The 9th Annual Chrissie Awards... may I have the envelope please?

Yes it is that time again, get your best schmatta on and be seated in time for the ceremony, it is New Year which must mean the awarding of the 9th Annual Chrissies... theatreland's most sought-after awards.

BEST DRAMA (Original/Revival)

 

A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE - Arthur Miller (Wyndhams)

 

Nominees:

LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES - Hampton (Donmar) / NOT I; FOOTFALLS; ROCKABY - Beckett (The Pit) / MR. FOOTE'S OTHER LEG - Kelly (Hampstead) / THE MOTHERFUCKER WITH THE HAT - Guirgis (Lyttelton)

BEST MUSICAL (Original/Revival)

GYPSY - Arthur Laurents / Jule Styne / Stephen Sondheim (Savoy)

Nominees:

GRAND HOTEL - Davis / Wright / Forrest / Yeston (Southwark) / KINKY BOOTS - Fierstein / Lauper (Adelphi) / SWEENEY TODD - Wheeler / Sondheim (Coliseum) / XANADU - Carter Beane / Farrar / Lynne (Southwark Playhouse)

BEST BALLET/OPERA *new award*

  WOOLF WORKS - Wayne McGregor (Covent Garden)

Nominees:

MONOTONES I & II; THE TWO PIGEONS - Ashton (Covent Garden) / THE NUTCRACKER - Wright (Covent Garden) / ROMEO AND JULIET - McMillan (Covent Garden) / SLEEPING BEAUTY - Bourne (Sadler's Wells)

BEST ACTOR (Drama)

 SIMON RUSSELL BEALE - Mr Foote's Other Leg (Hampstead)

Nominees:

SIMON RUSSELL BEALE (Temple) / CHIWETEL EJIOFOR (Everyman) / JONATHAN PRYCE (The Merchant of Venice) / MARK STRONG (A View From The Bridge)

BEST ACTRESS (Drama)

 

LISA DWAN - Not I; Footfalls; Rockaby (The Pit)

Nominees:

JANET McTEER (Les Liaisons Dangereuses) / JULIET STEVENSON (Happy Days) / ZOE WANAMAKER (Stevie) / PENELOPE WILTON (Taken At Midnight)

BEST ACTOR (Musical)

KILLIAN DONNELLY - Kinky Boots (Adelphi)

Nominees:

SCOTT GARNHAM (Grand Hotel) / DAVID HAIG (Guys and Dolls) / MATT HENRY (Kinky Boots) / JAMIE PARKER (Guys and Dolls)

BEST ACTRESS (Musical)

  IMELDA STAUNTON - Gypsy (Savoy)

Nominees:

CARLY ANDERSON (Xanadu) / JANIE DEE (A Little Night Music)

EMMA THOMPSON (Sweeney Todd) / SOPHIE THOMPSON (Guys and Dolls)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR (Drama)

MARK GATISS - Three Days In The Country (Lyttelton)

Nominees:

SEAN CAMPION (All The Angels) / DERMOT CROWLEY (Everyman) / PEARCE QUIGLEY (The Beaux Strategm) / YUL VASQUEZ (The Motherfucker With The Hat)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS (Drama)

JUDI DENCH - The Winter's Tale (Garrick)

Nominees:

KATE DUCHENE (Everyman) / DERVLA KERWIN (Mr Foote's Other Leg) / SYLVESTRA LE TOUZEL (Waste) / OLIVIA WILLIAMS (Waste)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR (Musical)

 JAMIE PARKER - A Little Night Music (Palace)

Nominees:

DAN BURTON (Gypsy) / NEIL McCAUL (Guys and Dolls) / PHILIP QUAST (Sweeney Todd) / GEORGE RAE (Grand Hotel)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS (Musical)

LARA PULVER - Gypsy (Savoy) 

Nominees:

CYNTHIA ERRIVO (Songs For A New World) / HAYDN GWYNNE (Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown) / LAURA PITT-PULFORD (A Little Night Music) / JOANNA RIDING (A Little Night Music)

BEST BALLET/OPERA MALE *new award*

 

STEVEN McRAE - Romeo and Juliet (Covent Garden)

Nominees:

ALEXANDER CAMPBELL (The Nutcracker) / STEVEN McRAE (The Nutcracker) / STEVEN McRAE (The Two Pigeons) / GEORGE RAE (Grand Hotel)

BEST BALLET/OPERA FEMALE *new award*

ALESSANDRA FERRI - Woolf Works (Covent Garden)

Nominees:

FRANCESCA HAYWARD (The Nutcracker) / IANA SALENKO (The Nutcracker) / IANA SALENKO (Romeo and Juliet) / IANA SALENKO (The Two Pigeons)

BEST DIRECTOR

IVO VAN HOVE - A View From The Bridge (Wyndhams)

Nominees:

Walter Asmus (Not I/Footfalls/Rockaby) / Richard Eyre (Mr Foote's Other Leg) / Jonathan Munby (The Merchant of Venice) / Indhu Rubasingham (The Motherfucker With The Hat)

BEST DESIGNER

 ES DEVLIN - Hamlet (Barbican)

 Nominees:

CIGUÉ, WE NOT I, WAYNE McGREGOR (Woolf Works) / ROBERT JONES (The Motherfucker With The Hat) / KATRINA LINDSAY (Dara) / JAN VERSWEYVELD (A View From the Bridge)

BEST LIGHTING

 NEIL AUSTIN - Dara (Lyttelton)

Nominees:

LUCY CARTER (Woolf Works) / JAMES FARNCOMBE (Not I/Footfalls/Rockaby) / TIM MITCHELL (Taken At Midnight) / JAN VERSWEYVELD (A View From The Bridge)

BEST CHOREOGRAPHY (Musical)

 JERRY MITCHELL - Kinky Boots (Adelphi)

Nominees:

DREW McONIE (In The Heights) / TIM PROUD (Grand Hotel) / SUSAN STROMAN (The Scottsboro Boys) / NATHAN M. WRIGHT (Xanadu)

BEST CHOREOGRAPHY (Ballet) *new award*

WAYNE McGREGOR - Woolf Works (Covent Garden)

Nominees:

FREDERICK ASHTON (Monotones I & II/The Two Pigeons) / DAVID BINTLEY (The King Dances) / KENNETH McMILLAN (Romeo and Juliet) / PETER WRIGHT (The Nutcracker)

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.