50 Favourite Musicals: 21: THE HARDER THEY COME (2006) (Jimmy Cliff / various)

The 50 shows that have stood out down the years and, as we get up among the paint cards, the shows that have become the cast recording of my life:

First performed: 2006, Stratford East, London

First seen by me: 2008, Barbican, London

Productions seen: one

Score: Jimmy Cliff / Frederick Hibbert / various
Book: Perry Henzell
Plot:  Country boy Ivan arrives in Kingston, Jamaica to seek his fortune but finds life hard.  He lands a recording contact with a crooked record producer but the producer short-changes him.  He starts smuggling cannabis with a friend which alerts the police to him.  Ivan is soon Kingston's Most Wanted Man but when the record publisher puts out Ivan's records to cash in, he becomes a Robin Hood figure to the public... but the police are closing in...

Five memorable numbers: THE HARDER THEY COME, YOU CAN GET IT IF YOU REALLY WANT, SWEET AND DANDY, PRESSURE DROP, 007 (SHANTY TOWN)

It is interesting how this list is repeatedly throwing up the problem of whether it is the material or the production that makes it stay on my list of favourite musicals; here it is probably the former as Kerry Michael's wonderful production brought me back several times.  The production was first staged at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East by Artistic Director Michael and was so successful it transferred to the cavernous Barbican Theatre and then to the more intimate Playhouse Theatre where sadly it could not find an audience - apart from us!  However the show proved successful on a UK tour and made it to NY and Canada too.  The original film's director Perry Henzell had written the first version of the stage musical but sadly died in 2006, the year it was first staged.  The show is told in flashback: Pedro is hosting the Nine Night wake for the sorrowing friends of Ivan and their collective thoughts take them back to the day when he arrived fresh and naive from the country on the mean streets of Kingston.  The production was played on an empty stage, the onstage band upstage surrounded by the tables and chairs that made up the scenery, the walls of the stage painted in faded red, gold and green, for all intents like a drab church hall - they even projected a scratchy print of Franco Nero in DJANGO on the back hall during the interval.  The joy of the show was the wonderful cast - Rolan Bell was wonderfully charismatic as Ivan and the show gave marvellous opportunities to three black actors who have mostly worked in UK black theatre, film and tv since the 1980s - Marcus Powell was deliciously slippery as Hilton the corrupt record producer, Victor Romero Evans was splenetic as the preacher who makes Ivan's life misery when he first arrives in Kingston (although we also saw him play the laid-back Pedro at the Barbican) and Chris Tummings was fantastically scary as Roy Pierre, Kingston's chief of police and also was responsible for one of the night's highlights, singing a storming version of Toots and The Maytal's PRESSURE DROP.  It was a show that, again, highlighted the wealth of UK black performers and also delivered a wonderful immersive, inclusive night every time.

As usual there is not much video available on the stage version of THE HARDER THEY COME but luckily for me the legendary Jimmy Cliff came along one night to see the show based on his film and he joined the hard-working cast onstage for a reprise of the title song!  Go deh!

MEMPHIS... And I'm as blue as a boy can be

I really have no idea what to say about MEMPHIS: THE MUSICAL at the Shaftesbury.  As opposed to MEMPHIS: THE CITY or MEMPHIS: THE SEWER SYSTEM.

Oh Beverley Knight... the things you put me through.  Some performers make it bloody hard to be a fan.

It didn't take too long to realise I was not enjoying the show but what was the cause of my distress?

I am still in a state of shock that one of the thinnest books I have ever sat through won a Tony Award.  So, the story: Huey, an under-achieving department store worker becomes a d.j. and uses his popularity to bring rhythm and blues to the masses while also starting an affair with a talented singer Felicia against the opposition of his mother and her brother Delray.

And that's about it.  Now I don't expect depth from the average musical book but sweet Jesu... the characters are paper-thin and change with their every appearance onstage: the hero's mother is a Southern racist but has an overnight conversion by going to a black church meeting, the girl singer's brother is ultra-protective, then he's not, then he is...

The biggest absurdity in the script is when Huey and Felicia are caught kissing on the street by a group of racists who beat her in the stomach with a base-ball bat.  Later Delray, while arguing with Huey, announces that because of him Felicia can no longer have children.  So how does this colour her character as written?  Not a jot as it's never mentioned again.

Maybe she didn't particularly care to have children?

On a bigger scale - and I am truly stunned that critics have not picked up on this - the second half is a direct steal from HAIRSPRAY as Huey is given his own local cable music show which he presents as truly integrated.  The final number "Steal Your Rock 'n' Roll" also has a chorus that is a direct steal from HAIRSPRAY's "You Can't Stop The Beat".  But by then I was past caring.

There are incidental pleasures such as Sergio Trujillo's choreography which is energetic and gives the male ensemble in particular plenty of scope to shine.  There was good work from Rolan Bell in the schizoid role of the approving/disapproving brother and Jason Pennycooke was also fine in his musical numbers.

But the score by Bon Jovi keyboard player David Bryan and book writer Joe diPietro is uninspired, synthetic soul music - yes, Beverley Knight was in excellent voice but when you are listening to the extent of her vocal prowess rather than taking in what she is singing then you know something is out of whack.  Sadly the character of Felicia is so milquetoast that it's difficult to engage with her on any level when she is not singing.

As is the way with the West End, the usual leading man Killian Donnelly was off the night we went - they just don't have the range you know - so we saw Jon Robyns who has impressed before in ROAD SHOW and AVENUE Q and while good in the role of Huey, he could do little to make an unlikeable character interesting.

So there you have it.  And you are welcome to it.