NY); DARIUS NICHOLS (Hair)

Best Supporting Actress (Drama/Comedy):SINEAD MATTHEWS (The Glass Menagerie, Young Vic) nominees - BETTRYS JONES (The Crucible); CLARE HIGGINS (Hamlet); JUSTINE MITCHELL (King Lear); JACQUELINE KING (Summer Storm)

Best Supporting Actress (Musical):ANGELA LANSBURY (A Little Night Music, NY) nominees - CAISSIE LEVY (Hair); ALISON CASE (Hair, London); LORETTA ABLES SAYER (South Pacific, NY); BEVERLY RUDD (Into The Woods)

Best Director:HOWARD DAVIES (All My Sons, Apollo) nominees - MICHAEL GRANDAGE (King Lear); BARTLETT SHER (South Pacific, NY); THEA SHARROCK (After The Dance); NICHOLAS HYTNER (London Assurance)

Best Designer:LEZ BROTHERSTON (Cinderella, Sadler's Wells) nominees - BUNNY CHRISTIE (The White Guard); WILLIAM DUDLEY (All My Sons); HILDEGARD BECHTLER (After The Dance); MARK THOMPSON (London Assurance)

Best Lighting:NEIL AUSTIN (Passion, Donmar) nominees - NEIL AUSTIN (Cinderella); NEIL HENDERSON (All My Sons); JON CLARK (Hamlet); NEIL AUSTIN (The White Guard)

Best Choreography: MATTHEW BOURNE (Cinderella, Sadler's Wells) nominees - BILL T. JONES (Fela!); KAROL ARMITAGE (Hair); PAUL J. MEDFORD (Five Guys Named Moe); CHRISTOPHER GATTELLI (South Pacific, NY)

Now onto other awards! I have already chosen my Best Gig so onto Best Film - not a great year for cinema-going so my winner comes from 1939!

A WINDOW IN LONDON (Herbert Mason - Michael Redgrave, Paul Lukas, Sally Gray) nominees: BEAUTIFUL DARLING; GRACE OF MY HEART; SHUTTER ISLAND; INCEPTION

Best Books read:MRS. WOOLF & THE SERVANTS (Alison Light)

nominees: VITA (Victoria Glendenning); TALKING THEATRE (Richard Eyre); I DOLL (Arthur Kane); THE SHIP THAT FLEW (Hilda Lewis)

Best Miscellaneous Entertaiment:

SONDHEIM @ 80 CONCERTS: MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG; COMPANY (Donmar at Queens Theatre)

nominees - THE SACRED MADE REAL (National Gallery); GUTTED (Riverside); STEPHEN SONDHEIM (Royal Festival Hall); GAUGUIN (Tate Modern)

What's the best way to spend the hottest day of the year Constant Reader? How's about sitting in a 40-seat theatre under a railway arch in Southwark? It works for me - especially if I am seeing one of my favorite Sondheim musicals.But is ASSASSINS a musical? Not in the usual sense of the word. There are not many musicals where one of the leading characters will have two intensely powerful monologues with no solo number to 'cap' them but then the world of ASSASSINS is unpredictable, just as it should be.

Unsurprisingly the show has never found the acclaim it deserves on the Great White Way, no doubt in part to the unflinching light it shines at that most absurd of concepts The American Dream. If allegedly anyone can find fame as the President then surely it follows that anyone can find fame as the President's killer. It's not unusual to say that a Sondheim score haunts you but what I love about ASSASSINS is that John Weidman's morally-questioning book is as powerful and a true equal to the music. Although not without it's flaws one thing this production pointed out strongly is the role of the Balladeer, here played pointedly by Nolan Frederick. As the audience's unofficial guide he is the one who frames the musical numbers of the show's 'historical' assassins - John Wilkes Booth, Charles Guiteau, Leon Czolgosz and Giuseppe Zangara while the 'modern' failed assassins - Sam Byck, Lynette Fromme, Sara Jane Moore and John Hinckley are mostly given scenes by themselves.Towards the end though as the Assassins and the Balladeer argue during the song ANOTHER NATIONAL ANTHEM, the Assassins force the Balladeer from the stage and by doing so remove the show's moral compass... which leads into the wonderfully-written scene where the Assassins seduce and convince the suicidal Lee Harvey Oswald to the course of action that does indeed unify them finally as a group of people to be taken seriously and not just disparate, sad, random acts. Personally I like to believe that's what really happened in the Texas School book depository!

This also echoes the actions of the fairy-tale characters in Sondheim's previous show INTO THE WOODS who sacrifice the onstage narrator to the avenging widow of The Giant because they don't like his superior tone.As I said the weather on the day we went was sweltering and the confusing and cramped front-of-house area at the Union - seemingly the alleyway between two buildings - didn't bode well for having to spend the next 110 minutes cooped up inside a small auditorium. Thankfully when once inside the space was deliciously air-conditioned although we did have to sit in the cinema-style seats which wobbled alarmingly on a podium - especially when the not-onstage cast sat on the back of it.

As I said the production was not without it's flaws. The scene changes were frustratingly slow for a show that is supposed to keep hitting you with scenes and songs which stalled the momentum of the scene that had gone before and the choreography for THE BALLAD OF CZOLGOSZ - one of my favourite numbers - seemed needlessly tricksy and prop-heavy - especially as the stage directions are in the song - you just need a line of people queuing up to shake hands with President McKinley! Although I am all for atmosphere, the loud blasts of dry ice from behind us were annoyingly diverting and dissipated above our heads before reaching the stage anyway. There were also one or two dodgy voices in the ensemble although I really liked the idea of having them as presidential bodyguards and I thought their singing of Sondheim's added song SOMETHING JUST BROKE - in which we hear reactions to the killings from ordinary people down the ages - was particularly fine.

Despite all these I have to say this is one of the most enjoyable small-scale Sondheims I have seen. Michael Strassen's production is gloriously unrelenting and he has elicited fine performances from some key members of his cast. Glyn Kerslake and John Barr are two actors who I know more for their concert or cd appearances than for any stage work but here they both gave eye-catching performances as the vain, charismatic Booth and the clearly insane Guiteau, Barr making the most of THE BALLAD OF GUITEAU in which Sondheim used the actual poem that Guiteau recited on the gallows, as he cakewalked and cavorted nearer and nearer to the rope even with his legs tied together.

Adam Jarrell was an impassioned and sympathetic Leon Czolgosz especially in his scene with the brusque but well-meaning Emma Goldman (Lisa Stokke) and Nolan Frederick was fine as The Balladeer.Just out of interest, I wonder how anarchist Emma Goldman feels in the afterlife about featuring in two Broadway musicals - this and RAGTIME? I'm sure it makes up for the fact she was deported from America in 1917 eh?Leigh McDonald was hugely enjoyable as Sara Jane Moore, the hapless assassin who brings her dog and small son to where she is going to assassinate Gerald Ford. McDonald played her with an attractive zaniness and a genuine sense of desperation.

However the most out-there performance was Nick Holder as the paranoid Samuel Byck who in his two long and engrossing monologues took us deep into the heart of the Assassins' psyche - the irrational sense of grievance, the anger at failed dreams, the realisation that nothing changes whoever is in power. Holder was frightening, hilarious, grotesque and tragic within seconds of each other.What I loved so much about this production is that unlike the recent trend of small-scale shows this one had musicians - yes, SIX real musicians - who got on with playing the score leaving the actors free to get on with their job.

This remarkable work which showcases one of Sondheim's most gloriously theatrical scores will continue to linger long in the mind and will always intrigue me to revisit it's dark carnival of killers.