AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' at the Southwark Playhouse - Spreading Rhythm Around...

In 1978, an off-Broadway show proved such a hit that it was developed into a bigger production and shimmied and trucked it's way over to the Longacre for a Broadway run that ran nearly four years, spread over three theatres.

A plot-free compilation show based on the songbook of jazz legend Fats Waller, the show won three Tony Awards including Best Musical and opened here in 1979 at Her Majesty's - how odd to think of that theatre having ever staged anything but PHANTOM - and now it's being revived at the Southwark Playhouse in a production that first opened at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester earlier this year.

AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' was the precursor of shows like ONE MO' TIME, BLUES IN THE NIGHT and FIVE GUYS NAMED MOE where a small cast with band explore the genre of blues and jazz, letting the narrative within the songs build up the show's characters and within the specific context of the show, explore the lives of black Americans in the first half of the 20th Century.

Murray Horwitz and Richard Maltby Jr.'s show is here revived with a surprising new production team - young Olivier Award-winning actor Tyrone Huntley has made his directing debut and his choreographer is the STRICTLY COME DANCING professional dancer Oti Mabuse, and together they have delivered a firecracker of a production that glows as brightly as it's setting!

Designer Takis has transported us back to the golden period of jazz with a set which shines and glitters - it's polished golden floor reflecting the shimmering and kaleidoscopic stairs of our imaginary cabaret.  The five-man onstage band, led by Music Director and pianist Alex Cockle flooded the auditorium with the wonderful score - 30 songs from the Fats Waller songbook which just keep on coming!

Huntley has directed a tight show that doesn't stop for breath and Mabuse has choreographed the show so it seems to undulate through it's 90 minute running time - even the slow numbers seem to have a sway to them which keep the momentum going.  Congratulations to them both, it will be interesting to see if they work on another production.

A relatively unknown cast rip through Waller's songbook with sass and attitude, it must be said the women get the bigger shake of the action but they do have the bigger, more individual personalities and belt their songs out to the rafters!

The women included Carly Mercedes Dyer as a squeaky and dizzy ingenue, Renée Lamb as the fiery fuller-figure gal but, for me, Landi Oshinowo was the best with her seen-it-all air and a sensational voice that delivered a wonderful torch version of MEAN TO ME and led the company into more serious territory with BLACK AND BLUE.  Adrian Hansel and Wayne Robinson mooched around the women and had their own moments to shine with their snap brimmed trilbies and sliding moves.

Sometimes the tempo took it's toll on some of the diction - Dyer's more uptempo numbers suffered noticeably - but when you have all those numbers to fit in I guess something has to be sacrificed.  And what songs: apart from the ones already mentioned there was I'M GONNA SIT RIGHT DOWN AND WRITE MYSELF A LETTER, TWO SLEEPY PEOPLE, HONEYSUCKLE ROSE, SQUEEZE ME, THE JOINT IS JUMPIN', KEEPIN' OUT OF MISCHIEF NOW,  FIND OUT WHAT THEY LIKE, I CAN'T GIVE YOU ANYTHING BUT LOVE, IT'S A SIN TO TELL A LIE and SPREADIN' RHYTHM AROUND to name a few!

AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' closed last night but it would be wonderful if a space could be found in the West End for this cracking little show and it's dynamic cast and production team - as they sang in the show I'VE GOT MY FINGERS CROSSED!