Tag Archives: New Wimbledon Theatre

Club Tropicana the Musical
★★

New Wimbledon Theatre & UK Tour

Club Tropicana the Musical

New Wimbledon Theatre & UK Tour

Reviewed – 23rd April 2019

★★

 

“Like the overblown cocktails that “Club Tropicana” serves up, it is all show and little substance”

 

As the opening bars of ABC’s ‘The Look of Love’ open the show, we get a taste of what it must have been like, back when the announcement to remind us to switch off our mobile phones was aimed at the lucky minority. “Club Tropicana”, a show that joins a growing brand of jukebox musicals that celebrate a particular phase of our cultural history, wastes no time in letting us know we are on a journey back to the eighties.

Despite being a time of massive change: the decade of Conservatism, Cold War and computers; Chernobyl and the Challenger disaster; the rise of AIDS and the fall of the Berlin Wall, it is often argued in retrospect that nothing really defines the 1980s. Similarly, despite a maelstrom of MTV hits shoehorned into it, it can be argued that there is little that defines this show. Both are sweeping criticisms, however, and consequently unfair. This musical is, in essence, simply a nod to the silliness of the decade and its aim is purely for the audience to have fun – and, indeed, make fun of the cheesiness of it all.

But even if you approach it with low expectations, Michael Gyngell’s book struggles to reach even those. The plot is as gossamer thin as the condom jokes and other outdated innuendos that desperately try to hold the threadbare dialogue together. I’m not sure it even tries to succeed in this, such is the laziness of the writing that obviously decides to rely purely on the iconic 80s soundtrack to hold the narrative together. Lorraine (Karina Hind) jilts Olly (Cellen Chugg Jones) on their wedding day. Not wanting to waste a honeynoom, she heads off to Sunny Spain with her two best buddies instead. Meanwhile Olly drowns his sorrows by jetting off with his two best men. To the same hotel as Lorraine, of course.

The experience is like turning up at a half-built resort, where the shell of a swimming pool is as shallow as the characters that swan around it searching for a personality. But the staff are doing their best. And it has to be said that, while there is little investment in story or characterisation, the cast, without exception, give it everything they have. The ensemble is a show unto themselves as they faultlessly execute Nick Winston’s top-notch choreography.

There are some fine voices on show particularly Amelle Berrabah and Neil McDermott as the hotel receptionists, blind to their mutual yearning but not to the onstage chemistry these two actors have. But the stand out is actor, singer, impressionist Kate Robbins as Consuela the cleaner. A dynamic presence, Robbins peppers the scenes with her expert comedic timing and mimicry. A surreal moment when she sings “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue” in Spanish, dressed as Adam Ant is almost worth the ticket price alone!

Without a doubt, this show is a crowd pleaser. But it is far too aware of that fact and therefore, unforgivably, it takes for granted its appeal. Like the overblown cocktails that “Club Tropicana” serves up, it is all show and little substance.

 

Reviewed by Jonathan Evans

 

Club Tropicana

Club Tropicana the Musical

New Wimbledon Theatre until 27th April then UK Tour continues

 

Last ten shows covered by this reviewer:
Rip It Up – The 60s | ★★★ | Garrick Theatre | February 2019
The Grand Expedition | ★★★★★ | Secret Location | February 2019
Carl’s Story | ★★★★ | Tabard Theatre | March 2019
Fiddler on the Roof | ★★★★★ | Playhouse Theatre | March 2019
Maggie May     | ★★★★ | Finborough Theatre | March 2019
Pain(t) | ★★★★ | Time and Leisure Studio | March 2019
The Life I Lead | ★★★ | Park Theatre | March 2019
The Project | ★★★ | White Bear Theatre | March 2019
The Rubenstein Kiss | ★★★★★ | Southwark Playhouse | March 2019
The Talented Mr Ripley | ★★★★ | The Vaults | March 2019

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Pain(t)
★★★★

New Wimbledon Theatre, Time and Leisure Studio

Pain(t)

Pain(t)

Time & Leisure Studio, New Wimbledon Theatre

Reviewed – 11th March 2019

★★★★

 

“I cannot recommend it enough, although I take no responsibility for your reaction to it”

 

Half way through Patrick Kennedy’s production of “Pain(t)”, a voice-over announces that “we are now reaching the interesting part of the play. Everything up to now has been recognisable”. Oh yeah? From where I’m sitting nothing whatsoever has been familiar so far. Which is the underlying beauty of avant-garde artist Richard Foreman’s work. Since the establishment of his ‘Ontological-Hysteric Theatre’ in New York in 1968, he has produced numerous plays, over the five decades, with perhaps the most experimental and provocative ideas in postmodern theatre. Yet apart from Foreman himself, Patrick Kennedy is the only director to stage his work in the UK.

Which is no easy task. It must be like being abandoned in a chaotic, unfamiliar city with no compass or street signs. Yet Kennedy has somehow paved his own way to present something quite stunningly unforgettable, mesmerising and incomparably bizarre. Just don’t ask me what it’s about. Not because I don’t know (well – in truth I have no idea!) but because, like a surrealist painting, the observer is entitled to take away whatever they want. Any interpretation is seemingly allowed. “Any sentence can mean anything” is a recurring motif that defines the erratic narrative.

However, for those who feel the urge to sniff out a storyline, the scenario seems based on an ancient French fable in which a young woman from the Provinces comes to the big city to try to gain fame as a great artist. Upon meeting the leading paintress of her day, she realises that to replace that talented lady in the public’s eye would not be easy. In this interpretation Rhoda (Emma Gilbey) arrives in Potatoland (yes – you read that correctly) to gain fame by usurping the ruling artist Eleanor (Ivy Lamont). Meanwhile Max (Benjamin Chaffin) is being held sexual prisoner for the two artists’ ravenous delights. This incredibly dedicated and open-minded cast, which also includes Ola Forman and Tommaso Giacomin, have no trouble drawing the audience in, such is the unselfconscious belief in their uninhibited performance.

It is a performance that transfixes throughout; the dramatic equivalent of a dropped jaw. It is part arthouse cinema, part radio play, part installation, part theatre of the absurd, part cartoon, part surrealist and Dadaist art; with echoes of Buñuel and Dali; Lynch and Genet; Beckett and Burroughs. But even curiouser and curiouser. It makes Alice’s adventures seem positively mundane and quotidian.

You will loathe it or love it – it seems impossible to imagine anything in between. I cannot recommend it enough, although I take no responsibility for your reaction to it. But there is no denying the importance of this sort of art form. It makes us look at theatre, and life to some degree, in a different way. But I can’t really describe why. The dictionary definition of ‘indescribable’ is twofold. Traditionally it was a word used for something too unusual or extreme to be adequately described; yet recently it has become a superlative to express sheer excellence. “Pain(t)” is a show that encompasses both definitions.

Indescribable, indescribable – and unmissable.

 

Reviewed by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Alessia Chinazzo

 

New Wimbledon Theatre

Pain(t)

Time & Leisure Studio, New Wimbledon Theatre until 16th March

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:
All Night Long | ★★★ | New Wimbledon Theatre | January 2018
Legally Blonde The Musical | ★★★★ | New Wimbledon Theatre | June 2018
The Secret Letters of Gertie & Hen | | Time and Leisure Studio | October 2018

 

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