Back from two nights in London yesterday. Had a couple of bits of less than stellar news recently so decided to catch a couple of theatre shows to compensate, coupled with a couple of nights stay at the Rubens in St. James. Even managed to squeeze in a visit to an English Heritage site.
On the Wednesday evening, strolled along to the Aldwych to catch “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical“. Not usually a massive fan of musicals, Which I may have mentioned before, but am like most people a great admirer of King’s song writing, both with Gerry Goffin and as a solo artist. I thought this was brilliantly staged and, because the story majored on the close friendship with Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, we had the added advantage of hearing some of the best of their work as well as the Goffin and King hits. Basically, the show covered how Carole King went from being one half of a romantic and productive song-writing partnership with then husband Goffin to a performing artist in her own right after they split, releasing the best-selling, breakthrough solo album Tapestry in 1971. There were some neat devices to showcase the hits and the artists that took the songs into the charts, and the Brill Building set in particular was very evocative. Performances all round were exceptional, although I have to say that Cassidy Janson has a slightly stronger voice than Carole King, which I guess is no bad thing for musical theatre. Similar to Jersey Boys in presentation, and so much better for it. Seems to me Sunny Afternoon could have benefited from some of the staging successes of these two shows. Shame that Denise wasn’t feeling too good, although trooper that she is, she stuck it through until the end without telling me just how bad she was feeling.
On Thursday afternoon, time for a matinee and a revival of Alan Ayckbourn’s 1969 play “How The Other Half Loves“, which, despite its age, holds up remarkably well and far better than some other Ayckbourn revivals. Theatrical snobs tend to denigrate Ayckbourn’s work, but at his best he’s often hilarious as he makes some gentle but quite barbed commentary about the way we live our lives. He combines technical ingenuity with perceptive comments, usually on class and/or marriage, that remain shockingly undated, even in today’s supposedly enlightened environment. This play is particularly technically ingenious as he overlaps two distinct households on the same stage, and in one scene we have two dinner parties on successive nights in ‘real theatre time’, with one couple at both parties. This requires split second timing to pull off but fortunately the cast is more than up to the task. Performances are great all round but a special mention to Nicholas Le Provost who is very funny as he strives to hide his disappointment with his marriage with what appears to be calculated vagueness – he makes every line and every action count. I suppose that, understandably, some aspects of a play written nearly forty years ago are a little old fashioned but the central points are timeless. And did I mention it was very funny.
Also managed to get to Apsley House on the Thursday morning. This is, shamefully, the first English Heritage property we have visited this calendar year, which is a bit of a waste of membership. But fortunately it was a good choice with a particularly informative audio guide. Worthy of at least one repeat visit.