50 Favourite Musicals: 15: SHOW BOAT (1927) (Jerome Kern / Oscar Hammerstein II, PG Wodehouse)

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: 1927, Ziegfeld Theatre, NY

First seen by me: London Palladium, 1991

Productions seen: two

Score: Jerome Kern / Oscar Hammerstein II, P.G. Wodehouse
Book: Oscar Hammerstein II

Plot: The lives and loves of the performers on Capt'n Andy's show boat "The Cotton Blossom" as it sails up and down the Mississippi River span 40 years and the evolving styles of American popular entertainment...

Five memorable numbers: OL' MAN RIVER, CAN'T HELP LOVIN' DAT MAN, MAKE BELIEVE, BILL, LIFE UPON THE WICKED STAGE

You would have thought that the show acknowledged to be the one that first presented a narrative with a fully integrated score and believable characters - not just an evening of skits, songs and production numbers or imported European operetta - would be handled with more respect but no, SHOW BOAT has been revised and rewritten with practically every revival on stage or screen.  Incidentally how interesting that the original SHOW BOAT was produced by Florenz Ziegfeld whose splashy revues were wiped away in the coming years by Musical Comedy productions.  The story stays the same - professional gambler Gaylord Ravanel meets aspiring actress Magnolia Hawks aboard her father's show boat and they marry unhappily ever after - but songs are dropped to be added to the film to be added to the revival to be dropped again etc. etc.  However, no matter what version you see the magic always happens - Edna Ferber's original characters are all sympathetically drawn by Hammerstein and you are never far away from a cracking song whatever the production. 

My first voyage on the SHOW BOAT was James Whale's 1936 film version with the excellent cast of Irene Dunne as Magnolia, Helen Morgan repeating her original stage role as Julie Laverne the Cotton Blossom's leading lady who has to leave when it is revealed that she is half-black, Hattie McDaniel as the boat's cook Queenie and the legendary Paul Robeson as her husband Joe.  Incidentally 'Joe' was written for Robeson but because Ziegfeld's production was delayed he had to withdraw because of other commitments, he played it instead in the original London production.  I first saw it onstage in 1991 when Ian Judge directed an RSC & Opera North co-production at the London Palladium with a memorable cast of Jan Hartley (Magnolia), Bruce Hubbard (Joe), Marilyn Cutts (Julie), David Healy (Cap'n Andy), Karla Burns (Queenie) and Margaret Courtenay (Parthy).  It was a wonderful production that made me realize the show's power.  Then in 2016 Daniel Evans directed an excellent revival for the Sheffield Crucible which later transferred to the New London Theatre for a shamefully short run.  At the Crucible the show had lovely performances from Michael Xavier (Gaylord), Gina Beck (Magnolia), Allan Corduner (Cap'n Andy), Emmanuel Kojo (Joe), Sandra Marvin (Queenie), Danny Collins (Frank) and particularly Rebecca Trehearn's haunting Julie - the character has my two favourite numbers from the show "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" and "Bill" (originally written by Kern with PG Wodehouse in 1917).  It was wonderful to experience SHOW BOAT on stage again, and it proved that a historical milestone from 1927 can be as vital, touching and entertaining as ever.

Again I am confronted with there being so many fabulous songs in SHOW BOAT over so many productions... which to choose?  I kept returning to this, a promo for the New London production with Rebecca Trehearn showing why she won the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress In A Musical for playing tragic Julie and delivering such a thrilling version of "Bill"...

Dvd/150: SAINT JOAN (Otto Preminger, 1957)

As it's 40 years since Jean Seberg's tragic death, I watched SAINT JOAN, the film that started - and nearly ended - her career.

Otto Preminger launched a worldwide search for an unknown to play Joan in his film of George Bernard Shaw's play and 18 year-old Jean from Marshalltown,  Iowa was chosen.  Preminger bullied her relentlessly during filming earning her the sympathy of co-stars like John Gielgud.

She suffered physically too while filming the execution scene when she received minor burns when the under-set gas jets flared up out of control.

Her fragile confidence was again knocked when the film opened to bad reviews with critics highlighting her obvious inexperience.

Yes she is inconsistent but that is unsurprising with her lack of experience and Preminger's undermining bullying but she has an unsettling directness and is wonderful in key scenes like the recantation at the end of her trial.

Shelf or charity shop?  An obvious keeper for Jean but also for Gielgud's supercilious Warwick, Felix Aylmer and Anton Walbrook's thorough trial judges and Victor Maddern's cockney soldier who is allowed out of Hell for one day a year for giving Joan a makeshift cross at the stake.  

ROMEO + JULIET at Sadler's Wells - Mad Love

On the way into Sadler's Wells I wondered to Owen whether this new Matthew Bourne was going to be another RED SHOES or another DORIAN GRAY - was it going to be one I loved or not affected by at all?  Sigh...

I fear it was one of those occasions when I simply didn't get what other people were reacting to.  My heart vaguely sank when I saw that it was set in the Verona Institute with a standing set of white bricks and metal mesh side walls.  However the first loud sigh started when the show did!

Prokofiev's score has been cut to suit Bourne's cloth and it launched straight into the score's greatest hit 'Montagues and Capulets' aka 'Dance Of The Knights' aka 'The Apprentice UK's Theme Music', the first of quite a few appearances during the ballet - it's like doing a version of THE NUTCRACKER with 'The Dance of The Sugar Plum Fairy' every 15 minutes.

My main gripe was Bourne's clunking premise which, for me, simply refused to fly.  Romeo is admitted to the Bourne Home For The Perpetually Leaping Confused by his careerist politician parents and left to mingle with the usual Bourne misfit inmates including the flashy Mercutio and his gay lover Balthasar and the sadistic guard Tybalt who terrorizes the inmates.

At a scene - shall we say borrowed? - straight out of WEST SIDE STORY, during a party for the inmates - cue lots of gauche acting and stiff-legged two and fro dancing - the mirror ball starts and Romeo and Juliet spy each other across the room - cue the ensemble start to dance in slow motion while our couple instantly fall in love.

Juliet is a twitchy inmate that we find already prowling the walls and always on guard from the nasty advances of Tybalt.  After the party, Tybalt murders Mercutio and the inmates turn on him, all having a hand in his death... and that's only the first half!  And that's the problem...  Surely the pivot for any adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is that the two lovers are separated by blood and circumstance, both interior and exterior obstacles, that result in the fatal outcome... but here, where do the obstacles lie? 

Tybalt is dispatched in the first act so no hindrance there... the Asylum staff hardly seem to care about them; Romeo's parents could care less about them - they are just happy to have their son off their hands... which leaves... what, their madness?  If there is nothing keeping them apart then what do you have left?  You are left with Bourne's scenario which culminates in an out-of-nowhere accident.  Hardly the stuff to inspire 423 years of fascination.

Bourne's choreography was remarkable but not consistently - there seemed to be certain moments which seemed to be retreads from other shows - most noticeably in the party scene where the ensemble did his usual 'embarrased dancer shtick' and in the second-act opener for grieving Balthasar which was an all-too familiar copy of Angelo's jail solo in THE CAR MAN.  The wimpy, whey-faced Romeo of Paris Fitzpatrick struck me again as being based on Bourne's character of EDWARD SCISSORHANDS but thank the lord for the magnetism of Cordelia Braithwaite as Juliet.

As she demonstrated most notably in THE RED SHOES, she is a dancer of exquisite emotion and like in that ballet, here she demonstrated deep wells of maniacal energy that made her incredibly watchable.  To be honest no one else came close although Jackson Fisch went all out for pathos in his Balthasar solo.  The ensemble were all exceptional and gave committed performances.

Lez Brotherston's set was little more than functional but Paule Constable's lighting gave the show the light and shade not always found in the scenario or choreography. 

The ultimate problem for me is that Kenneth McMillan's Royal Ballet version is so unforgettably powerful that even Bourne's anti-romantic take on the score here for me failed because you simply don't care about anyone on stage - and if you don't care what happens to your pair of star-crossed lovers in whatever adaptation you are seeing then what's the point?

Being a Bourne show there will be a tour, a cinema screening at some point and a probable dvd release so I am guessing I will have an opportunity so give it another look.

I suppose...

Dvd/150: FILM STARS DON'T DIE IN LIVERPOOL (Paul McGuigan, 2017)

This film of Peter Turner's memoir of his 2 year relationship with Hollywood actress Gloria Grahame is shot through with a sadness that lingers long afterward.

They met in a London boarding house in 1979: he starting out as an actor while she was an Oscar-winning actress returning to the stage as the film work dwindled.  Love blossomed but 18 months later, Gloria abruptly ended it while Peter was with her in New York.

A year later and back in Liverpool, Peter received a call from Gloria; she had collapsed on tour and asked to recuperate with him and his parents.  But Peter discovered she was in fact dying of cancer - the diagnosis of which made her finish their relationship, sparing him the pain.

Paul McGuighan moves from the Turner home to Peter's memories of their relationship with cleverly staged transitions and elicits exquisite performances from his remarkable cast.

Shelf or charity shop?  Probably one for the shelf due to McGuighan's elegiac tone, fine supporting performances from Vanessa Redgrave and Frances Barber as Grahame's mother and embittered sister, and Julie Walters and Kenneth Cranham as the warm-hearted Joe and Bella Turner.  Jamie Bell is outstanding as Peter Turner and Annette Bening is magnificent as Gloria Grahame - loving, angry, hurt, afraid, charismatic, and alone... 

Exit Through The Giftshop - Postcards at an exhibition....

More bootiful booty from museum and exhibition gift shops...

1) TITLE PAGE OF THE FIRST FOLIO OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS (1623) - Martin Droeshout

I bought this in Stratford-on-Avon at Shakespeare's birthplace - it seemed the most obvious purchase really.  The First Folio was published in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare's death, by John Heminges and Henry Condell who were actors in The King's Men, the acting company that the Bard wrote for.  Although many of Shakespeare's plays had been published in smaller Quarto publications, these were cheaply produced and fluctuated in quality. 

The First Folio compiled 36 plays, 18 of which for the first time including THE TEMPEST, ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, MEASURE FOR MEASURE, JULIUS CAESAR and MACBETH.  It is believed about 750 editions were published and is now considered one of the most important publications in history.  A copy was sold in 2001 at Christies, NY for over £3 million.  21 year-old Martin Droeshout's engraving has become the one that most Shakespeare imagery is based on.

2) PLEIN AIR (1890-1) - Ramon Casas

I bought this in the MNAC Gallery in Barcelona which celebrates Catalonian art.  In 1890 the 25 year-old Casas was living and working in Paris and his painting 'Plein Air' shows the influence of the Impressionist painters on him.

Casas' painting has a haunting quality as a smartly-dressed woman sits outside at a table in the gloaming, staring at a man across the empty courtyard who is turned away from her gaze, looking out of the gate to the town beyond.  The white of the tablecloth and the red wine in the carafe is contrasted against the black of the woman's outfit giving the viewer a focus in the surrounding muted colours.

3) MAP READING (1932) - Stanley Spencer

I bought this at Somerset House when they recreated Stanley Spencer's 19 canvasses in situ as they appear at the Sandham Memorial Chapel in Burghclere, Hampshire.  The Chapel was commissioned to honor Lieutenant Henry Sandham who died in 1920 by his sister and brother-in-law.  They turned to Stanley Spencer to decorate the Chapel with the paintings for which he drew on his memories and observations while working as an orderly in the Royal Army Medical Corps in WWI.

Over his cycle of paintings we follow Spencer's experiences from the training hospital in Bristol where he was confronted with the injured and maimed from the Front in the benign surroundings of the hospital to being an orderly in the field in Macedonia.  In "Map Reading", an officer studies a map of the Macedonian terrain while his soldiers lounge on either side of the road, some clambering among bilberry bushes for food while one sits feeding the officer's horse who stares out at the viewer with an accusing stare.  As usual, what I love about Spencer's painting is the topsy-turvy lay-out, the humanity and gentle humour that he finds in the scene, and in particular the glaring horse - is he angry about being used as a desk by the officer or at the world that has made the situation happen?

4) THE ANNUNCIATION (CELL 3) (1438) - Fra Angelico

 

I bought this at the former Dominican friary San Marco in Florence which now houses many works by the Renaissance painter Fra Angelico who lived there from 1436 to 1445.  The first floor of the friary contains a number of frescoes by Fra Angelico that make it an essential place to visit for any art lover.  As you climb the broad staircase and turn the corner to the last flight up to the first floor you see ahead of you his magnificent fresco of "The Annunciation", one of the great works of Renaissance religious art, but the first floor also has a wonderful collection of frescoes that he painted for each of the monk's cells as subjects for contemplation during prayer. 

The austere beauty of these works is reflected in this fresco of The Annunciation.  Only a few doors down from the more-well known and larger fresco that greets you as you turn the stairs, this one has a stripped down beauty which highlights the Fra's use of perspective and his genius for distilling a deep tension between his figures:  Mary kneels in a pale pink gown, disturbed from her reading by the Angel Gabriel whose multi-coloured wings hide the lurking figure of Saint Dominic who bears witness to what is about to happen.  The glowing simplicity and held moment in time dazzles.

5) SUPPER IN EMMAUS (1861) - Augusto Betti

I bought this at the Medici Chapel in Florence.  I can find no reference to this anywhere online so guess I will just have to describe why I like it!

Betti gives us a reduced almost geometric look to the scene where Jesus appeared to two of his Apostles days after rising from the dead and their rapt attention is offset by the servant who is pouring water out of a jug and the dozing, scruffy dog under the table.  Outside the evening falls...  I like the unfussy painting which stood out against some of the more florid works in the Medici Chapel.

50 Favourite Musicals: 16: TABOO (2002) (Boy George, Kevan Frost, John Themis, Richie Stevens / Boy George)

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: 2002, Venue Theatre

First seen by me: as above

Productions seen: one

Score: Boy George, Kevan Frost, John Themis, Richie Stevens
Book: Mark Davies

Plot: The fictional Billy James leaves his drab suburban life for the excitement of Soho and London in the early 1980s, where he witnesses the rivalry between underground club icons Leigh Bowery and Philip Salon and the birth of a pop icon as George O'Dowd becomes Boy George...

Five memorable numbers: PETRIFIED, STRANGER IN THIS WORLD, TALK AMONG YOURSELVES, LOVE IS A QUESTION MARK, OUT OF FASHION

There hopefully comes a moment when you are seeing a new musical when you realize the show really has won you over and you can just RELAX - the show is working and you have heard enough of the score to know it will be a keeper.  With Boy George's TABOO that magical moment happened about a third of the way in when two of the fictional characters in the show, Billy and Kim, realize that their verbal fencing is hiding the fact that they are in love but are too scared to give in to these feelings.  There are bigger numbers in the show but "Love Is A Question Mark" was so well-placed and winningly performed by Lucy Newton and Luke Evans that it hit that new musical sweet spot.  It also confirmed that rather than just a jukebox show squeezing in any Culture Club song to fit a plot moment, Boy George had written an excellent musical theatre score - I had already heard scene-setting ensemble numbers, an 'I want' number, an introspective solo and a comedy duet - and there was more to come!  My Saturday matinee ticket came through my Flashbanks shop customer Adam Longworth who was on that afternoon playing the larger-than-life club legend and designer Leigh Bowery and he was excellent in the role.  But the show was packed with vital performances that spilled off the split-level stage and filled the intimate space of The Venue off Leicester Square.

In the two main roles Euan Morton was sensational as the mouthy young George O'Dowd finding fame but not happiness as Boy George and Paul Baker was on Olivier Award-winning form as the eccentric Philip Sallon.  Lyn Paul was surprisingly good as Josie, Billy's put-upon mother who also discovers liberation in Soho, David Burt gave two contrasting examples of toxic masculinity, John Partridge was a charismatic Marilyn and Drew Jaymson as Steve Strange was marvellous in the "Out Of Fashion" quartet.  In later visits to Christopher Renshaw's production, we saw Declan Bennett as Billy, Jackie Clune and Mari Wilson as contrasting Josies, and finally we saw Boy George himself as Leigh Bowery, an extraordinary and dangerous performance - it was a terrifying experience when he came into the audience during ICH BIN KUNST, his ad-libs were toxic but delicious!  US star Rosie O'Donnell saw the show and personally produced it on Broadway - TABOO ran for nearly a year and a half in London but on Broadway it ran for only three unhappy months.  TABOO was re-written for New York with new characters and songs added and in the melee of all this, the theatre columnist for The New York Post Michael Reidel took aim at Rosie O'Donnell and put out bad publicity on a regular basis about the show and despite a devoted audience following it was not enough to survive.  Despite all this, it achieved four Tony Award nominations including a deserved nod for Boy George's excellent score.  The Broadway production also won Euan Morton a Theatre World Award and Raul Esparza won a Drama Desk Award for his performance as Philip Sallon.  TABOO's Broadway life is wonderfully covered in Dori Berinstein's documentary film SHOWBUSINESS: THE ROAD TO BROADWAY but more wonderful than that, the original London production was filmed and released on DVD and while it would never win any awards for filming, it does capture the excitement of being in that theatre for that show.  Another reason TABOO is very special show for me as it was Owen and I's first Christmas theatre trip.

So... what to choose to illustrate this fabulous show?  Here is Euan Morton as George and his spine-chilling rendition of STRANGER IN THIS WORLD with contributions from Luke Evans and Lyn Paul

but I have to include the Boy himself so here he is singing ICH BIN KUNST, recreating Leigh Bowery's 1988 'residency' in the windows of the Anthony d'Offay gallery in Bond Street...

BLUES IN THE NIGHT at The Kiln / ONCE ON THIS ISLAND at Southwark Playhouse - Sharon Revisited...

Who is the hardest working woman in show biz?  Step up Sharon D Clarke.  Fresh from her award-winning performance in CAROLINE, OR CHANGE onstage and her wide television exposure in DOCTOR WHO last year, she has played Linda Loman in Marianne Elliott's revival of DEATH OF A SALESMAN at the Young Vic which later this year will transfer to the Piccadilly Theatre - but in between that she has found time to light up the mean streets of Kilburn in a revival of the 1980 compilation musical BLUES IN THE NIGHT.

As it's Sharon, it's a role she is revisiting!  Susie McKenna - the revival's director and Sharon's partner - staged a short run of the show in 2014 and has looked for an opportunity to get it back onstage so when the recently revamped Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn - now renamed the teeth-grindingly pretentious The Kiln - made McKenna an associate director, the chance appeared to get Sheldon Epps' musical back before an audience, it's first London appearance in 30 years.

Now Constant Reader, you will remember that in my ongoing blog series of my '50 Favourite Musicals', BLUES IN THE NIGHT made it in at #47.  Following on from similar jazz and blues revue-style shows like BUBBLING BROWN SUGAR, AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' and ONE MO' TIME, with BLUES IN THE NIGHT creator Sheldon Epps changed the format from a night-club setting to a run-down hotel so the songs play more as a musical than an out-front recreation of a cabaret show.  Three women: an ingenue, a weary sophisticate and an older touring blues singer all interact with a man who seems to connect them through classic songs written by Bessie Smith, Alberta Hunter, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Ida Cox and Harold Arlen among others.

It's a simple format that works because of the exhilarating song choices and having a tightly-focused quartet and I still remember the pure pleasure I got from the show when I saw it at the Piccadilly Theatre in 1988.  What I didn't know back then was that the marvellous US actress Carol Woods who played The Lady of The Road was understudied by a 22 year-old performer called Sharon D Clarke!  How spooky is that?

An atmospheric live cast recording immortalized the excellent original Donmar Warehouse cast of of Clarke Peters, Woods, Maria Friedman and Debby Bishop and their sizzling renditions have kept the show alive for me down the years so it was interesting to see it afresh.  I cannot say McKenna's production completely blew me away but it was good to see it again - and any chance to see Sharon D Clarke turning it out is a welcome one.

Unsurprisingly it was very much her show, and the combined talents of Clive Rowe, Debbie Kurup and Gemma Sutton all seemed a bit at sea with her galvanizing personality.  It must be a daunting prospect to share the stage with such a powerful performer and the others didn't really seem willing to take it on.  Indeed Rowe and Kurup tended to over-sell their numbers while Gemma Sutton occasionally saw fit to just turn up the volume a little too much.  They all had moments to shine which they certainly seized but seemed to retreat when Sharon strode forward to belt out a number; although I must say - given her dominance of the piece - it was a disappointment that they have dropped the character's version of "Take Me For A Buggy Ride".  They did all come into their own, especially in the group numbers, particularly thrilling in Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer's mighty title song.

Sharon had two torch solos in each act which were natural high points, "Lover Man" and "Wasted Life Blues" - she put them over so strongly they were still travelling when they hit the back wall!  The quartet were also joined by two male dancers who lurked at the back of the set and stepped forward occasionally to show off their lithesome steps - there was again a slightly surprising moment when they kissed during one of the numbers which drew a few quiet gasps from the Kilburn cognoscenti.

I did like Robert Jones' atmospheric hotel set with it's multi-level platforms representing the women's rooms and Neil Austin's equally mood-setting lighting.  The onstage band were in tearing form under pianist MD Mark Dickman, setting perfect musical backgrounds to the tales of love and loneliness as sung by the cast.   All in all, I really enjoyed singing the show again - and who could possibly argue when Sharon's character says "Honey I ain't gettin' older...  I'm gettin' better!"  Say amen somebody.

Another show that has Sharon D Clarke's dabs all over it is the 1990 Broadway musical ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, written by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty.  Our Sharon appeared in the original UK production in 1994 and was nominated for an Olivier Award for playing the earth goddess Asaka and she played the role again in 2009 in a short tour than culminated in a run at Hackney Empire. I had never seen it before so when I saw it popping up at the Southwark Playhouse as part of the The British Theatre Academy's summer programme of productions for amateur youth performers, I jumped.

The lyrics are by Lynn Ahrens (who also wrote the book) with music by Stephen Flaherty, the couple behind the wonderful score for RAGTIME and the musical won the Olivier for Best New Musical in 1994 and last year won a Tony for Best Musical Revival on Broadway.  The show is only 85 minutes long and, on the basis of the production directed and choreographed by Lee Proud at Southwark Playhouse, feels that it's just the right length for such a wispy fantasy but also maddeningly short so you never fully invest in the characters.

Based on a book by Trinidadian writer Rosa Guy, it tells of an island people in the French Antillies whose lives are interrupted by tropical storms and the whims of the four gods of the islands.  After a particularly devastating storm, a young orphaned girl Ti Moune is found hiding in a tree and adopted by an older couple, Euralie and Ton Ton.  The island is divided between the descendants of the original darker islanders and the fairer-skinned descendants of French planters and Ti Moune grows up wondering what the rich people are like.

Her life changes when she discovers the crashed car of Daniel Beauxhomme, the badly-injured son of a wealthy planter family.  Ti Moune falls for him and nurses him slowly back to health but when Papa Ge, the demon of death, arrives to take Daniel, Ti Moune offers to exchange her life for his.  The demon is taken aback by her love but threatens to return one day to claim his prize.

Daniel is taken back to his mansion but Ti Moune is determined to follow him and sets off helped by the guiding presence of Asaka the goddess of the earth.  Ti Moune is reunited with Daniel who is still recovering but is captivated by her innocence and love, however he is betrothed to the haughty Andrea Devereaux who gleefully informs Ti Moune that they are to be married soon.  Ti Moune is thrown into despair, just as the demon Papa Ge appears, determined to have one of their lives...

As you can see there is a lot to pack in to it's 85 minutes running time but when it ended it felt not enough time had been invested in any character, it was all very odd.  Director/choreographer Lee Proud however kept the action flowing with the company rushing along the central playing area and as you are never too far from a song, there is also plenty of energetic and exciting choreography which is punched over by the young company.

The non-professional cast certainly put their all into it - maybe too much as quite a few of them were frequently inaudible including Jonathan Chen as the earth goddess Asaka - Sharon D Clarke's role - who has the big production number "Mother Will Provide" but sadly the lyrics were lost in an attempt to just belt it out.  There were however some delightful performances which would grace any West End production: Aviva Tulley as the goddess of love Erzule was well partnered by Martin Cush's menacing demon of death Papa Ge, while Marie-Anna Caufour was a warmly sympathetic mother Euralie.

The best performance came from Chrissie Bhima as an impassioned and loving Ti Moune: she had an exceptional singing voice and while the character might have been a bit milque-toast she was never less than charismatic.  Sam Tutty as Daniel was hardly her match but he sang his big number "Some Girls" well and with feeling.

Ahrens and Flaherty's lovely Calypso-flavoured score sounded great and certainly deserves further exploring; it was well played by Chris Ma's six-piece band and I am happy to report that despite the occasional misfire, it was a delight to see the cast and the show itself.  The British Theatre Academy offers young amateur performers the chance to train and develop alongside professionals for the Academy's summer season of four or five productions.  It's a great idea and hopefully some of the ONCE ON THIS ISLAND cast will pursue a career in performing.  Who knows... there might just be a future Sharon D Clark in there....

Dvd/150: HABLE CON ELLA (Talk To Her) (Pedro Almodvar, 2002)

Two men sit in an audience watching Pina Bausch dance, one notices the other is crying.  In a few months they will meet properly...

Almodóvar won a Best Original Screenplay Academy Award for his complex tale of love and obsession: Marco is a writer in love with a female bullfighter Lydia, and Benigno is a lonely nurse who tends Alicia, a comatose ballet dancer.

When Lydia is left comatose after a bullfighting accident, she is hospitalized close to Alicia; Benigno befriends Mario and shows him how he can help Lydia by talking to her and keeping her skin moisturized.

Benigno admits to stalking Alicia before her traffic accident and now sees films and shows so he can tell her about them afterward.

Marco argues with Benigno when he says he wants to marry Alicia, but everything changes when it is discovered that comatose Alicia is pregnant and Benigno is arrested.

Shelf or charity shop?  Almodóvar followed up ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER with a similarly deeply moving look at male friendship - a definite keeper if only for the exquisite lead performance of Javier Cámara as lonely Benigno as well as Dario Grandinetti, Rosario Flores as Lydia and Leonor Watling as Alicia...