Featured Post

The brown word: Death on the Throne @gatehouselondon

Image
We’re warned at the start of the show with an upbeat number that this is not the usual sort of musical. And it turns out to be just that. But with boundless enthusiasm and energy from its two leads, who deploy a range of voices and breathtaking energy to create a series of voices for puppet characters, a bedtime story becomes a silly oddball tale about four souls stuck in purgatory. With puppets. And various toilet humour references. It’s currently playing at Upstairs At The Gatehouse . The piece starts as a bedtime story. Daddy (Mark Underwood) is about to read a bedtime story for Louise (Sarah Louise Hughes). But her stomach felt funny, and soon, she went to the bathroom. Then, for reasons that seem to only make sense in the confines of the show, they start telling the story of four people who died in unfortunate circumstances in the bathroom. Depicted as puppets, they’re stuck in purgatory as St Peter doesn’t have enough space for each of them in the afterlife. And so begins a puppe...

Awkward girls and rough guys: Dogfight @swkplay

You don't always leave a show wondering about how two characters are really going to live together. But Dogfight, currently playing at the Southwark Playhouse, manages to have you totally engrossed in its story of unlikely love that you can't help but think about their feelings and wonder what did happen to them.

It also helps with such ingenious casting and brilliant performances from its two leads. Jamie Muscato as Eddie and Laura Jane Matthewson (making her professional debut) as Rose are mesmerising and at times heartbreaking as two unlikely lovers. On the surface he is tough and she is sweet but their performances show that beneath the surfaces lie anxieties and strength that bring them together.



Based on the movie of the movie of the same name (which starred River Phoenix and Lili Taylor), the story is about a group of young marines (or Jarheads) on their last night in San Francisco before they head off for a tour of duty in Vietnam. The marines take part in a tradition where they put money in a pot and compete to bring the ugliest girl to a dance. The marine who brings the ugliest girl to the dance wins the money.

Rose may not have been on any dates, but in her song Nothing Short of Wonderful imagines how being invited out by Eddie as she deliberates what dress she needs to wear.

When he goes to pick her up, Eddie has second thoughts about taking her to the Dogfight. While he is supposed to be the macho young marine with his buddies, he is drawn to Rose and has feelings for her.


And that is what becomes fascinating about the piece. The juxtaposition of the crude and harsh world of being a marine, the backdrop of the Vietnam war and the tenderness and emotional connection between Eddie and Rose.

It is rare to leave a new musical humming the tunes, but Benj Pasek and Justin Paul have created a work where the music is not only essential to the story, but memorable. A mix of folk, rock and musical styles it is never out of place, although sitting close to the band speakers at the Southwark Playhouse (which feel like they blast out over the audience) drowns out the vocals at times.

With the book by Peter Duchan, the musical is fairly economical and for the most part keeps the action centred on the Dogfight, the marines and the relationship between Eddie and Rose. If the flashbacks and the brief cut to Vietnam seem superfluous (since we know what happens), what comes out strongest is the passing of time and how innocence is replaced by experience.

Dogfight won on the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical and was nominated for 5 Outer Critics Circle and 2 Drama Desk Awards for its New York production. It should get some more nominations for this terrific production. It continues to 13 September.

****

First impressions with @Johnnyfoxlondon on the pavement outside the Southwark Playhouse follow
listen to ‘Dog boo on the pavement with @johnnyfoxlondon @dogfight2014 @swkplay’ on Audioboo



Photo credits: Production photos from Darren Bell photography

Popular posts from this blog

Opera and full frontal nudity: Rigoletto

Image
David McVicar's oddly modern production of Rigoletto is back at the Royal Opera House . This modern and minimalist dark production has evolved over the years. It is better lit now but there is still an orgy and full frontal nudity within the first thirty minutes. This enables anyone not in the stalls an excellent view of a flaccid penis and a nicely shaved bush. But as time goes it seems more and more superfluous to the main focus of this tragedy of a court jester who seeks revenge. Here is hoping that the production continues to evolve... Conductor John Eliot Gardiner keeps the music well paced. Dimitri Platanias in the title role sounded great and received a rapturous applause for his interpretation of the role. You get a sense more of the doting father rather than the court jester or cursed man here. Vittorio Grigolo plays the Duke and sounds too lovely to be the cad the role calls for, but it is hard not to like when he is on stage anyway. And it is easier to understan...
Read more...

Fantasies: Afterglow @Swkplay

Image
Nowadays no self-respecting gay play can be staged without full frontal nudity of some kind. It feels like the default response for the modern gay play now that gay rights are no longer an issue .   Afterglow, currently playing at Southwark Playhouse , serves it up in spades. From the beginning, three men are in a bed, naked. There’s what appears to be a very brief exhalation of ecstasy, before the obligatory rush to the shower. But the gratuitous nudity and excellent performances can’t conceal this is a pretty conventional and predictable story about a fantasy couple.  The three men in the simultaneous orgasm at the start of the piece are Josh, Alex and Darius. Josh and Alex seem to live in a New York world where they can afford a rooftop apartment in Manhattan while holding jobs as a theatre director and a grad student in chemistry. As writer S. Asher Gelman based it on his own experiences, perhaps gay plays with full frontal nudity are the way to achieve financial ...
Read more...

Play ball: Damn Yankees @LandorTheatre

Image
Damn Yankees at the Landor Theatre is one hell of a fun, sexy show. A great cast of dancers and singers give this show about a man who sells his soul to get on his beloved baseball team (and give them a chance of winning) new legs and balls. It also helps to up the ante with the sexiness with some healthy doses of cleavage and legs (and that's just the men). The musical is a retelling of the Faust story set in the 1950s when the New York Yankees dominated the game.
Read more...