LAZARUS at The Kings Cross Theatre - The Man Who Stayed On Earth

As it turned out, the announcement of David Bowie's death in the second week of January was an omen for the year to come as it has been a litany of unhappy news ever since.  But Bowie has haunted 2016 and as it started with the release of his album BLACKSTAR, it ends with the London premiere of his musical LAZARUS which he completed shortly before his death.  Indeed Bowie's appearance at the show's premiere in New York was the last time he was seen in public.

It would have been wonderful to say that LAZARUS is a perfect end to a dazzling career but, while the show is brimming with creative ideas and the Bowie songs are obviously sparkling with his genius - as is fast becoming a mantra on this blog when discussing musicals - without a sturdy book any show will just be a collection of disparate moments, and playwright Enda Walsh's book is frustratingly opaque and never far from being annoying.

LAZARUS is a sequel to THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH, both the original Walter Tevis novel and the Nicolas Roeg film, in which Bowie played the tailor-made lead role.  Thomas Jerome Newton is an alien who has come to Earth from his arid planet to use his advanced technical knowledge to raise the money for his own space programme so he can return home with water to save his planet.  However Newton has reckoned without the evil ways of Mankind and his plan is frustrated, leaving him stranded on earth, rich beyond measure but alone and lost to alcoholism.

LAZARUS raises Newton to continue his story; now isolated in an anonymous apartment building the alien boozes his time away waiting for the release of death while various under-written characters float in and around the action: a psychopath stalking the clubs of NY, Newton's assistant who is almost possessed by Newton's long-gone love Mary-Lou and an ethereal child-woman who knows more about Newton than he understands.

It is so maddeningly elusive that after a while I thought "okay you don't want me to get involved with these characters? Fine I won't" so checked out and watched the pretty video projections on the otherwise ghastly beige anonymous apartment set.

US TV star Michael C Hall played Newton with some level of intensity but, given nothing to do then wander around the stage, he soon wore out his welcome.  Fellow American actor Michael Esper had a bit more to do as the murderous Valentine, but as soon as the character announced his name I was literally counting down the minutes until the appearance of the song "Valentine's Day".  Boy did it take it's time too.

I had more trouble with Sophia Anne Caruso as the blonde Girl and Amy Lennox as the schizophrenic Elly.  The latter goes into full drunk slut-mode within minutes and the young girl finally reveals that she is the spirit of a dead girl who is hanging about to die properly before Newton can get the release he needs.  All the time these characters were on stage it was hard to overlook Enda Walsh's ghastly misogynist writing of these two characters.  It certainly wasted both actress' talents.

Bowie's score sounded excellent under the musical direction of Tom Cawley and the onstage band - trapped behind glass like a recording studio - sounded fine; the sax was played by James Knight who was Kirsty MacColl's partner.  But although it was nice to hear the Bowie songs played live, that did not stop the clash of hearing songs like MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD, HEROES, LIFE ON MARS and ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS shoe-horned into Walsh's naff book.  They are too unique to be 'book' songs with too many personal resonances to fit in a musical.  You can do that kind of stuff with the songs of Abba in MAMMA MIA... but Bowie?  Nope.

Ivo van Hove's production certainly never felt dull thanks to the video projections of Tal Yarden and the contribution of van Hove's lighting designer partner Jan Versweyveld but when the music and the lighting stopped and the speaking started... yeesh.  It was telling that the biggest ovation at the curtain call was when a large picture of Bowie filled the stage, his giving the audience an "I'll be seeing you" gesture being probably all we needed to see after all...

KINKY BOOTS at the Adelphi.... Standing Tall in Heels

Every so often there is a "little British film" that can usually be simmered down to the following plot - individual or small, mis-matched group decide that they must make a stand and assert themselves against their fate, two-thirds in there is usually a major set-back when it all looks lost but the final act brings a little triumph that leaves them all changed for the better.  BILLY ELLIOTT, THE FULL MONTY, CALENDER GIRLS, BRASSED OFF, MADE IN DAGENHAM, even PRIDE can be included in the genre.

It's interesting that these films have all been adapted into plays or musicals - there is talk that PRIDE will be on stage next year - and one more to add to that number is KINKY BOOTS, the 2005 film that told the odd but true tale of a Northamptonshire shoe factory that, when faced with possible closure, diversified and found a USP in making boots for drag queens with strengthened heels to take a man's weight.

I must admit that when I saw the film I found it under-whelming with Julian Jarrold's uninspired direction drearily sticking to the all too-obvious template as described above.  It was made bearable only by Chiwetel Ejiofor's striking performance as Lola, the amazonian drag queen who drives the plot.

 

But in the recent trend to make stage shows out of known films, the quality of the source material is of no great matter and I found KINKY BOOTS: THE MUSICAL to be much more enjoyable than the film.

The show premiered on Broadway in 2013 and was an immediate success so it was only a matter of sitting it out until the show transferred here.  By the way it's interesting that it replaced the flop musical of MADE IN DAGENHAM at the Adelphi, one former-film-set-in-a-factory replaced by another!  The Broadway production won six Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Choreography and Best Score and now it's here - bright, brassy, bouncy and the most enormous fun.  I didn't even mind that it was an American version of England!

Jerry Mitchell directs with a panache that skillfully skirts over some of the more threadbare patches of the plot and his choreography has a muscular punch that is thrilling.

Harvey Fierstein has written an excellent Broadway musical book which is well-paced and hits the right balance of humour and emotion - who better to write a musical about a drag queen than the writer of LA CAGE AUX FOLLES?  Lola has the best lines of course but he has also created sympathetic roles in Charlie, the diffident young man who inherits his father's failing shoe factory and Lauren, one of his workers who discovers the man behind the shoes.

The star of the show turns out to be Cyndi Lauper's wonderfully-varied score.  It reminded me of Boy George's score for TABOO as it too had a wide range of ballads, show-stoppers and character numbers.  That it is her first-ever score makes it even more impressive, she fully deserved her Tony Award.

Essentially it is a show with only two lead roles and the production has been well-cast.  At first I was worried about Matt Henry as Lola as he seemed to be commenting on the role rather than simply being, being flamboyant doesn't seem to be a natural fit.  But as the evening progressed and we get to see Lola's more private side Henry came into his own and belted out his big numbers with a real strength.  No such problems with Killian Donnelly as Charlie - he played the role with just the right air of bashfulness cast adrift in a world where so much is expected on him and he also belted out his numbers with real emotion.  Maybe I might have enjoyed MEMPHIS more if I had seen him and not his understudy (doubt it though),

Amy Lennox is delightful as Lauren the factory girl with 'The History Of Wrong Guys' which also happens to be her big solo which is the score's most Lauper-esque number and which Lennox lands right on the button.  I also liked Michael Hobbs as the mild-mannered foreman George and a special mention must go to Lola's club dancers The Angels - imagine Les Cagelles but with beaucoup attitude!

David Rockwell's stage designs are a bit of a disappointment but Gregg Barnes's costumes are suitably dazzling.  I would recommend you to zip up those boots and sashay away to the Adelphi for a show that will lift you up in more ways than one.