Be More Chill in London is an Incredibly Fun Modern Musical, Against All Oddsby Randi / March 3, 2020It’s Theatre Thursday! Today’s show is the amazing The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown, which officially opened last night.
Whether you are new to The Last Five Years (what, how but welcome!) or know it better than you know your phone number (me)(UK numbers are hard), the new, dazzling production of this beloved work is a necessary treat for musical lovers, theatre lovers, and even regular lovers who feel like being depressed but like in a beautiful way. A song-cycle of a show, Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years shares the love story a divorcing couple, but the two characters famously share their stories in opposite directions: Jamie goes in chronological order, starting at the beginning of their courtship and ending at their divorce, while Cathy goes backwards, starting after their relationship has fallen apart and ending after their first date. IT IS HEAVY, YES, but it’s some of the best music in modern musical theatre, and this unique, inspired production does a commendable job.
There are a few (maybe like 50) musicals I feel very protective about because of how much I love them. The Last Five Years is one of them. I remember all of us in the plays in high school listening to the original off-Broadway album with Sherie Rene Scott and Norbert Leo Butz (only people with three names were allowed to be involved originally) and being completely obsessed. So, I’m even more critical than usual about this show because it’s impossible not to compare to the originals, and no one can compete with them. And because the score is so g-d beautiful and emotionally raw and funny and moving and amazing (though it’s always a tad uncomfortable to remember that this show is fairly autobiographical) so I’m always like DON’T FUCK IT UP OR I WILL FUCK YOU UP. But the Southwark’s production, with fairly flawless direction from Jonathan O’Boyle, doesn’t try to compete through sheer vocal ability in the usual stand-and-plant manner of running this show. Instead, they’ve created a distinctive version that keeps both actors onstage most of the time, and – spectacularly – makes them each other’s accompanist.
That’s right, Cathy (Molly Lynch) plays the piano for all of Jamie’s (Oli Higginson) (literally just realized their names rhyme) songs, and vice versa, adding the nuance of an extra layer of responsibility for what the other experienced (along with extra chances at seriously impressing us with their talents). It’s an exceptional move, making for a more vibrant and energetic version than usual, for a show that doesn’t usually have the characters interact until the wedding crossover point. While it would be impossible to get performers who are superb singers, actors, and pianists, especially for a small production like this, Lynch and Higginson (who I often thought was Matt Doyle undercover) are often great. They shine brightest as pianists, but they are more than serviceable singers. Lynch excels during Cathy’s faster numbers, when she can show off her humor, like in “A Summer in Ohio”, staged cleverly with her playing the ukulele to Jamie over a video call. Higginson’s slower songs (the more depressing ones I guess) gave him the breath for stronger belting so he sounded best in the second half. They’re both probably working harder than anyone on a London stage right now, and it’s a joy to watch.
In addition to the novel accompaniment, this production’s use of props was interesting. The actors were always doing something active with their books or picture frames or, my favorite part, the subtle and genius use of the gift box for Cathy’s watch in “The Schmuel Song” (very Jeannette Bayardelle in Shida), which could end up distracting but I thought always added to the scene positively. There were also lyric changes that I think were in the last production I saw but always surprise me but then I’m like oh no it’s okay (changes include “Russell Crowe” replacing “Linda Blair” which is meh, and “who you could say looked like Tom Cruise” replaced with “with some very well placed tattoos” which I’m fine with). All I know is if anyone ever changes the Sonny Mehta line I will stand up and walk out (RIP).
It’s not a perfect production – I actively disliked how long the pause in The Schmuel Song during ‘limbovitch’ was (I prefer no pause! it’s funnier!) (also, speaking of, this song features ‘funny’ use of a prayer shawl, which reminded me that I don’t know if any Jews are involved and Jamie is a verrrry Jewish role so like yeesh I hope because ahh). And, as I’ve increasingly seen in young performers, there was a bit too much swallowing of lyrics and speaking lyrics instead of acting emphasis out through song. In the second half, I thought Cathy reacted too much in real time to Jamie’s songs, confusing the opposite timelines (I don’t think people unfamiliar with the concept would have any idea that she was at the beginning of their relationship for a good 20-minute chunk, until her “I Can Do Better Than That”). And while I can’t pinpoint why, this is the first production I’ve ever seen that didn’t make me cry the entire time, with extra heaving during the wedding scene and the end. I just didn’t feel the emotional pull I usually do, which might be due to the prioritizing of the performers’ musical skills over their acting skills. However, for this production, I enjoyed the change of pace that that prioritizing created.
INFORMATION
The Last Five Years plays at the Southwark Playhouse until March 28.
The show is about 90 minutes straight through. My performance ended about 9:15pm because it started about 15 minutes late but that’s okayyyy things happennnn I didn’t get a utiiiii (or did I). The setup this go round (the Southwark changes layout for each show) has the audience on three sides and the only door blocked by the stage area so leaving is difficult at the end. If you need to make a fast exit your only real option is A1-10, the front row of the section by the door (because it’s stadium-style seating with barricades, the first seat of the other rows don’t count as aisles for me unless you are willing to jump through the railings) (which I am but I don’t know your life).
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A Return Trip to My Fair Lady at Lincoln Center Before It Leaves Us for No Good Reason
It’s Theatre Thursday! Today’s show is My Fair Lady on Broadway, closing on July 7 because of reasons, I guess.
Remember when I reviewed this new Broadway production of My Fair Lady last season (sure you do!) and I said I couldn’t stop thinking about how superb it was? Well, my brain recovered a tiny bit after about a year so I went back for another dose of INCREDIBLE THEATRE PERFECTION. I’ve been (hashtag) blessed to see some exquisite theatre, and the current Lincoln Center Theatre production of My Fair Lady is at the top of that list. I saw the Tony-nominated original cast when it opened last year, which included Lauren Ambrose and my main man Norbert “Norbie” Leo Butz, as Eliza Doolittle and her (checks notes) 10-years-older-than-her father, as well as Jordan Donica as a winning Freddy Eynsford-Hill (Brits love hyphenating to show status). I had to go back to see Broadway’s beloved Laura Benanti as Eliza, her dream role, and I ended up being even more devastated by this show’s brilliance this go-round.
If you don’t know the story of My Fair Lady – which, by the way, after an ENTIRE LIFE of knowing this musical, Z informed me for the first time ever that the title could be a joke on ‘Mayfair Lady’, like the area of London that the show generally takes place in, and it works even better because of Eliza’s original cockney accent because that’s how she’d say Mayfair and just like WHAT did everyone know this??? – it’s about a poor girl who sells flowers in Covent Garden (but not herself! She’s VERY ADAMANT about that, she’s a good girl she is!) and crosses paths with the arrogant and self-involved Professor Henry Higgins who makes a bet with his equally rich and equally linguistics-minded friend Colonel Pickering that he can transform this lowly flower girl into a lady just with elocution lessons (and a bath) and the men are like “yes do let’s” and Eliza’s like “eeeeayyyyy” but she wants to rise above her lot in life so she agrees and spends months and months living in Higgins’ GORGEOUS staffed-up house on Wimpole Street and their relationship gets complicated because feelings but also stubbornness and aforementioned arrogance and it’s all wonderful and heartbreaking and glorious. Meanwhile Eliza’s dad is a good-for-nothing who sings a 20-minute song about getting married.
I’m sure you love the movie and everything (and the original ending), but this production, I have shivers just thinking about it. Actual chill bumps. I wish it wasn’t closing; I would see it every year. Bartlett Sher’s impeccable direction and his grasp of Golden Age musicals have never been on more impressive display. Every inch of this show is perfectly orchestrated, including the lush orchestra playing these classic melodies. Every song is a highlight. I especially love the written-to-be-a-highlight “On the Street Where You Live”, now performed by Christian Dante White, the new Freddy, who has quickly proved himself to be Broadway’s new Kyle Dean Massey (i.e. a wonderful replacement). As Alfred Doolittle, Alexander Gemignani was out, but his understudy Joe Hart was wonderful (and actually looked older – Benanti and Gemignani are LITERALLY THE SAME AGE, smdh). And I love that if you choose one ensemble member to watch, you’ll get a whole other story from this person; they’re all doing nonstop character work that builds an entire world to house the story of Eliza and Higgins.
And Eliza and Higgins are so much more than I ever thought before seeing this production. Originally, with Lauren Ambrose, who brought so much acting precision to Eliza and made so much of the character, Eliza and Henry seemed to be on equal footing, in terms of whose story it was. I loved their interplay, and even though Eliza has some of the best and biggest songs in musical theatre, it was a treat to see deeply into this character with the help of an actress who is primarily an actress, not a singer. On the other hand, Benanti is an actress who is primarily an incredible singer (and was clearly sick and still went on and still sounded fabulous, though a little weaker than I know she can be, so deserves all the kudos). A Broadway staple for a remarkably long time considering how young she is, she was obviously great (though her English accent was…not), and looked amazing in the new costumes. But the subtle differences in portrayal showed a different relationship. With her Eliza, she was sassy and brave from the start, and you never doubted that she would always be able to take care of herself and put herself first when necessary. She was always going to be okay. With Ambrose, Eliza was much more delicate, much more in need of confidence and growth, making her decision at the end all the more emotional.
Although the ending is still beyond emotional (I cried like a BABY and might again right now thinking about it okay yep there we go), I felt it this time entirely from Henry’s perspective. Now, it’s clear that this is primarily a show about Henry Higgins, something I never realized before. Above all, this is a show about Henry’s personal failings, the ones that keep him from knowing true happiness. I never knew it, but My Fair Lady is honestly a tragedy, and it’s mainly a tragedy of toxic masculinity. I KNOW! WHO KNEW! All of this profound emotional impact is entirely due to the flawless and heartbreaking performance of Harry Hadden-Paton, a fully formed, fully feeling Higgins I cannot imagine ever being surpassed. Ever. I love me some Tony Shalhoub but it’s a crime that this performance didn’t win a Tony, I see this now. HP sauce shows Henry’s entire life and upbringing and habits and his discomfort in changing any of it, in each facial expression, each line delivery. It’s all incredible, and by the end it’s all heartbreaking. I honestly can’t believe how much he accomplished with this performance in creating what seemed like a real flawed person up on that stage. This production is one of the greatest of all time and I think it’s in large part because of his performance. I’m so glad I saw it again and so upset that HE COULDN’T JUST STOP BEING AN ASSHOLE AND BE HONEST AND BE HAPPY GODDAMMIT HERE WE GO AGAIN THE END.
INFORMATION
Since Lincoln Center is a nonprofit and they like stupid turnaround and crap like that I guess, the show is closing July 7, so if you are in NYC or like can feasibly get there in the next week, you REALLY G-D SHOULD.
Operation Mincemeat at the Southwark: Best Show in Two Years!
It’s Theatre Thursday! like…for real! About a live show! in an indoor theatre! I can’t believe it either.
Last weekend, we finally saw the Southwark Playhouse’s production of the new musical Operation Mincemeat. It has had a few runs in the past few years as the creative team continues to polish it, and we were supposed to see it hmmm a VERY long time ago and it’s finally back and we finally saw and the UK will finally have another great new homegrown musical for maybe the fifth time in 20 years. Yes, we went inside a theatre to see this week’s show. Thank goodness it was so good. If I had risked Delta for a piece of shit I would be so mad.
Operation Mincemeat is not a new telling of Sweeney Todd but is instead about the secret deception mission during World War II of that name. The not-well-known-enough-but-hopefully-this-show-will-make-everyone-know-more-about-it-and-also-maybe-other-things-about-this-war-like-the-Holocaust-because-rising-numbers-don’t-know-about-it-and-that’s-insane mission involved, from what I learned in this show: a pretentious posho with impeccable comic timing, a very sweaty detail-oriented nerd, a few secretaries of varying abilities of making you sob, Ian Fleming, a dead body, a movie screenplay, Spanish doctors who aren’t vets so I don’t follow them on instagram, and a plot that just had to work.
This British mission was a plot of misinformation directed at the nazis, a fake mission they created to steer them off course and attack where they weren’t expecting it. Quite cheeky for Brits, love to see them stop being polite and start getting real. The plot required finding a dead body, creating a false identity for it as a British pilot, ‘crashing’ him off the coast of Spain, and hoping that Hitler reads all the secret documents the corpse was carrying and then changes his plans to match the (fake) plans in the docs, leading to an Allied forces party in Sicily (sounds legit). The musical tells this story so well, thanks to an incredibly fun book, some truly wonderful music, and a game cast that repeatedly impressed me with their skill. Everyone was tops, with standouts for me being Natasha Hodgson with her gutbustingly funny manner as Ewen Montagu, and Jak Malone, who was amazing in several smaller parts but had most of the audience literally weeping with his big Act II love letter song in his role as the head secretary. It was like the opposite of a man-playing-woman role as Edna in Hairspray – completely nuanced and subtle and gentle and gorgeous. Like. WTF. That whole scene and song and performance was too good.
The first solid hour of the show is so strong, it renewed my faith in British musical theatre, it made me almost glad to be out of my house, it cleared my skin. It’s not perfect — there is way too much obvious Hamilton ‘inspiration’ (and some obvious Six), amid a sea of recent works that are clearly trying to hard to capture its magic. But it’s the least embarrassing Hamspiration yet, at least, which says a lot for it considering it’s still wypipo performing the big rapping sections. I would love to see a few bits after that first hour reworked; if they kept up that momentum and quality, it would be sensational. The Act II closer was well considered, with the team’s celebration in the club juxtaposed with the the submarine’s mission. But the direction becomes overly frenetic, and the “let me die in velvet” lyrics to the club song seemed too random to be anything but a wasted opportunity. The finale’s too many moving parts had a similar chaotic energy from trying to do too much (it’s nice to talk about e.g. postwar women’s rights but that’s nothing if not a shoehorned epilogue), although I really loved reprising Act I’s sea shanty (I forking love a good sea shanty).
My only big problem was with the Act II opener. You know from, well, 600 of my previous theatre ramblings that I’m a shill for big bouncy exciting Act II openers that quickly bring the audience back into the show’s universe. This opener was big and bouncy, but it made us feel sick. It has the cast dressed in nazi uniforms doing a ‘fun’ K-pop-ish dance club-ish LET’S ALL PARTAYYYYY number, and the audience. forking. loved it. They cheered, they danced, they put their hands in the air, and we sat there. It felt so messed up, to be sitting among a packed room of people having fun WITH the nazis. It wasn’t subversive or nuanced, it was just a party. Given the very very disturbing reactions of UK audiences to anything relating to Jews or Jewish culture (which I have written about extensively, unfortunately) (and the rise of fascism, and the rise of nazis, and the quadrupling in antisemitism in London…&c) it wasn’t surprising, just upsetting. A member of the creative team reached out and said that they are still working on making that song hit the right notes instead of what it’s doing in its current form, and I really hope they figure that out. But even if the audience does stop whooping it up with and cheering for the nazis long enough to acknowledge that they are the bad guys, it still wouldn’t serve the plot. I don’t know how to turn this song around so that it’s somehow necessary while also achieving the very difficult task of making the audience have fun with the nazis and then making them feel bad about it. I don’t think enough people in the world feel bad about it anyway so this is a big ask.
But if anyone could make it work, it’s probably this team. It’s such a fun, creative show and could really be spectacular. I can’t wait to see a future iteration of it, once I’m okay with leaving my house again.
AUDIENCE
Just like old times! I think everyone will be relieved to know that audiences are back to normal behavior and all of our old favorites are back – the phone-users; the nonstop talkers; the wrapper crinklers; the person who sits behind me and kicks my seat or, with the Southwark seats, really really wants to put his feet on the seat of my chair. Plus, now we have new favorites, like not wearing a mask and coughing. Unfortunately, these new faves were a little too difficult for me to tolerate (am I supposed to?) so it’ll be another while till I try again.
INFORMATION
The Southwark seems to want everyone to wear a mask, but believes they have no power to enforce a mandate because the government lifted its mandate. I was under the impression that private businesses can make their own rules but what do I know. At least a third of the audience was unmasked, and others when drinking. The Playhouse also said in an email that ventilation has been increased, like 8 liters more air circ per person or something that sounded very promising. However, this seemed like the least ventilated room I’ve ever been in – it was insanely hot and sticky (and tightly packed) and the air was seriously nearly suffocating.
Operation Mincemeat runs at the Southwark Playhouse until September 18.
