THE LIFE at Southwark Playhouse: Livin' The Life In Southwark...

While walking around the long-gone Tower Records in 1998 I picked up a cast recording for THE LIFE, a new Broadway score written by musicals veteran Cy Coleman.  The only cast member I had heard of was Sam Harris, a big-voice belter who had appeared in a few one-off benefits in London - ah for the days of the Sunday evening benefit events... they appear to have gone the way of Tower Records too.

What made me buy it was Coleman's previous show was CITY OF ANGELS which had been a big favourite of mine.  The score presented an intriguing dichotomy as although the show was sent in the sleazy world of 1980s Times Square, Coleman's score sounded from an earlier era - more late 1950s/1960s showbiz with big ballads which would not have been out of place on a Streisand album.  So I sat and listened and waited for a London production.  And waited... and waited... and waited...  for 20 years!

THE LIFE certainly fits the recent niche that Southwark Playhouse has discovered and does so well - the risky musical or revival that might scare off West End producers: TITANIC, GRAND HOTEL, THE TOXIC AVENGER, XANADU, GREY GARDENS, SIDESHOW etc.  What is remarkable is that Michael Blakemore, the show's original director, has directed this version too - not bad for an 88 year-old!  His love of the material is obvious as it is directed with a sure hand, it's pace moving like a NY hooker trying to escape arrest!

Blakemore has also revised the book - originally by Ira Gasman, Coleman and David Newman - but there is still a disconnect between Cy Coleman's "Musical Theatre" score and the story that it is illuminating - the dangerous life of those in the sex trade around Times Square in the early 1980s.  There is the occasional nod to the the post-disco sound which would have been the show's characters 'obvious' music of choice but Coleman's 1950s/1960s score still surprises with cheeky, bouncy songs such as the opening number of "Use What You Got"; it's jazz-hands rhythm suggesting a Sammy Davis Jnr number rather than the credo of a two-faced hustler who will sell anyone down the river.  Ira Gasman's lyrics also are not quite a match for Coleman's music in the ballads where cliché always wins in the end...

1980s 42nd Street (before the tsunami of AIDS hit): Queen is released from jail after being arrested for soliciting which she does to make enough to get her and her Vietnam veteran lover Fleetwood away from New York forever.  However Fleetwood has a cocaine habit and she finds he has spent half their savings on it while she was inside.  She meets up again with her friend Sonja, an older streetwalker who is finding it harder to get through a night on the game.  Sonja is kept turning tricks by her powerful pimp Memphis who views Queen as a worthy addition to his girls.

Double-dealing Jojo tells Fleetwood he needs to have a fresher face working for him and they single out Mary, a young girl just arriving in NY from Minnesota.  Jojo finds her a job as a go-go bar waitress which she soon turns into being a dancer.  Mary proves to be a natural at parting men from their money and Fleetwood moves her into the apartment much to Queen's anger.   She and Sonja get arrested again and on her release Queen discovers that Fleetwood had sex with Mary; Memphis is standing by with a kindly word and at the annual Hooker's Ball, she snubs Fleetwood for the triumphant Memphis. But Queen soon discovers that Memphis' protection means her hitting the streets for him and it is left to the watchful and resourceful Sonja to help Queen in her dreams of escape...

The hidden band made their presence more than felt by BLARING the score out to the detriment of the lyrics being heard when the cast with weaker voices were singing - luckily there were some seriously good singers in the cast. 

Cornell S. John was very good as Memphis, his rich deep voice establishing his authority for all to feel and I also liked Joanna Woodward as Mary, the new girl in town who is not as dumb as she looks.  She certainly outshone David Albury who played Fleetwood with all the conviction of an X-Factor contestant and John Addison's Jojo suggested Trafalgar Square more than Times Square.

THE LIFE is blessed however with two stand-out performances: newcomer T'Shan Williams as the elegant Queen and the spectacular Sharon D. Clarke as the man-weary Sonja.  T'Shan Williams sang Queen's big ballads "He's No Good" and "I'm Leaving You" with such style and power that it is hard to believe she only left drama school in 2015 - she would make an excellent Deena Jones if and when DREAMGIRLS re-cast at the Savoy.

It is always a pleasure to see Sharon D. Clarke - even more so when it's in an intimate space like the Southwark Playhouse - and she was a fabulous Sonja, yes the concept of a tart with a heart of gold has been done to death but Clarke filled her character with such raging life that all critical bets were off.  Her big number "The Oldest Profession" is placed quite early on in the show but our Sharon don't care where she stops the show honey!  She whacked that song out of the Playhouse and got a huge round for it and deservedly so.  Queen is too busy being virtuous to truly win the audience's affections but Sonja is on hand to keep you engaged in the show - as well as having the best frock at the Hooker's Ball, a blue-sequined caftan that Gloria Gaynor would give her eye-teeth for.

Their voices also melded very well in the duets "You Can't Get To Heaven" and the climactic "My Friend" and it was great to see them take their bow together and, as Owen said after, T'Shan couldn't have a better co-star than Sharon.

Despite all the niggles I have about the show, I would recommend a walk on the wild side down to Southwark Playhouse as it is still a great tribute to Cy Coleman's talent in writing a show-tune and in Williams, Clarke and John it has three performances to savour - but hurry, it's only on until April 29th.

The British Birthday Play

After the hard-edged GOOD PEOPLE, it was time to relax into the chiffon-edged comedy of Noël Coward's BLITHE SPIRIT currently revived at the Gielgud Theatre with a long-overdue return to the London stage by Angela Lansbury.  All very appropriate as John Gielgud had starred in and directed an ENSA touring production of the comedy during World War 2.

 
Michael Blakemore had previously directed Angela Lansbury in 2009 on Broadway in the play which won her a fifth Tony Award and here they are reunited with a new cast and production team.  Unsurprisingly she has rooted herself into the character, making Madame Arcati her own.

Written by Coward in 1941, it was an instant hit - although Graham Greene found it "a wearisome exhibition of bad taste"!  It went on to hold the record for the longest running play in the West End until "The Mousetrap" overtook it in 1957.  David Lean filmed a screen adaptation in 1945 which featured the original players of Arcarti and Elvira, Margaret Rutherford and the delicious Kay Hammond, although this version had an alternate ending.  The play has been revived frequently and I first saw it in 1986 at the Vaudeville Theatre with the perfect cast of Simon Cadell, Jane Asher (Ruth), Joanna Lumley (Elvira) and Marcia Warren as Arcarti.

Author Charles Condomine and his wife Ruth hold a soirée with the village doctor and his wife as well as the local eccentric Madame Arcarti with the ulterior motive of getting her to hold a seance so Charles can get material for a novel he is planning.  During the seance however Arcarti "brings across" the ghost of Charles's glamorous first wife Elvira who has been dead for seven years and only Charles can see her.  Elvira, as capricious in death as in life, causes mischief around the house much to Ruth's anger and Charles' bemusement. 

He soon tires of her behaviour however when he realizes she has her own agenda when she fixes the brakes on his car hoping he will join her forever - but it's Ruth who uses the car first.  Now with two ghostly wives making his life a misery he calls in Madame Arcarti to try and get them back to the other side.  If only she knew how...

Michael Blakemore directs the comic business and Coward's devilishly witty dialogue to expert effect but also suggests the darker tones that lurk in the corners of the Condomine living room.  Written two years into World War II where death was in everyone's consciousness, it's musings on the lingering effects of those departed must have made for a very heightened experience when first presented.

Simon Higlett's set has just the right feel of a home counties living room and also is entertaining in it's own right when the other world encroaches in on it which is also well-evoked by Mark Jonathan's lighting design.

Blakemore's cast also rise to the occasion with one clanging exception.  The ever-reliable Charles Edwards is a delight as Charles, effortlessly spinning his lines with the lightest touch like the deftest of tennis players.  But he also plays a man quietly delighted to be given a change from his second, rather conformist, marriage.  Luckily Edwards is complemented perfectly by Janie Dee as Ruth.  She showed her excellent comic timing time and again particularly in the classic exchange:

• Charles: Anything interesting in The Times?
• Ruth: Don't be silly, Charles. 

Ruth can be a tough role - the character who wants to stop the madcap antics usually is - but Janie Dee is such an engaging stage performer that her dry delivery was a joy to behold.

I found the casting of Jemima Rooper to be a miscalculation however.  Her childishly petulant pouts and squeaky voice seemed to belong to a totally different production and more than once I felt she was totally out of her depth with the quality of performance onstage.  Simon Jones and Serena Evans made full use of their considerable experience to fill out the roles of Doctor and Mrs Bradman and Patsy Ferran made the most of the West End debut as Edith, the Condomine's gormless maid.

Needless to say Madame Arcarti's belated entrance on stage provoked a round of applause for Angela Lansbury, you don't get too many of those anymore but somehow within the context of Coward and BLITHE SPIRIT it didn't seem strange at all!  There was the odd stumbled line but that is more than allowed when you're 88 and in the process of giving a performance of pure star quality.  She played Arcarti as an intelligent and engaging authoress but one who didn't suffer fools gladly - I will treasure the exasperated daggers she shot at Mrs. Bradman's clueless questioning.

Yes, she stole scenes with her bizarre little dance in her pre-seance trance or in her delighted responses to Elvira's presence but that's what she's there to do!  Although the role didn't give her the opportunity to touch us in the way her Madame Armfelt did in A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC on Broadway in 2010, it was an utter joy to see her on a West End stage and proving that this wasn't a case of stunt star casting - just like Arcarti, she brought sheer magic to us.

All this and being made Dame Angela last week too - it's about time!