{"id":11489,"date":"2020-03-12T17:19:55","date_gmt":"2020-03-12T17:19:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/laughfrodisiac.com\/?p=11489"},"modified":"2021-11-09T21:52:33","modified_gmt":"2021-11-09T21:52:33","slug":"city-of-angels-at-the-garrick-nearly-superb-production-of-a-nearly-great-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laughfrodisiac.com\/2020\/03\/12\/city-of-angels-at-the-garrick-nearly-superb-production-of-a-nearly-great-show\/","title":{"rendered":"City of Angels at the Garrick: Nearly Superb Production of a Nearly Great Show"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
It\u2019s Theatre Thursday! Today\u2019s show is City of Angels, playing at London\u2019s Garrick Theatre after a transfer from the Donmar Warehouse.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n The 1989 musical City of Angels<\/em> may feel just like a 1940s noir film, but the intrigue and twists are all in cheeky good fun. And the new production in London\u2019s West End is definitely good fun. While the great Cy Coleman\u2019s score is less than great, this well directed, inventive production betters even the less exciting parts. The cast seems to delight in Larry Gelbart\u2019s funny, clever book, and it\u2019s all around a great time \u2013 if you have the right seat, in a theatre where at least half the seats are garbage.<\/p>\n City of Angels <\/em>tells the story of a LA writer named Stine (a fantastic Hadley Fraser my goodness) who is working on the film adaptation of his acclaimed novel. As he writes in real life and deals with a wife he cheats on but it\u2019s NBD and a girl he has affairs with but it\u2019s NBD and a Hollywood producer who\u2019s an ass and it’s a BD, we also see the pages he\u2019s writing come to life, with his characters acting out the plot as Stine works on it (with hilarious effect when he deletes and redoes something). Despite being in his imagination, the characters in his story feel real, and the barrier between real life and fiction break down when Stine interacts with his leading man, Stone (a great Theo James, yes that one, such stage presence, very wow), in the most fun parts of this show.<\/p>\n With this super clever, original premise comes tons of humor and creativity, and this production is probably the best we\u2019ll see of this show. The direction is almost flawless (see below) and everything feels purposeful. I never really call out the lighting in a show, but the lighting design here is everything. Stine\u2019s real Los Angeles life is lit in color, whereas the scenes from his script are mainly in black and white, an effect that was impressive as hell when both worlds would share the stage simultaneously, and extraordinary as Stone and Stine toy with the barrier between them. Those clashes between the two S men play out to pretty much the only big song in the show, \u201cYou\u2019re Nothing Without Me\u201d, overused a bit as it closes both acts but when it\u2019s the main theme as well as the only strong song for our leading men \u2013 and lets Fraser do his main job in this show, which is belting and holding big final notes to impress you and distract you and it works because man alive he is some shit \u2013 you can\u2019t fault that use too much.<\/p>\n