Tag Archives: Toby Webster

THE SCORE

★★★ 1/2

Theatre Royal Haymarket

THE SCORE

Theatre Royal Haymarket

★★★1/2

“Cox, booming yet nuanced, is at a canter to reach the next cutting quip”

What’s The Score?

The sporting pun is not entirely misplaced. A major sequence in this uneven play of ideas sees the sycophantic court of Frederick the Great hosting a frantic wager with Carl, the son of composer Johann Sebastian Bach.

It’s a 1747 head-to-head between supreme monarch and ageing genius.

The king claims elderly Bach, freshly arrived from Leipzig, cannot improvise a three-part fugue based on Frederick’s own simple melody which has been worked into a knotty puzzle by his three stooge composers. It is, says one, “unfuguable”.

Carl says otherwise, betting his meagre funds and his standing in court on his father, who is sick, tired, unpredictable and cantankerous but still “the greatest composer in Europe”.

This showdown is typical of writer Oliver Cotton’s hodge-podge script. It is fun, elaborate in the set-up, and Brian Cox – who doesn’t just inhabit Bach but swallows him whole – lands the multiple pay-offs exquisitely.

But where does this fit into the play? Is it the highlight, a metaphor, or just some passing frippery? Does the play even know? The script roams freely across a number of topics – religion, morality, tyranny, creativity, inspiration – without really choosing a main course.

Its purpose, perhaps (and it is a grand and worthy one) is to provide a sufficiently gargantuan role for the operatic, rip-roaring Cox, who is on top form.

With his accented voice emerging like an eruption of lava from the depths, he leaps on the fluctuating states of Bach’s mind with an actor’s relish.

So much to choose from.

There’s indignant Bach, outraged by the king’s warmongering. There’s morose Bach, losing eyesight and significance. There’s courageous Bach, challenging the tyrannical king over his soldiers’ debauchery. There’s tormented Bach, everything coming from God but now troubled by doubt. Above all, there’s sitcom Bach – with his masterful pauses, hangdog putdowns and dry asides.

Cox, booming yet nuanced, is at a canter to reach the next cutting quip. Professional discipline dictates that he cannot yield to an obvious urge to eyeroll at the audience for another bite at the comedy cherry.

In his wake, the supporting cast do their best to keep up.

The expansionist king (Stephen Hagan) is affably dangerous, talking about Prussia First in terms that are disconcertingly relevant. His verbal duels with Bach, which anger the monarch but also give him a moment’s pause, represent the dramatic peak despite lacking real threat or menace.

A good show too from Jamie Wilkes as Carl, the son and foil, who does much of the thankless legwork supporting an ailing and disgruntled Bach. The brainless scheming of the three composers Christopher Staines, Toby Webster and Matthew Romain (as Quantz, Benda and Graun – “like a firm of bent solicitors”) is goofy in a Blackadderish way. And Peter De Jersey goes to town on French philosopher Voltaire playing him as Shrek’s Puss in Boots by way of ’Allo ’Allo.

Their court intrigue – all behind-the-hand whispers, elaborate bows and fake flattery – is aided considerably by Robert Jones’s sumptuous period costumes and stately sets in director Trevor Nunn’s easy-on-the-eye drama.

Curiously, and despite the title, music plays second fiddle here, with the cast miming unconvincingly at the harpsichord. But that is perhaps indicative of the production as a whole. Nearly, but not quite.



THE SCORE

Theatre Royal Haymarket

Reviewed on 27th February 2025

by Giles Broadbent

Photography by Manuel Harlan

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

WAITING FOR GODOT | ★★★★ | September 2024
FARM HALL | ★★★★ | August 2024
HEATHERS | ★★★ | July 2021

THE SCORE

THE SCORE

THE SCORE

Whistle Down the Wind

Whistle Down The Wind

★★★★

Watermill Theatre

Whistle Down the Wind

Whistle Down The Wind

The Watermill Theatre

Reviewed – 27th July 2022

★★★★

 

“Using multi-talented actor musicians, it is in reality a delight to watch throughout”

 

The premise of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Whistle Down the Wind” is interesting, and quite fun; if not a little implausible. A group of children stumble upon an escaped killer in a barn and through their unwavering belief that he is the Second Coming, they decide to keep his whereabouts a secret from the authorities. Despite being inescapably aware of the townsfolk’s collective hysteria about a murderer being on the loose.

The musical’s book (by Lloyd Webber himself, with Patricia Knop and Gale Edwards) has taken the action Stateside from its humble, English birthplace. The original novel, by Mary Hayley Bell, was set in Sussex while the 1961 film had moved up to Lancashire. We now find ourselves in the heart of the Louisiana Bible Belt. It is the 1950s and religious zeal is as high as the crop in the cornfields. Spearheaded by the adolescent Swallow (Lydia White), the young ones seem to question their elders’ unflinching faith yet refuse to bend from their own fledgling faith. Contradiction seems to be an underlying motif to this story.

The central theme pits the childhood innocence against adult cynicism; young, wide-eyed faith in ‘good’ against the older, blind faith in ‘evil’. Swallow symbolises the former, yet in Tom Jackson Greave’s staging she is too mature to give real credibility to her naive and innocent belief in ‘The Man’ who has unwittingly become Jesus Christ incarnate. White sweeps this worry aside, though, with an energetic and enthralling performance that sees her in customary fine voice.

Musically the show is disjointed, which isn’t necessarily a problem in itself, but in this case it’s hard to understand the shifts in styles. However, there is no denying the quality of music. Each number would pass the Old Grey Whistle test. Lloyd Webber’s theatricality is in full view, framed with influences of gospel, nineties pop, sixties rock, and with reprises and leitmotifs aplenty. And, of course, the mark of the late, great Jim Steinman is stamped indelibly across much of the libretto. “Tire Tracks and Broken Hearts” and “Nature of the Beast” have hot-footed over straight from a Meatloaf gig.

Incongruous to the infectious score is Jackson Greaves’ choreography, much of which feels out of place with the lyrical narrative. The ghost of Swallow’s mother, dancing like a spectral Kate Bush at every conceivable moment is eventually jarring. The intent is clear but unnecessarily overplayed. Similarly overstated is the bible bashing nature of the community. Conversely, the inherent Southern racism of the era is not fully given voice; its mouthpiece confined predominantly to the red neck sheriff – albeit convincingly and masterfully portrayed by the charismatic Toby Webster.

I must confess at this point that I do feel churlish picking at the faults, which are mainly down to the book. For this production is really quite brilliant. Using multi-talented actor musicians, it is in reality a delight to watch throughout. So, hats off to a wonderful cast. ‘The Man’ mistaken for the second coming is indeed a shining star guiding us through the show. Robert Tripolino’s presence and soaring voice fills the auditorium, while his performance remains alluringly intimate. With a twitchy sensitivity that offsets his opportunistic and manipulative pragmatism Tripolino embodies the unpredictability of a man with nothing left to lose. Complemented (rather than supported – this is very much an ensemble piece) by such a strong cast we are steered away from the fault-lines. Lewis Cornay and Chrissie Bhima as the doomed, ‘born-to-run’ teens, Amos and Candy, are an electric duo, while Lloyd Gorman’s fierce yet foibled father figure is a masterful presence.

The musicianship is astounding, led by onstage musical director, Elliot Mackenzie (the manic snake preacher and minister) the ensemble is a dynamic band, shifting from whispering intimacy to orchestral storms while seamlessly swapping instruments with extraordinary sleight of hand. Andrew Exeter’s rich and evocative lighting add to the magic. “Whistle Down the Wind” may have had its fair share of detractors in the past, and it does have its weaknesses, but this revival on the whole highlights its strengths.

 

 

Reviewed by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Pamela Raith

 


 

Whistle Down The Wind

The Watermill Theatre until 10th September

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:
Brief Encounter | ★★★ | October 2021
Spike | ★★★★ | January 2022

 

Click here to see our most recent reviews