Tag Archives: Hugo Dodsworth

FRENCH TOAST

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Riverside Studios

FRENCH TOAST at Riverside Studios

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“It mocks pretty much everything about the industry, but it is also a heartfelt love letter to the theatre”

The French actor, director and writer, Jean Poiret, is best known for his 1973 β€œLa Cage aux Folles”. He is perhaps less well known as a theatre and film actor before, making some forty motion pictures over three decades. You have to dig deep into his biography to come across the 1979 comedy. β€œFΓ©fΓ© de Broadway”. Writer Sam Alexander has obviously done so, and we can only thank him for that. His adaptation, that follows the backstage shenanigans of an ill-conceived musical, is a wonderfully light-hearted, eccentric and witty hour-and-a-half of escapism – now titled β€œFrench Toast”. There are going to be obvious comparisons to Michael Frayn’s β€œNoises Off” which was conceived around the same time this side of the English Channel. There are contrasts too. Alexander’s take on Poiret’s story (co-adapted with director Marianne Badrichani) draws a lot from the culture clash between the French β€˜glamour’ and the British β€˜eccentricity’. β€œFrench Toast” is indeed guilty of cramming itself full of stereotypes and caricatures, but the audience are willing victims of the crime.

Set in 1977, it focuses on French diva, Jacqueline BrΓ©mont (Edith Vernes). Rich and successful in her native Paris, she has decided to branch out and conquer London’s West End but instead lands up in Basingstoke. Old flame Simon Monk (ChΓ© Walker) is directing an ill-fated musical adaptation of Jean Racine’s β€˜PhΓ¨dre’. He has no intention of casting Jacqueline in the lead role – she can’t sing and dance to save her life. But money talks. Without her there’s no investment. What ensues is a farcical entanglement of egos during a hilarious stop-start rehearsal process. ClichΓ©s are pulled out of the hat like a manic conjuror on speed, but so are many moments of wit, humour, quirkiness and sharp comic observation that bring a huge smile to our faces. It mocks pretty much everything about the industry, but it is also a heartfelt love letter to the theatre.

You need to be exceptionally good to convince at being a bad actor. And this company have the collective talent to ham it up to the histrionic hilt. ChΓ© Walker brilliantly encompasses the authoritarian director who has suddenly lost all control. The show is being cast behind his back. Walker’s stunned expression on day one of rehearsals is an image that will imprint itself on the mind for a long time. But to shake things up a bit, Simon Monk enrols punk musician Nicky Butler. Monk thinks of himself as a bit of a β€˜right-on’ radical. Reece Richardson gives a star turn as the bewildered muso caught up in a thespian nightmare. Love interest comes via Suzy Kohane’s stylish yet earnestly β€˜New Age’ Kate Freeman. Kohane’s is a standout performance, particularly when she sidesteps Paul Hegarty’s vividly accurate, camp yet lecherous Etienne GrΓ©mine. We are reminded that the seventies were β€˜different times, darling!’ but a modern sensitivity is layered onto the narrative without detracting from the authentically period setting.

There is some doubling up of the roles. Josie Benson shines as budding actress Faye Rose but also a delicious Madame Bouffard, the diva’s dour dresser. The whole company is having so much fun, and Edith Vernes is no exception as the central figure Jacqueline. Despite a slightly clunky opening few moments, the show swiftly warms up. Touches of Alan Bennett’s β€˜Habeas Corpus’ take the style dangerously close to farce, as trousers start to go missing, but other influences pull it back. The mayhem of β€˜The Young Ones’ is visible through rays of β€˜Morecambe and Wise’. Tara Young’s choreography is spot on with her playful nods to Fosse while Sammy Dowson’s costumes let us know exactly which year, if not month, of the seventies we are in.

Crucial to the piece is Leo Elso’s music. The lush escapism of disco locks horns with the raw energy of punk. Like the text, it parodies and cherishes at the same time with an authenticity that pinpoints the era in which The Village People and Abba could share the world’s stage with The Clash and The Sex Pistols. The culture shocks resonate throughout, up until the upbeat finale in which virtuosity and humour make a perfect marriage.

The play is peopled by people from different backgrounds, yet the comedy of misunderstandings ultimately leads to unexpected reconciliations and a feelgood factor that tips the scales. Like it’s culinary counterpart, β€œFrench Toast” is crisp on the outside but fluffy and tender on the inside. At times a little bit eggy, but delicious. A toast can definitely be raised – in French or in English.


FRENCH TOAST at Riverside Studios

Reviewed on 7th October 2024

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Lidia Crisafulli

 

 

 

 

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

KIM’S CONVENIENCE | β˜…β˜…β˜… | September 2024
THE WEYARD SISTERS | β˜…β˜… | August 2024
MADWOMEN OF THE WEST | β˜…β˜… | August 2024
MOFFIE | β˜…β˜…β˜… | June 2024
KING LEAR | β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… | May 2024
THIS IS MEMORIAL DEVICE | β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… | April 2024
ARTIFICIALLY YOURS | β˜…β˜…β˜… | April 2024
ALAN TURING – A MUSICAL BIOGRAPHY | β˜…β˜… | January 2024
ULSTER AMERICAN | β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… | December 2023
OTHELLO | β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… | October 2023
FLOWERS FOR MRS HARRIS | β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… | October 2023
RUN TO THE NUNS – THE MUSICAL | β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… | July 2023

FRENCH TOAST

FRENCH TOAST

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Fame Whore

Fame Whore

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King’s Head Theatre

FAME WHORE at the King’s Head Theatre

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Fame Whore

“It’s an interesting premise, and a great format in theory.”

 

There have been plenty of meditations on the problems with social media and influencers. And there have been plenty of stories told about the ugly truth behind fame. Fame Whore has as stab at both. And though we’ve seen these ideas many times before, there’s a complexity and messiness to this one which sticks with me on my journey home, and which ultimately makes it worth a watch.

Becky Biro is a hard-working drag artist, showcasing her sass and silly song-writing across the city. But she finds herself caught between wanting to do the right thing and promote the rights of the underrepresented, and being completely and utterly selfish, taking what she feels she deserves without consequence.

Having been rejected from Drag Factor year after year, she decides the only way she’ll be accepted is by gaining an undeniably massive and committed social media following. But how to go about it?

The show is split in to two main chunks: β€˜1. Becky Biro is a good person and all of this just happened to her’, and β€˜2. Becky is a total bitch, and this is what she really did’. It’s a great way to split up the narrative: first we get to know Becky, we’re on her side. Then we get down to the gritty truth.

This is the kind of drag I love, on a shoe-string budget, but with plenty of extra touches to keep our campy spirits up. A brilliant nod to Drag-Race star Sasha Velour’s shaking out her wig to reveal raining petals is a particular highlight.

Alys Whitehead’s design- a mirrored floor, a colour-changing ring light, and a glittery blue curtain- set the scene, but ultimately, Gigi Zahir is the show. Zahir, aka Crayola the Queen, is magnetic as fame-hungry Becky. Touting shallow nonsense- β€œBeckly Biro is delicious and good tasting but also nutritious. It’s not just donuts for dinner!”- so fluently, it’s as though the person behind the drag has been completely lost under that enormous blue wig. But Zahir is also a dab hand at dropping the faΓ§ade abruptly, if only for a moment, so that we see the honest, whimpering desperation.

It’s an interesting premise, and a great format in theory. The trouble is, it’s a half hour too long, and ends up being a bit of a drag. Whilst Zahir is fabulous, and writer Tom Ratcliffe has moments of charming vitriol, the story just isn’t really meaty enough for 90 minutes straight through.

 

 

Reviewed on 11th October 2022

by Miriam Sallon

Photography by Charles Flint Photography

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

 

Tender Napalm | β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… | October 2021
Beowulf: An Epic Panto | β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… | November 2021
Freud’s Last Session | β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… | January 2022
La BohΓ¨me | β˜…β˜…β˜…Β½ | May 2022
Brawn | β˜…β˜… | August 2022
The Drought | β˜…β˜…β˜… | September 2022

 

 

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