“a cast of actors who clearly enjoy performing together and challenging one another”
As a darling of the Edinburgh Fringe, Austentatious features some of the most prominent improv performers working in the UK today. The premise of the show is very, very simple: based on a single made-up title, the cast improvise a full play based on a fictional work of Jane Austen, where anachronisms, quick-wittedness, and the rigors of Regency etiquette collide. Austentatious features live musical accompaniment (improvised, of course) from the piano and violin.
Austentatious is riotously funny. The characteristic formality and stiffness of the epoche is fertile territory for the cast, who clearly revel in poking fun at the outdated setting. What’s more, this is a cast of actors who clearly enjoy performing together and challenging one another; Rachel Parris and Cariad Lloyd, in particular, have the peculiar gift of being able to smile as sweetly as sugar while making life as hard and as hilarious as possible for their fellow performers. The result is a constant stream of belly laughs, ably assisted by musicians and lighting technicians responding to the madness – and even getting a few laughs of their own.
Unfortunately, while other improvised shows may take a plethora of audience suggestions from the outset or demand suggestions on an ad hoc basis, the only suggestion that is taken from the audience in Austentatious is the supposed title of the story. The title given to the performance I watched, Don’t Look Back In Northanger Abbey, influenced only one aspect of the performance; the name of one of the characters. There was otherwise nothing that could not have been prepared beforehand and, therefore, despite being entirely improvised, Austentatious completely fails to offer the audience members the treat of seeing their obscure and wanton suggestions come to life on-stage. Unused suggestions were collected by the cast to be read out at the end as bonus jokes, but this brief section did not occur, presumably for time constraints. However, the cast did find time onstage to plug their merchandise, which struck me as a misplaced priority.
Instead, the story unfurls purely from the heads of the actors, and, despite the hilarity, Don’t Look Back in Northanger Abbey, never really went anywhere. In particular, the characters and plot were mostly very poorly-defined, which is a shame, given that they had not exposed themselves to the danger of audience input. This created a funny but rather static-feeling performance that was somehow at odds with the ‘anything can happen’ attitude improvisation demands. It is easy to imagine that, with so little input from the audience and the stock tropes of the Jane Austen genre, one Austentatious show might feel very much the same as another.
Clearly, running into its sixth year, the cast still haven’t run out of steam, as the show maintains an impressive following of appreciative fans. The question is, with such a talented group of performers, how long it will remain fresh and whether it will be strangled by its own success.
Reviewed by Matthew Wild
Photography by Robert Viglasky
Austentatious
Next Performance 13th February at Piccadilly Theatre
DUE TO OVERWHELMING PUBLIC DEMAND
EXTRA PERFORMANCE ADDED TO
LONDON’S WEST END SMASH HIT MUSICAL
MUST END 26 MARCH 2017
AT THE PICCADILLY THEATRE
Due to overwhelming public demand, there will be an extra performance of the West End smash hit musical JERSEY BOYS in its final week at the Piccadilly Theatre on Thursday 23 March at 3.00pm. This week – week commencing 13 February 2017 – JERSEY BOYS has broken the house record for ticket sales in the history of the Piccadilly Theatre.
JERSEY BOYS will close on Sunday 26 March 2017 following nine amazing years in London. The show is currently the sixth longest musical running in the West End.
JERSEY BOYS first opened in London at the Prince Edward Theatre on 18 March 2008 and moved to the Piccadilly Theatre in March 2014. The first UK and Irish Tour of JERSEY BOYS was a record-breaking success and ran for 18 months, from 4 September 2014 to 5 March 2016. The second national tour will open at the New Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham in December 2017.
The London cast of JERSEY BOYS is led by Matt Corner as Frankie Valli, Simon Bailey as Tommy DeVito, Declan Egan as Bob Gaudio and Matt Hunt as Nick Massi. Dayle Hodge plays the role of Frankie Valli at certain performances. Also in the cast are Amelia Adams-Pearce, Nicola Brazil, Stuart Dawes, Mark Dugdale, Leanne Garretty, Lucinda Gill, Nicky Griffiths, Will Haswell, Mark Heenehan, Mark Isherwood, Ben Jennings, Joe Maxwell, Nathaniel Morrison, Dan O’Brien, Chris Stoddart, Helen Ternent and Ben Wheeler.
JERSEY BOYS is the remarkable true story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and their rise to stardom from the wrong side of the tracks. These four boys from New Jersey became one of the most successful bands in pop history, were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and sold 175 million records worldwide, all before they turned 30. The show is packed with their hits, including Beggin’, Sherry, Walk Like A Man, December, 1963 (Oh What a Night), Big Girls Don’t Cry, My Eyes Adored You, Let’s Hang On (To What We’ve Got), Bye Bye Baby, Can’t Take My Eyes Off You, Working My Way Back to You, Fallen Angel, Rag Doll and Who Loves You.
Winner of Broadway’s Tony, London’s Olivier and Australia’s Helpmann Awards for Best New Musical, JERSEY BOYS is the winner of 57 major awards worldwide and has been seen by over 24 million people worldwide. As well as running in the West End, JERSEY BOYS can be seen across the United States on its US National Tour and has just completed record-breaking runs on Broadway and in Las Vegas. A second National Tour of the UK and Ireland will open in Birmingham in December 2017.
JERSEY BOYS is written by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, with music by Bob Gaudio and lyrics by Bob Crewe. The London production is staged by the entire original Broadway creative team, led by director Des McAnuff and choreographer Sergio Trujillo, with scenic design by Klara Zieglerova, costume design by Jess Goldstein, lighting by Howell Binkley, sound by Steve Canyon Kennedy and projection design by Michael Clark. The orchestrations are by Steve Orich and the music supervision and vocal arrangements by Ron Melrose.
JERSEY BOYS is produced in London by the Dodgers, with Joseph J. Grano, Tamara and Kevin Kinsella, Pelican Group, in association with Latitude Link, Rick Steiner, and a small clutch of UK colleagues.
