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PLAY ON!

★★★★★

Lyric Hammersmith

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PLAY ON!

Lyric Hammersmith

★★★★★

“The unique quality of this musical is that each number comes with its own ever-increasing ‘wow factor’.”

The atmosphere in the bar is electric. The only thing missing is the fog of cigarette smoke, otherwise we’ve walked into an old brownstone building on the corner of 52nd Street. It is the early 1940s. Was that Charlie Parker over there by the bar? I’m sure I just saw Dizzy Gillespie. Through the crowds clutching their Daiquiris and Manhattans, I think I can hear Duke Ellington strike a few opening chords on the grand piano. But then the chime of the intercom – with its five-minute call – brings us back into the twenty-first century, as we file into the auditorium for Sheldon Epps’ musical “Play On!”

The title comes from the Duke’s famous opening line from “Twelfth Night” on which this musical is based. Epps’ concept, with the book by Cheryl L. West, takes brazen liberties with Shakespeare while still convincing us of its faithfulness. The result is a revelation – as we are transported from Illyria to the Cotton Club in Harlem in nineteen-forty-something. The music of Duke Ellington slots into the narrative as though he were commissioned to write the songs specifically for this show. This is hardcore jazz, steeped in tradition, but sharing the stage with its modern sister ‘hip-hop’ thanks to the stunning choreography of Kenrick H2O Sandy MBE.

The opening routine sets the tone – a burst of precision and emotion, the ensemble moving as one, led by Llewellyn Jamal. Breaking free from the song and from his magnetic dance moves, Jamal coaxes us into the action, playing Jester – a chancing, two-timing yet loveable rogue. Into the club wanders his niece, Viola (Tsemaye Bob-Egbe), an aspiring songwriter looking to make it big in the Big Apple, and hoping to join the ranks of the club’s band leader ‘Duke’. She hasn’t bargained for the reception she receives though. “Ain’t no woman can do songwriting” her uncle Jester tells her. To be taken seriously she dresses as a man and becomes Vyman. Meanwhile ‘Duke’ (Earl Gregory) is suffering from writer’s block, unable to complete his melodies. With his Mojo gone, so too has the affections of Lady Liv (KoKo Alexandra) the nightclub’s diva. Vyman is tasked with trying to put things right and, with the help and hindrance of Rev (Cameron Bernard Jones), Miss Mary (Tanya Edwards) and Sweets (Lifford Shillingford) we embark on a very Shakespearean comedy of errors. With all that jazz.

The unique quality of this musical is that each number comes with its own ever-increasing ‘wow factor’. And each performer matches the demands of the material with equal virtuosity. Gregory’s plaintive ‘I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart’ is followed by Alexandra’s ‘Mood Indigo’ (what an entrance Alexandra makes!). Bob-Egbe’s ‘Don’t Get Around Much Anymore’ rightly betrays the fact that she does get around a lot on the musical theatre scene. Smoky, bluesy ballads interlock with Bebop, big band syncopation. ‘It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing’, but “Play On!” swings over the edge, and we cling on in ecstasy as it sways to the rhythm. An infectious and irresistible rhythm courtesy of the onstage five-piece band, led by musical director Ashton Moore at the grand piano.

Each number is a highlight – the solos, duets, quartets and more. Jamal and Shillingford deliver a brilliantly hilarious ‘Rocks in My Bed’ while the first act closes with a rousing ‘Solitude’, each singer overlapping before coming together into a rousing, show-stopping ensemble. The vocal dexterity is matched by their handling of West’s text. Bob-Egbe’s fluidity and Jamal’s flexibility are a master class in acting and timing, while Gregory’s cool smoky tones evoke the period with echoes of a young Leslie ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson in his Harlem days.

The ending of the story plays fast and loose with the original plot. Rev, who represents Malvolio, has a very different fate. The reconciliations are not wholly expected by those familiar with Shakespeare’s text. In fact, in some ways, this has a more satisfactory conclusion. The feelgood factor is one that the Bard may not have sanctioned, but we endorse it, and love it. And we leave the auditorium with more than a dance in our step. “If music be the food of love, play on… Give me excess of it”. That sums it up really.



PLAY ON!

Lyric Hammersmith

Reviewed on 31st January 2025

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Ellie Kurttz

 

 

 

 

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

OTHELLO | ★★★★ | January 2023

PLAY ON!

PLAY ON!

PLAY ON!

 

 

MY MOTHER’S FUNERAL

★★★★★

The Yard Theatre

Reviews, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

MY MOTHER’S FUNERAL

The Yard Theatre

★★★★★

“fresh and funny and angry”

Abigail’s mother has died and she can’t afford the funeral. This simple fact drives a play that spirals in different directions, examining class inequality, the consequences of revealing your trauma for art commissions, the different sides of a parent that children can experience. All of this is considered through a warm and darkly comic lens.

Abigail (Nicole Sawyerr) is a writer and as the middle-class theatre commissioner keeps reminding her, she is a writer who grew up on a council estate. As her brother keeps reminding her, she is the only one from ‘around here’ who goes to this theatre. The disconnect between audience and experience is stark. Realising that the only way she can afford a funeral is to get a commission (the theatre didn’t like her piece about gay bugs in space, they want something through her ‘unique lens’) Abigail finds herself writing a play about a woman who can’t afford her mother’s funeral. But as the theatre people workshop her experiences into caricature and the money seems ever elusive, Abigail must wrestle with the ethics of what she is doing, while also grieving her mother.

The themes are complicated and hard-hitting. There are so many moments in this play where you want a chance to stop and think, to consider the point that’s just been made. But that’s not allowed, the pace is careening, a whirlwind of grief and exploitation that mirrors the chaotic aftermath of a death.

Kelly Jones’ script is layered, complex and slippery. The jokes are packed in, managing to have us laughing through gritted teeth at the out of touch theatre people, and laughing with moist eyes at some of the softer, quieter moments. It’s an angry script, and rightly so. Many people won’t know how expensive funerals have become (the costs have risen 126% in the last 20 years) and might not know about what happens if you can’t afford it. This is a story that’s worth telling, but by adding the complexity of Abigail wrestling with telling it, Jones elevates this piece to a broader critique of class and the arts and the cluelessness of those in power.

Charlotte Bennett’s direction is energetic and slick. The three performers dart about the stage, their tangled emotions explored in masterful light and shade. Sawyerr as Abigail quivers with tension, trapped in an impossible situation. Samuel Armfield is maddening as the theatre commissioner, and extremely moving as Abigail’s brother Darren, whose memories of their mother are more complicated and his grief harder to grapple with. Debra Baker plays both Linda the mother and the Actor who will perform as the mother in the play Abigail is writing. This is a stroke of genius to twist the knife of Abigail’s pain. Baker slips effortlessly between the two, as well as doing a hilarious turn as a set builder, throwing mud everywhere for the ‘authentic working-class experience’.

Rhys Jarman’s set begins simply, with a small two-levelled stage at the centre. As the play within a play develops, the set design becomes more involved and a grave is revealed. There is something sickeningly powerful about an on-stage grave. It’s a brilliant choice.

This play is fresh and funny and angry. It deservedly won a Scotsman Fringe First Award for new writing at the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe. In combining the universal and the specific it’s found a powerful niche. It’s just shy of harrowing, but it’s certainly worth your time.



MY MOTHER’S FUNERAL

The Yard Theatre

Reviewed on 30th January 2025

by Auriol Reddaway

Photography by Nicola Young

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

PERKY NATIVITITTIES | ★★★★ | December 2024
THE FLEA | ★★★★★ | October 2024
THE FLEA | ★★★★ | October 2023

MY MOTHER’S FUNERAL

MY MOTHER’S FUNERAL

MY MOTHER’S FUNERAL