Tag Archives: Justin Townsend

Moulin Rouge!

Moulin Rouge! The Musical

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Piccadilly Theatre

Moulin Rouge!

Moulin Rouge! The Musical

Piccadilly Theatre

Reviewed – 20th January 2022

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“this would make a really fun proper knees-up sing-along if that’s the direction they wanted to go in”

 

When Moulin Rouge was released in 2001 it put its very best foot forward with an absolute dream team of Baz Luhrmann, Craig Pearce, Craig Armstrong, Ewan McGregor, Nicole Kidman, Jim Broadbent, John Leguizamo, and Richard Roxburgh to name a few. For goodness sake, even Kylie Minogue featured for a second (β€œI’m a green fairy!”) Not only that, but it apparently took Luhrmann over two years to gain the rights to the most carefully curated track list, featuring some of the biggest songs of the century. So, with all that in mind, Moulin Rouge: The Musical faces a tremendous amount of pressure. How on earth could you make a version of a Baz Luhrmann production and make it better, even make it just as good?

Filing into the theatre, the staging already promises a lot, with tens of floor-to-ceiling light-encrusted ruby red hearts sitting nestled within one another; an enormous adorned elephant bedecks the royal box, and opposite, the iconic windmill spinning lazily. Emblazoned in bright lights across the front of the stage, β€˜MOULIN ROUGE’. As the audience shuffles past one another, holding plastic cups of wine, taking off their giant winter coats and shoving them under their chairs, dancers move in seductive slow-motion across the stage and around the front rows, in encrusted velvet corsets and top hats, crescendoing with two low-key sword swallowers before its even begun. It’s all very alluring, and the first song, β€˜Lady Marmalade’ is the perfect smutty number to introduce us properly, filthy-sexy and so much fun.

But as the play unfolds, unfortunately it doesn’t quite keep up, with some songs merely echoing the film’s outrageous performances, and others bizarrely saccharine or, quite frankly, just not good enough.

It’s a strange beast in that it doesn’t quite know what it is. On the one hand, Derek McLane’s gloriously over-the-top, no-holds-barred stage design, and Catherine Zuber’s saucy, sexy, sometimes lurid, sometimes lavish costumes are the stuff of the very highest production value. On the other hand, there’s something disturbingly panto about some of the performances, the leads feel a bit- dare I say it- Disney in their wholesome asexual chemistry, and the additional songs not included in the movie are presented like a sing-along; rather than being cleverly and carefully chosen and then moulded to suit the story’s palette, they seem to clash. In the second half, for example, the morning after Satine has had to break Christian’s heart and pretend she doesn’t love him because otherwise the Duke’s going to have him murdered; it’s a pretty tense and heavy moment. Christian starts singing Adele’s β€˜Rolling in the Deep’ with all the melodrama of a fourteen-year-old Glee member, and the audience takes their cue and joins in! Not only are they clapping along, they’re bloody singing! At near on the saddest part of the whole story.

That’s not to say there aren’t flashes of flamboyant ecstasy: Clive Carter’s Harold Zidler, despite doing a sort of impression of Jim Broadbent’s performance, is delightfully sinister and scornful, and contributes a slightly different flavour to the complicated character.

The end of the Elephant Medley is pretty spectacular, Satine’s room spinning to reveal a starlit night sky, the Eiffel tower being rolled on by eight extra dancers, and quick sparkling costume changes for both leads as they climb the miniature landmark. Two aerialists spin elegantly from the ceiling as Satine and Christian sing the last high notes together, β€œHow wonderful life is now you’re in the world”, and the chorus stares lovingly on. It’s just so ridiculously excessive, I love it.

I think this would make a really fun proper knees-up sing-along if that’s the direction they wanted to go in; a great night out with the girls, belting β€˜Baby you’re a firework’ and β€˜Single Ladies’.

Alternatively, it could do what it looks like it should and be properly debaucherous and depraved, and the subject handled with a lot more grit and seriousness. I don’t want to hear Satine saying β€œI can’t go back to the streets!” and Christian responding with a fatuous β€œThen come with me to the stars!” Dude, she’s talking about a life of prostitution and homelessness. What are you talking about??

 

Reviewed by Miriam Sallon

Photography by Matt Crockett

 


Moulin Rouge! The Musical

Piccadilly Theatre until May 2022

 

 

 

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VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

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Charing Cross Theatre

VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

Charing Cross Theatre

Reviewed – 15th November 2021

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“Durang’s gift for witty one liners is alive and well in Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, but this particular comedy has a fin de siΓ©cle feel about it”

 

Christopher Durang’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is aging poorlyβ€”rather like its main characters. This nod-to-Chekhov mash up of (mostly) The Seagull and Uncle Vanya does provide moments for the actors, especially in the second half. Audiences who go expecting vintage Durang at this latest revival at the Charing Cross Theatre in London, however, may be disappointed. And in truth, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is the sort of show that plays better in New York, where it won a Tony Award in 2013.

In Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, drama comes to Bucks County, Pennsylvaniaβ€”and sadness, punctuated by moments of hilarity, ensue. Durang has freely adapted Chekhov’s charactersβ€”Vanya is gay; Sonia is his adopted sister, and Masha is their successful, but aging, movie star sister. After spending years nursing their elderly parents, Vanya and Sonia are finally free of their responsibilitiesβ€”but that simply reminds them that their lives are now pointless. Into this existential void comes Masha, accompanied by her much younger lover Spike. Adding more drama and intrigue, are Cassandra, a prophecy ranting cleaner, and Nina, a starstruck young neighbour. The plot is slightβ€”revolving around Masha’s threats to sell the house, Nina’s desire to be an actress (much like the character she is named for in The Seagull) and Vanya and Sonia’s attempts to make their lives more interesting. For Sonia, this is an opportunity to channel Maggie Smith in California Suite at a costume party. For Vanya, it is a reading of the play he has written in imitation of Konstantin’s in The Seagull. Spike is there to strip off his clothes at every opportunity, (he is also a wannabe actor) and be the exhibitionist cat among the pigeons.

Durang’s characters, like Chekhov’s, struggle with living trivial lives. They are bitter, and/or bewildered, having realized that while they were simply existing, life (and love) has passed them by. This is true even for Masha who once dreamed of acting in Chekhov’s Three Sisters. (She’s a veteran of five failed marriages, and countless franchise horror films.) In the first half of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike this means coffee cups of frustration hurled at the walls. The second half does live more satisfyinglyβ€”Vanya has a wonderful monologue in which he celebrates a now vanished America of the fifties. The plot still follows a depressing trajectory, however. Masha loses Spike to her (younger) personal assistant; Sonia has to make the emotionally loaded choice to continue channeling Maggie Smith if she wants to date a gentleman caller she met at the costume party, and Vanya contemplates getting a job at the local pharmacy. The play as a whole is not kind to its characters.

In the Charing Cross Theatre’s production of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, the actors make the best of this material. Rebecca Lacey is particularly enjoyable as Sonia. She steals the scenes wherever she can, whether it is as downtrodden Sonia, or scorching Maggie Smith on her way to an awards ceremony. It’s a tough act to follow, but Michael Maloney as Vanya and Janie Dee as Masha provide solid comic support as her siblings. Each has a breakout moment when we get to see their fears of a meaningless future stretching out before them. β€œI’m worried about the future, and I miss the past,” says Vanya, and oddly enough, this is more true in 2021, than in 2013. Sara Powell has her share of scene stealing moments as the doomsayer Cassandra. She also has wonderful comic timing. Lukwesa Mwamba (Nina) and Charlie Maher (Spike) manage to be likeable and sympathetic despite the shortcomings of their roles. Add to the performances a finely observed set design by David Korins, stylish costumes by Emily Rebholz, and solid dialect coaching by Salvatore Sorce, and you could easily imagine yourself to be sitting in a Broadway theatre.

Durang’s gift for witty one liners is alive and well in Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, but this particular comedy has a fin de siΓ©cle feel about it. Go for the laughs, but try to avoid feelings of existential dread on the way home.

 

Reviewed by Dominica Plummer

Photography by Marc Brenner

 


Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

Charing Cross Theatre until 8th January

 

Also reviewed at this venue this year:
Pippin | β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… | July 2021

 

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