50 Favourite Musicals: 14: XANADU (2007) (Jeff Lynne / John Farrar)

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: 2007, Helen Hayes Theatre, NY

First seen by me: 2008, as above

Productions seen: two

Score: Jeff Lynne / John Farrar
Book: Douglas Carter Beane

Plot: 1980, LA: Sonny Malone is a struggling pavement artist whose sadness is observed by Clio, one of the ancient Greek Muses, who descends from Mount Olympus to help him achieve his greatest artistic endeavour - to open a Roller Disco.  Clio is followed to Earth by her wicked sisters Melpomene and Calliope intent on making Clio and Sonny fall in love which will break one of their father Zeus' orders on pain of death but Clio and Sonny have love on their side - and Disco!

Five memorable numbers: ALL OVER THE WORLD, XANADU, EVIL WOMAN, SUDDENLY, DON'T WALK AWAY

The Rialto was abuzz when word got out that XANADU, one of 1980's two ghastly post-disco film flops - the other was CAN'T STOP THE MUSIC - was being made into a Broadway musical.  How low could the jukebox musical go if it was taking inspiration from such a toxic source?  What had not been factored in was the durability of the Jeff Lynne and John Farrar score and the book was being written by comedy playwright Douglas Carter Beane who, while hanging on to the inane plot, subverted the whole premise with a constant stream of gags poking fun at the film and it's star Olivia Newton-John and the whole meta-musical idea was mined with another stream of gags about musical theatre and the production itself.  What resulted was a show that took everyone by surprise - at only 90 minutes with no interval, the show delivered a constant feeling of fun and irreverence and was greeted with positive critical reviews.  The production ran over a year and achieved four Tony Award nominations including Best Musical, and a further six Drama Desk Award nominations, rightly winning for Best Musical Book.

It was the positive vibe around the show that made us take a punt on it when we had an afternoon free in New York and it turned out to be my favourite show of that trip.  It was lead by a winning performance from Kerry Butler as Clio who assumes the roller-skating blonde Australian persona of Kira when on Earth and she was matched skate-glide for skate-glide by Cheyenne Jackson as Sonny Malone, the Venice Beach pavement artist driven to despair by his artistic limitations.  Jackson was gloriously funny as well as being a natural leading man with a strong singing voice and together they made the show sparkle.  There was excellent support from Mary Testa and Jackie Hoffman as Clio's jealous sisters - looking like two Disney villains come to life - who had the best lines like "This is like children's theatre for 40 year-old gay people!"  Tony Roberts was on fine, irascible form as Danny, a wealthy landowner who owns the property that Sonny wants to turn into Xanadu, his ultimate Roller Disco.  Christopher Ashley's production was a pure delight which ended in a glorious finale with glitterballs of all sizes dappling the theatre in light.  Given the show was full of ELO songs that have had continued success down the years, it was frustrating that we had to wait seven long years before XANADU appeared at Southwark Playhouse.  I was very nervous about seeing it there - I enjoyed it so much in NY and the cast recording was one of the albums that kept me going through the dark days of working in Borehamwood - so was very worried that the production would not deliver the goods.  But luckily, apart from some slightly clunky playing, the production worked it's pink and glittery magic.  A small UK tour followed that but this is a show that deserves a West End theatre...  Make it happen oh mighty Zeus.

There is a private video of the whole Broadway production on YouTube but I have chosen Kerry Butler and Cheyenne Jackson promoting XANADU on "The View" introduced by Whoopi Goldberg who appeared for six weeks during it's run as Melpomene

XANADU at Southwark Playhouse - You Have To Believe This Is Magic!

Let me spirit you back in time Constant Reader....

While in New York in April 2008, Owen and I saw the stage musical XANADU at the Helen Hayes Theater.  We got last minute tickets the night before online but really had no idea what we were going to see.... but it was fabulous!  Played with no interval, XANADU blasted off the stage with laughs, campness, great songs, a delightful cast and more mirror-balls than you could shake a stick at.

 

Seven years later XANADU has finally made an appearance in London, I was beginning to give up hope!  Shite jukebox and/or screen-to-stage adaptations have come and gone but no XANADU but now it's here at the Southwark Playhouse, which is quickly becoming the home for risky Broadway musicals IN THE HEIGHTS, GRAND HOTEL, CARRIE, TITANIC and the coming soon GREY GARDENS.  

I had been very nervous about the show.  I enjoyed it so much on Broadway - and the cast recording was one of the albums that kept me going through the dark days of working in Borehamwood - so was very worried that the production would not deliver the goods.  But luckily, apart from some slightly clunky playing, the production worked it's pink and glittery magic.

Writer Douglas Carter Beane was in the audience and he must have been blown away by the rapturous reception it received - it was also nice to see GREY GARDENS star Jenna Russell clapping away like mad in the back row.

Beane's XANADU is a delirious take on the woeful 1980 film of the same name which finished Olivia Newton-John's screen career and was the reason that the Hollywood Razzies were created to honour it's sheer rubbishness.  But looking back can be a good thing and Beane has great delight in skewering the play's inane plot, the 1980s and the whole meta musical thing works wonderfully.  I think this is becomes Beane's script is very generous of spirit and he realises that the enemy is not the dumb little film but the  crassness of the 1980s and the absurdities of the current Broadway musical scene.

Beane has hung onto the show's daft plot - Sonny a street artist is visited by Clio, one of Zeus' artistic muses, who decides to make him achieve his goal of opening a roller disco (!) while realising she is in danger of falling in love with a mortal.

What drives the show along too is the wonderful score of Electric Light Orchestra and John Farrar songs - although the film was a massive flop, it's soundtrack album was a huge hit and the thumping pop-disco hits of ELO and the winsome pop songs written by Farrar for Newton-John combine to get you clapping and singing along!

Director Paul Warwick Griffin scoots the action along with great glee although an unnecessary interval does break the mood, Morgan Large's set slowly unfolds during the show to culminate in the ultimate disco - although sadly there is no room for the Mirror-Balls From Heaven which appeared from nowhere on Broadway.  Nathan M Wright's choreography whizzes and whirls the actors around the set on their roller skates and Ben Cracknell's lighting dazzled.

Still in previews, a couple of the cast were too strident and lost out on laughs because of it - Lizzy Connolly as Caliope, one of Clio's bad sisters, squawked away while pushing too hard for laughs and Samuel Edwards has not yet found the lack of guile that Cheyenne Jackson brought so effortlessly to the role.  There's an important difference between laughing at a character's stupidity and laughing with it.

No such problems with Alison Jiear who brings all her experience to make Melpomene, the baddest sister of them all, a huge success and Carly Anderson is a sheer delight as Clio, she sings like a dream and has a nice comic style.  The other performers all have their moments to shine and have a real happy ensemble vibe.

XANADU is playing at Southwark Playhouse until 21st November - get your skates on and enjoy one of the most joyous shows in town!

Constant Reader... I have been a busy Hector recently so cry you mercy!

I have not STOPPED! It's like that when you have a birthday... yes, birthday. Where was my card? Anyway I have much to impart... firstly two theatre visits. Because if you hadn't noticed, theatre takes precedence every time.
We saw one of the last performances of THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHED at the Garrick written by Douglas Carter Beane. I loved his riotously fun book for the Broadway musical XANADU so was keen to see this play. It's New York run earned him the first of his two Tony Award nominations - he was nominated for XANADU the following year. I enjoyed the play's whiplash wit and killer one-liners but felt I would have got more into it had it been played by actors who could have been more at home with the show's Gotham rhythms.

Like... the whole Broadway company has come over with HAIR!... surely they could have spared some actual American actors for this too?
Tamsin Greig is an actress I have never really taken to and while she certainly convinced as Diane, the gimlet-eyed L.A. actor's agent who will gallop over anyone to get her way, I was always aware of her wandering, generic US accent - half the time she seemed to be doing a bad Sandra Bernhard impression. I am sure Sandra could have persuaded to do a limited three month run in the west end... failing that Ruby Wax.
Rupert Friend played Mitchell her #1 client, a handsome new actor generating serious Hollywood heat - and who has "a slight recurring case of homosexuality". A visit to New York has him calling an escort agency and opening his hotel door to the chirpy part-time rentboy Alex, here played by Harry Lloyd. Again the play suffered as the many hesitant, embarrassed exchanges between the two characters seemed to be played with EXCLAMATION MARKS!!! at the END!! of!! each!!! exchange!!!! It was like watching the puppet characters of Rod and Nicky from AVENUE Q.
There wasn't much change either out of the performance of Gemma Arterton as Ellen, Alex's sometime lover who is a spoiled sometime-model and Z-list celebrity. Arterton might be a happening film actress at the moment but she looked a bit amateur-hour-in-Dixie on the Garrick stage.

I suspect some of the above problems are the fault of director Jamie Lloyd who seems to have favoured artifice over substance. Worryingly we have tickets for two more productions of his in the future.It sounds like I had a Hellish time - but most of the time I was laughing at the deliciously savage lines that Beane gave his lead character - and in among the laughs there were some truths about the problems of being a gay actor in Hollywood. Namely the kudos a straight actor gets for playing a gay role - as Diane says "That's like the pretty actress putting on a fake nose and winning the Oscar" whereas "a gay actor playing a gay role? That's not acting - it's bragging".

I also loved being there for when Mitchell said to Diane that he wanted to be a successful out film actor and she shouted back: "Are you British? Do you have a knighthood? Then shut up!"
We were sitting behind Sir Derek Jacobi and guest! He roared.

I'd love to see the play again - but maybe not if the above were cast again.

Of course one straight actor who won awards for playing a gay character was Jonathan Pryce as Lytton Strachey in CARRINGTON - which leads me on to...
My second evening at the theatre was to see Christopher Morahan's revival of Pinter's 50 year-old masterpiece THE CARETAKER at the Trafalgar Studios as is, the Whitehall Theatre as was. It was nice to think that Divine once acted on that very stage in 1977 in WOMEN BEHIND BARS - with Fiona Richmond yet.

Of course in THE CARETAKER it's the men who are trapped in their environment.
Jonathan Pryce was Davies, the vagrant who is saved from a fight by Aston, an oddly subdued man who not only invites the tramp back to his large cluttered attic room in a derelict house but who also offers him the room and a spare bed for as long as he needs it.Davies' joy is soon thrown into confusion when he is surprised the next morning by another man, Mick, who tells him that it's his room, his house. Before Mick can beat him up Aston arrives back and tells Mick - his younger brother - that Davies is his friend and he wants him to stay.

As with most Pinter plays, there then follows a psychological battle for control with all three men wanting some control over one or both of the others - the cramped, cluttered room becomes a mindgame where there is always someone holding what they think are all the cards.Jonathan Pryce was wonderful as the derelict Davies - querulous but ingratiating, self-pitying but boastful, seemingly always on guard for the next physical attack or prying question. His ferrety, crumbling shabbiness made it all to easy to believe that this Davies would walk from the centre of London to Luton on the promise of some second-hand shoes. What Pryce made obvious was how Davies' survival techniques are all too easily his undoing with the brothers.

It was great to see him in this as my only other CARETAKER was the BBC production in 1980 where Pryce played Mick to Warren Mitchell's Davies and Kenneth Cranham's Aston.There is another stand-out performance by Peter MacDonald as the emotionally-submerged Aston. His quiet absorption in his plug-mending is of course the perfect springboard for Pryce in their scenes together but his performance is slowly building to the quiet desperation of his long second act speech where he reveals his secret to Davies.

Aston tells Davies of how he was sectioned as a teenager and how, despite his pleading with her, his mother gave permission for him to be given electroshock treatment which was administered as he stood terrified against a wall, leaving him impaired. It is of course telling that during this confession, Davies falls asleep, oblivious to his would-be friend's tragedy. Peter MacDonald was mesmerising in the scene.Sam Spruell plays the volatile would-be property owner brother Mick and I felt him to be a bit lightweight - I never felt any genuine menace in the character and Mick should have an almost Kray-like ability to be totally unpredictable. You should feel that Davies' attempts to ingratiate himself with Mick should feel like watching someone pulling a sleeping tiger's tail.
It was intriguing to see the play on that stage bearing in mind the last production I saw there was the revival of ENTERTAINING MR. SLOANE. Orton's play has some striking similarities to this one and you can easily see how he was influenced by Pinter's shark-below-the-surface style.

I think the only fault I could single out with Christopher Morahan's production is that it possibly could have done with a more disorientating atmosphere - the production seemed a bit too 'joined-up' at times. But it was an engrossing night - with a special mention for Eileen Diss's grungy, cluttered set design for the brother's room.