IN THE HEIGHTS - Latino Manhattan comes to Kings Cross!

The Southwark Playhouse's acclaimed production of Lin-Manuel Miranda's IN THE HEIGHTS has shimmied itself across London to the site-specific theatre that is also where the stage version of THE RAILWAY CHILDREN is playing... well you know how much I love visiting a new theatre!

IN THE HEIGHTS was a big hit on Broadway with much being made of it's urban-influenced, hip-hop score, it ran for nearly three years and after being nominated for 13 Tony Awards it went on to win 4 including Best Musical and Best Score.

Miranda is Broadway's darling but I suspect there is an element of people falling over themselves to praise him to show how inclusive they are.  I did enjoy the show as it has a good heart and is particularly strong on vibrant female characters.  Sadly the most obvious part of the show is Quiara Alegría Hudes' book with it's ultimate conclusion that "happiness is found in your own back yard".  How revolutionary.

The musical shows 24 hours in the lives of the inhabitants of a street in the Washington Heights area of New York in summertime - for some life goes on as it always has done but for a few life is changed.  Usnavi runs a small bodega which doles out coffee to all and sundry who either live or work near-by: Kevin and Camila run a cab firm employing Benny who is learning his Spanish from the drivers (badly), Usnavi employs his nephew Sonny to work in his store while also looking out for Abuela Claudia, the elderly woman who raised him when his parents died, and Daniela is the gossipy owner of the local beauty salon who employs Vanessa, an ambitious girl who is trying to get out of the barrio who Usnavi secretly loves.

Kevin and Camila's daughter Nina unexpectedly arrives from her university in California and after countless enquiries about how she is doing, confesses that she has dropped out, unable to focus on her work while bearing her parent's aspirations for her success.  Benny asks her out, Sonny gets Vanessa to agree to go out with Usnavi and they all head for a club where a fight erupts just as the barrio's electricity goes down due to the summer heat.  In the morning realities are faced, some end happily, some bittersweet.

So... no great shakes storywise but Miranda has written a score that includes lightweight rap and hip-hop beats along with more standard fare.  As I said the score definitely favours the female characters and while they are fairly obviously drawn they were well performed by the cast with verve and personality plus!  The most eye-catching was Victoria Hamilton-Barrett as Daniela, she was actually heavily pregnant and her participation in the dance numbers had me on the edge of my seat!  She didn't get as many laughs as she possibly could have but maybe her energy was expended in just getting on.

I had a raised eyebrow over the casting of Jade Ewan (the last member of the Sugababes) but she was actually very effective and sang very well as did Josie Benson as the fearsome Camila, Queen of the cab office.  Lily Frazer as Nina also had a fine singing voice but was hampered by having such a drippy character to play.  Eve Polycarpou certainly belted out her numbers as the ageing matriarch but the character was quite cloying as she was only there as a plot device in a mu-mu.

I enjoyed Sam Mackay as the big-hearted Usnavi who had a likable presence although he seemed to be imitating Eminem in his raps.  David Bedella was absent without leave so Vas Constanti played Kevin, the put-upon owner of the cab office and he sang well.  I also liked Joe Aaron Reid as the ambitious Benny, trusted by Kevin and Camila but only so far much to his anger.

The ensemble were also very hardworking and contributed greatly to the main success of the show which was the exciting urban choreography of Drew McOnie.  The dance numbers tend to stop the show rather than add to it's flow but that doesn't stop them being quite thrilling.  Luke Sheppard (who directed the recent CASA VALENTINA) does a workman-like job, keeping the action flowing from song-to-song, from dance routine to dance routine.

I am glad I saw it and would recommend it to anyone who wants a colourful, brash show that ultimately is all quite safe.  The show has been extended but the house wasn't full on the night we went.

I would also recommend a visit to the Kings Cross Theatre which, although feels like quite a temporary space, had the most smiley, happy front-of-house staff I have encountered for a while.

CASA VALENTINA at Southwark Playhouse - Harvey's Hideaway...

Harvey Fierstein, unofficial Mayor of Broadway, has had two long-running successes over the last few years in New York with his books for two big film-based musicals NEWSIES and KINKY BOOTS, but there was no long run for his latest play CASA VALENTINA which ran for two months.  The play has now opened at London's Southwark Playhouse, a venue which seems to have now become the London conduit for Broadway musicals: IN THE HEIGHTS, CARRIE, TITANIC, GRAND HOTEL, DOGFIGHT and the soon-to-come XANADU and GREY GARDENS.

As odd as CASA VALENTINA sounds, it is actually based on a reality.  In the late 1950s a married couple, Tito and Marie Valenti, set up the Chevalier d'Eon holiday resort in the Catskill Mountains in upstate NY which was also called by the more quaint Casa Susana.  Tito was a transvestite and wanted a place where he and his 'sisters' could relax as their feminine personas.  The intriguing thing is that the resort catered exclusively - or as much as could be claimed - for hetrosexual men who were secret transvestites.

Harvey Fierstein's play introduces us to fictionalised versions of the Valentis, George aka Valentina and his wife Rita, and several of their most regular clientele: large and sassy Bessie aka Albert, glamorous Gloria aka Michael, ageing Terry aka Theodore and Amy aka the Judge.  Joining them over a momentous 24 hours are nervous first-timer Jonathan aka Miranda and, much to George's pride, Charlotte aka Isadore, a well-known writer who runs a transvestite publication and who is also an activist for wider acceptance.

Slowly Charlotte is revealed to be the villainess of the play - 'she' knows that George has been interrogated by his Post Office bosses about an intercepted parcel which contained amateur photographs of a gay sex session and also that the Casa is losing money.  The offer of a loan from Charlotte comes with conditions: that the clientele come forward publicly to wider the 'awareness' of transexuals.

The trump card Charlotte holds is she knows that one of the guests was involved in the gay sex photos which forces George into the position of having to betray one of his oldest friends as, tellingly, Charlotte is adamant that in identifying themselves to the world that there can be no homosexuals involved, their cause will be better received if it only involves hetrosexuals.

Fierstein certainly gives us an entertaining play which in the first half lulls you into expecting almost a situation comedy with larger-than-life personalities and waspish, camp dialogue.  However once Charlotte reveals her true colours, the play takes on a more sombre atmosphere and ends with hitherto dependable and understanding Rita slowly realising that her compliance in her husband's secret life has always benefited his needs and that the moment she has secretly been dreading might have arrived - the day that George goes upstairs to change into Valentina and never returns again.

The problem I had was that with scenes like the second act confrontation between the nasty villain and the tragic gay victim, it seemed a very old-fashioned play, almost like a drag-retelling of "The Children's Hour".  There is even an 11 o'clock appearance of the gay man's daughter whose castigation of the set-up leads to Rita's realisation of her doormat status in the marriage.  

Despite the rather formulaic structure there was much to enjoy in Luke Sheppard's in-the-round production with good performances from all the cast: Tamsin Carroll as Rita, Ben Deery as shy first-timer Jonathan/Miranda, Edward Wolstenholme as George/Valentina, Gareth Snook as the hissable villainess Charlotte, Matt Rixon as the larger-than-life Bessie, Ashley Robinson channeling Rhonda Fleming as Gloria, Bruce Montague (yes, from "Butterflies") as the old dear Terry, Robert Morgan as the Judge/Amy and Charlie Hayes as the disdainful daughter.

I also liked the atmospheric lighting by Howard Hudson and the silvery knotty branches of the trees in Justin Nardella's simple set.

the Chevalier d’Eon resort

the Chevalier d’Eon resort

the Chevalier d’Eon resort

the Chevalier d’Eon resort