The 10th Annual Chrissie Awards - the red carpet awaits...

Time to dig out that old Balenciaga and the dinner jacket with the shiny lapels (and backside) - it's only the 10th Annual Chrissies... the award that all the West End wants...

BEST DRAMA (Original/Revival)

 

RICHARD III - William Shakespeare (Almeida)

Nominees:

THE DEEP BLUE SEA - Rattigan (Lyttelton) / ELLEN TERRY WITH EILEEN ATKINS - Atkins/Shakespeare (Sam Wanamaker) / KENNY MILLER - Poulson (Arcola) / THE PLOUGH AND THE STARS - O'Casey (Lyttelton)

BEST MUSICAL (Original/Revival)

SHOW BOAT - Jerome Kern / Oscar Hammerstein II (Sheffield & New London)

Nominees:

RAGTIME - Flaherty / Ahrens / McNally (Charing Cross Theatre) / SHE LOVES ME - Bock / Harnick / Masteroff (Menier) / THE THREEPENNY OPERA - Brecht / Weill / Stephens (Olivier) / TITANIC - Yeston (Charing Cross Road)

BEST BALLET/OPERA

THE RED SHOES - Matthew Bourne (Sadler's Wells)

Nominees:

LA FILLE MAL GARDÉE - Ashton (Covent Garden) / TOSCA - Puccini (London Coliseum) / LA TRAVIATA - Verdi (Covent Garden) / THE WINTER'S TALE - Wheeldon (Covent Garden)

BEST ACTOR (Drama)

  RALPH FIENNES - Richard III (Almeida)

Nominees:

O-T FAGBENLE (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom) / DAVID MORRISSEY (Hangman) / LUCIAN MSAMATI (Amadeus) / LUCIAN MSAMANTI (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom)

BEST ACTRESS (Drama)

HELEN McCRORY - The Deep Blue Sea (Lyttelton)

Nominees:

EILEEN ATKINS (Ellen Terry with Eileen Atkins) / SHARON D. CLARKE (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom) / LISA DWAN (No's Knife) / GLENDA JACKSON (King Lear)

BEST ACTOR (Musical)

RORY KINNEAR - The Threepenny Opera (Olivier)

Nominees:

PAUL AYRES (Kinky Boots) / EUAN GARRETT (Billy Elliot) / HARRY HEPPLE (Into The Woods) / MICHAEL XAVIER (Show Boat)

BEST ACTRESS (Musical)

  SCARLETT STRALLEN - She Loves Me (Menier)

Nominees:

ANITA LOUISE COMBE (Ragtime) / LAURA PITT-PULFORD (Side Show) / JENNA RUSSELL (Grey Gardens) / SHERIDAN SMITH (Funny Girl)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR (Drama)

STEVE PEMBERTON - Dead Funny (Savoy)

Nominees:

FINBAR LYNCH (Richard III) / ANDY NYMAN (Hangman) / DOMINIC ROWAN (The Tempest) / PETER SULLIVAN (The Deep Blue Sea)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS (Drama)

VANESSA REDGRAVE - Richard III (Almeida)

Nominees:

LINDA BASSETT (Escaped Alone) / SUSAN ENGEL (Richard III) / BRONWYN JAMES (Hangmen) / GRÁINNE KEENAN (The Plough and The Stars)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR (Musical)

ADAM J. BERNARD - Dreamgirls (Savoy)

Nominees:

ALLAN CORDUNER (Show Boat) / NICK HOLDER (The Threepenny Opera) / EMMANUEL KOJO (Show Boat) / MALCOLM SINCLAIR (Show Boat)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS (Musical)

REBECCA TREHEARN - Show Boat (Sheffield & New London)

Nominees:

SHEILA HANCOCK (Grey Gardens) / KATHERINE KINGSLEY (She Loves Me) / SANDRA MARVIN (Show Boat) / JENNIFER SAAYENG (Ragtime)

BEST BALLET/OPERA MALE

DANIEL COLLINS - Jekyll & Hyde (Old Vic)

Nominees:

BENNET GARTSIDE (The Winter's Tale) / STEVEN McRAE (La Fille Mal Gardee) / EDWARD WATSON (Strapless) / THOMAS WHITEHEAD (The Invitation)

 

 BEST BALLET/OPERA FEMALE

CORDELIA BRAITHWAITE - The Red Shoes (Sadler's Wells)

 

Nominees:

KERI ALKEMA (Tosca) / MARIANELA NUNEZ (Giselle) / MARIANELA NUNEZ (The Winter's Tale) / NATALIA OSIPOVA (La Fille Mal Gardee)

BEST DIRECTOR

RUPERT GOOLD - Richard III (Almeida)

Nominees:

MATTHEW BOURNE (The Red Shoes) / CARRIE CRACKNELL (The Deep Blue Sea) / CASEY NICOLAW (Dreamgirls) / MATTHEW WHITE (She Loves Me)

BEST DESIGNER

  LEZ BROTHERSTON - The Red Shoes (Sadler's Wells)

 Nominees:

HILDEGARD BECHTLER (Richard III) / BOB CROWLEY (La Traviata) / BOB CROWLEY (The Winter's Tale) / PAUL FARNSWORTH (She Loves Me)

BEST LIGHTING

 PAULE CONSTABLE - The Red Shoes (Sadler's Wells)

Nominees:

JON CLARKE (Richard III) / JEAN KALMAN (La Traviata) / NATASHA KATZ (The Winter's Tale) / HUGH VANSTONE (Dreamgirls)

BEST CHOREOGRAPHY (Musical)

CASEY NICHOLAW - Dreamgirls (Savoy)

Nominees:

CRESSIDA CARRÉ (Titanic) / PETER DARLING (Billy Elliot) / ALISTAIR DAVID (Show Boat) / REBECCA HOWELL (She Loves Me)

BEST CHOREOGRAPHY (Ballet)

CHRISTOPHER WHEELDON - The Winter's Tale (Sadler's Wells)

Nominees:

FREDERICK ASHTON (La Fille Mal Gardée) / MATTHEW BOURNE (The Red Shoes) / KENNETH McMILLAN (Anastasia) / PETER WRIGHT (Giselle)

RICHARD III at the Almeida - a very fine Fiennes

My last Shakespeare play was the naff Irish stew version of TAMING OF THE SHREW so I was slightly worried what the Almeida's RICHARD III would offer up.  The Almeida is too keen on re-imaginings for it's own good but I really need not have worried, Rupert Goold has a firm grasp on the play and where he has strayed into the dangerous marshes of Director Theatre it at least is valid and frames the play in an interesting way.

Goold's production starts (and ends) with the excavation in the Leicester car park which reveals the skull of Richard III, his sword and finally his mis-shapen spine to a curious crowd of onlookers, the light fades out on this scene and slowly come up again, revealing Ralph Fiennes at the back of the stage, the skeleton made flesh.  I thought it actually worked, it ties in those recent events to a seemingly long-ago tale of political corruption and murder.

At over 3 hours, the production should feel long but it really doesn't as Goold keeps the action moving ever-forward.  I have seen previous productions which seemed to hit the buffers whenever Richard was not on stage but here nothing is allowed to get in the way of Shakespeare's thundering plot.

The modern-dress production has a simple set from Hildegard Bechtler - a semi-circular set of steps, sweeping curtains made of chains and a see-through stage over Richard's ignoble resting-place - which is a perfect setting for Goold's spare, stripped-down production; a spooky addition being spotlit silver skulls which appear on the back wall for every murder Richard sanctions.

Ralph Fiennes was magnificent as Richard, inhabiting the role with a slippery ease, turning on a groat from charming someone to do his bidding to cold-blooded sociopath.  He is such a skillful actor he didn't just play Richard as a monster but as someone who almost was cast in the role of villain from birth, the scene where his mother pours venom on him sees Fiennes slumped in a chair avoiding her gaze, you suspect he's heard it all before from her.  It was a performance of quicksilver cunning and intelligence, even when he was feigning piety to secure backing for his claim to be King, his mask slipped noticeably when Buckingham called him effeminate.

It's a world where people are only aware of Richard's murderous intent just as they are about to be (literally) stabbed in the back but there is only one person who knows how evil Richard is and that's the haunted and haunting Queen Margaret, the last living member of the deposed Royal family.  Here the ravaged Margaret of Anjou is played wonderfully by Vanessa Redgrave and Goold casting her in this role really lifts the character from being just a mere supporting character.  Although in only two scenes, Margaret haunts the play and the other characters.

In her first scene she curses all present that they know the depths of Richard's evil and one by one, as they suddenly face their destiny, Margaret's words come back to haunt them.  Vanessa's Margaret is dressed in dishevelled fatigues suggesting she has not changed since the Battle of Tewkesbury where her son was killed, and carries a damaged baby doll that Richard at one point smothers to her horror.  In a nice touch, when Margaret reappears to reproach the grieving Queen Elizabeth after the murder of her own children, Margaret leaves her battered baby doll with her, it's Elizabeth who must mourn a dead son.  As always, Vanessa was never less than thrilling.

They are complemented by other fine performances: Finbar Lynch was excellent as Buckingham, Richard's 'fixer' whose political double-dealing made the play all the more topical in these post-Brexit times, Scott Handy was very good as Clarence and made his speech of drowning all too real, James Garnon's Hastings was the very model of a careerist politician, always checking his Twitter account until it's too late, and Tom Canton was a suitably virile presence as Richard's nemesis Richmond.

Aislín McGuckin's Queen Elizabeth was suitably tigerish until she too is broken by Richard - Goold has him rape her in their final confrontation where he demands her daughter as his new wife.  This was the only directorial choice that I am unsure about although it certainly fits in with Elizabeth's sudden capitulation towards the end of the scene.  Susan Engel was exquisite as Richard's mother, The Duchess of York - her denunciation of him towards the end of the play was played with a marvellous delivery of fire and ice.  Interestingly Engel had played Queen Elizabeth in the famous RSC cycle of the War Of The Roses plays in 1963.

On 21st July RICHARD III will be the first Almeida Theatre production to be screened live in cinemas (although some filming will take place in performances before that) - I recommend it highly as the production is sold out for all performances at the theatre.

Dvd/150: THE HOLLOW CROWN: RICHARD II (Rupert Goold, 2012)

This trilogy of films based on four Shakespeare history plays, commissioned by the BBC for the 2012 Cultural Olympiad, are excellent examples of intelligent, gripping stage-to-screen adaptations.

All three are cast to perfection: Ben Whishaw is marvellous as Richard, fey, capricious and remote, who, like Lear, initiates his own downfall by banishing his cousin Bolingbroke to six years abroad then appropriates his cousin's fortune and lands when Bolingbroke's father John of Gaunt dies.

Rory Kinnear is fine as the conflicted usurper Bolingbroke, their scenes together have an electric quality especially in the riveting abdication scene.

Excellent support comes from Patrick Stewart as John of Gaunt as well as David Suchet, Lindsay Duncan and David Morrissey among others.

Goold, whose adaptation with Ben Power has a fast-paced clarity, directs in a fluid style which leaves no symbolism unchecked and has a slight over-reliance on slow-motion detailing.

Shelf or charity shop?  I'faith my lord, shelf.