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      The Reggies 2019: Deluxe Edition – Part Two

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      The tribute act was once looked upon with disdain: it was quietly restricted to holiday camps and cruise ships. Nowadays it has turned into an industry, with quality acts playing major theatre venues. This is a very different beast from the jukebox musical, which has a narrative built around the songs of a particular artist: it is a genuine impersonation featuring their greatest hits. I’ve seen half a dozen play this year, so it seems only right to introduce a new category of Best Tribute Act. In third place we have The Greatest Love of All; a Tribute to Whitney Houston at the London Palladium. Belinda Davids turned in a slick tuneful performance as one of the greatest divas in pop history. In the runner-up spot is The Bowie Experience: The Golden Years Tour at the Hackney Empire. Lawrence Knight on occasion looked and sounded spookily like David Bowie. But the winner by a country mile is George at the Eventim Apollo. Backed by members of his original band, Rob Lamberti pulls off a brilliant impersonation of George Michael.
      So ever onward to the works of William Shakespeare, a category we have dubbed Dear Old Will. No theatre reviewer can get through the year without the bard featuring at some point. In third place is Macbeth: The Musical at the White Bear Theatre, a refreshingly new approach to the story featuring Avenue Q style puppets. Second spot goes to Twelfth Night at the Rose Playhouse; an ultra-smart musical version set on a cruise liner in the 1920s. Great fun if you can stop shivering for long enough. This year, though, the fat cigar goes to the Iris Theatre for their brilliant production of Hamlet at St Paul’s Church. The masters of open air theatre just seem to get better and better.
      And now the fluffy, feel-good world of Best Musical. You know the type of show: switch your brain into neutral and have a good old sing song. In third place, winning its second nomination, is Ragtime at the Bridewell Theatre. Nothing more could be asked of cast and crew in this recreation of a Broadway classic. In second place is The Pirates of Penzance at Wilton’s Music Hall. Gilbert and Sullivan have always had a touch of Marmite about them, but there was no doubting the quality of this production. An all-male cast (some clad in basques!) were note perfect throughout. And the proud winner of this hotly competed category is Ain’t Misbehavin’ at the Southwark Playhouse. The Fats Waller musical has never sounded better than in this confident production featuring an excellent cast.
      I’ve saved the blue ribbon event for last. The award for Best Play is the most difficult category to cast with the volume, depth and quality of production in London theatre. My top three constantly changed even as I drafted. Finally I settled my troubled mind: in third place, The House of Yes at the Hope Theatre; a marvellously inventive play with strong characters and a tight script. In second place, Jesus Hopped The ‘A’ Train at the Young Vic; a great title, great script with cool acting in the coolest of venues. So why on earth didn’t it win? Death of a Salesman rose like a giant casting a shadow over everything in its wake. The play is a classic of 20th century theatre, but like so much of Arthur Miller’s work is still considered a writer’s play. Critics will love it but it will often garner a mixed reaction from the public. It may be long but in the hands of a great cast it becomes a moving, almost electric portrayal of life in all its pain and glory.
      I expect 2020 to be another outstanding year in the theatre.  We seem comfortable to continually raise the bar, and expect even greater things from our actors and creatives, but somehow you just know it’s going to get better. See you the other side of Brexmas! More

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      The Reggies 2019: Deluxe Edition – Part One

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      Well I really wasn’t sure what to call this latest instalment of the Reggies; I considered Roman numerals: The Reggies III in true Hollywood style, or maybe Reggification – the saga continues. But then I settled on The Deluxe Edition; simply because it’s now expanded to a sumptuous eight categories. It doesn’t seem possible that twelve months have passed since the Reggies were last awarded. As we hurtle towards 2020 I can happily report that London theatre has enjoyed another bumper year. But exactly who has done enough to earn a much coveted Reggie? Who will just have to make do with a runners-up spot? This task gets more difficult as the quality of shows moves inexorably into overdrive.
      Best Venue is always a loaded question especially as theatre has now morphed into four distinct tiers: West End, Off West End, Provincial and Fringe theatre. As before, I’ve excluded West End theatres from this category in the interests of a fair fight. So in third place, winning its third consecutive nomination, is the Old Red Lion in Islington. A lovely pub with a great atmosphere and rich history, its theatre has maintained consistency of output throughout the year. A brand new entry at number two is the Hope Theatre in Islington. With live bands playing in the basement and a brilliant theatre upstairs, the Hope & Anchor (as it’s popularly known) is now the complete entertainment venue. But the winner, another new entry, is Wilton’s Music Hall in Whitechapel. So cleverly concealed is Wilton’s that even Google Maps struggles to find it.  Once inside, the Music Hall, with its authentic Victorian decor, is a truly magical place.
      Best Actor is a devil to pin down as there are so many fine performers out there, and my field of vision is limited to the shows I’ve seen. Taking third place is David Schaal in the disturbing but compulsive Weatherman at the Park Theatre. Schaal delivered a chilling performance as the boss of a human trafficking operation. In second place is Miles Jupp in The Life I Lead at the Wyndhams Theatre, a delightful one man show charting the life of journeyman actor David Tomlinson. But the undoubted winner is Wendell Pierce in the turbo-charged Death of a Salesman at the Piccadilly Theatre. So good was Pierce’s performance as Willy Loman everyone else was bidding for second place; a performer of rare distinction and ability.
      Similarly Best Actress is difficult to call, but in third place is Fiona Skinner in The Sweet Science of Bruising at Wilton’s Music Hall. Playing tomboy Polly, Fiona stole every scene in which she appeared. In second place we have Sharon D Clarke as Linda in Death of a Salesman. It’s no easy task playing opposite a powerhouse like Wendell Pierce, but Sharon was in many respects his equal as family matriarch. Just pipping her for first place is Collette Eaton for her brilliant turn in House of Yes at the Hope Theatre. She was in dazzling form as the psychotic middle class girl with a fixation on her twin brother.
      Best Set Design/Special Effects was a category introduced last year to highlight ingenuity in small venues. So in third place we have Last Orders: the Haunting of the Old Red, strangely enough at the Old Red Lion. In a production that drew on the pub’s rich history to create a ghostly story of times past, by using a simple sound and lighting system they created a highly effective atmosphere. In second place is Dracula at London Library. Here the producers simply used what was already there: a beautifully designed reading room was transformed into a stage with carefully placed screens projecting images around the room. The effect was amazing.
      But taking gold is the excellent Ragtime at the Bridewell Theatre. It was a remarkable production, not only because Sedos are an amateur theatre company with a professional edge, but the set was a stroke of genius in a cramped performance area; a wooden facade stretched across the stage. With the addition of simple props it became the bow of a ship bringing immigrants into Ellis Island, then the suburban home of a wealthy New York family and finally the city library. It was brilliantly conceived and executed and even managed to conceal an orchestra behind the set.
      OK that’s the first half done. Stay in the moment and we’ll be back shortly to reveal the Best Tribute Act, best Shakespeare production, Best Musical and Best Play. More

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      Interview: Rosanna Mallinson on ImmerCity

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      ImmerCity stage site-specific immersive murder mysteries. The three shows to date have been set in The London Museum of Water and Steam, Kensington Library, and St Matthew’s Church in Bethnal Green. They all follow the same format: the audience plays in groups of six or seven, each person following one of the actors as they move through different spaces and interact with other members of the cast. In the interval, each audience group reconvenes to discuss and compare what they’ve seen, piecing together the clues they’ve eavesdropped. Then in the second part, they get five minutes to interview each of the characters, in an attempt to discover the identity of the murderer, before the final act in which the truth is revealed.
      These hugely enjoyable shows are devised, directed and produced by Rosanna Mallinson, the company’s Artistic Director. We caught up with her over coffee in a break between shows.
      ImmerCity shows are site specific. Which comes first, the idea or the site?
      The site always comes first. I had a friend who was the guardian of an abandoned mansion in Westminster, called Vine House. It was the most spectacular place: it had silk wallpaper, and a sunken garden. So we put together our first mystery, called Suicide at Vine House. And we thought, let’s take the concept and develop it for different sites. I started messaging every historical venue in London – I sent 400 emails out – and the only one that came back was the London Museum of Water and Steam. We looked around, and we researched the local area. And then we started coming up with ideas.
      The steam museum, the library, the church – these places are not used to putting on live performances. How did you persuade them?
      They’ve all had small scale performances of some kind before. The Steam Museum have weddings and events in their central hall, but no one else has used the space quite so vigorously before. I saw a show about Frankenstein at the Kensington Library, so they already had a precedent of allowing people to go down into the archives. I think people are generally very excited to be allowed into fenced-off areas in the library, or into the museum after hours.
      Your idea of having six audience members in a group, with each one of them following one character – that’s unique, isn’t it? The fact that not everyone sees everything, so you have to compare notes.
      I got the idea from Punchdrunk. When I first went to see Sleep No More [Punchdrunk’s immersive take on Macbeth] in New York, I went with my boyfriend at the time. And the second we got there we’re like, okay, we’re splitting up, I’ll see you in three hours. So we went off. And one of the most enjoyable parts of that was saying, ‘oh, I saw this in that room, what did you see?’ The coming together and sharing is what makes the work feel a lot bigger, and it makes the world feel like it’s richer. Because obviously in real life, you don’t see everything all the time. You never have all of the story. In the first half, we want to make it slightly more passive, because people get a little bit scared when they first arrive, so we don’t want them thrown into a situation where they immediately have to interact. This way, people are watching with the knowledge that they’re going to have to use the stuff that they’re watching to participate later on. 
      And you have a maximum audience number of 36?
      We’ve worked out that we can go up to 49, which is seven groups of seven. So in the second half, there is one search clue, plus five suspects and the victim. It’s a lot about doorways: you have to be able to get 14 people through a doorway, in different directions. So I think the maximum maximum capacity ever would be 49. Assuming that we can find wide enough doorways!
      Even if you have your maximum 49, how do the finances work out?
      I am the entire team – including stage management and box office, and managing the online social media and costume design – apart from David, who writes the dialogue. It’s the most effective way to keep the costs down. The money from ticket sales goes to pay the actors first. And then everything after that is considered the profit, which allows me to pay the actors properly.
      One of the really impressive things is the calibre of the actors: they have not just stay to in character, but also to understand the backstory, and field questions from the audience. You need a particular kind of actor to be able to do that. 
      We have a two part audition process. The first part is monologue, and the second part is improvisation. You can always tell the people who are comfortable in that situation, and those who get a bit nervous. Sometimes people will come in, and you can tell they’re a phenomenal actor, they do an amazing monologue, and then in the improvisation they get stuck in a weird little loop. They keep saying the same thing. I normally get about 150 actors in the shortlist, of whom I will see about 50 or 60. Then I’ll bring in two ultimate casts for the callback. So I’ll see 12 for the final round.
      How long is the the rehearsal period?
      It depends how close to the wind we’ve ended up sailing. Most of the venues we work with don’t always understand how long it takes to make theatre. They’ll be like, okay, so we finally done all our bureaucracy, and we’re going up in a month. And we say okay, great, well, we’ll put it up in a month then.
      Do you ever act yourself?
      No. I sometimes play Jack Daw [the master of ceremonies] in extreme circumstances. It’s very hard to direct and act, it’s such a different headspace. Jack Daw is about looking after the audience and making sure that they understand what’s going on, and don’t get lost or confused. So they have someone who’s not focused on being murderous that they can have a chat with – they can’t ask the cast where the bathroom is, or stuff like that.
      Immersive theatre is a relatively new thing, but I’m seeing it everywhere. Why do you think that is?
      It gets a different audience, from a slightly different world. I mean, you have your normal theatregoers, but then you also have a lot of people who don’t really go to the theatre, but who do go to immersive or interactive events – people who really enjoy video games or puzzle games, who enjoy escape rooms. Immersive theatre offers something more than being stuck in front of a screen. It gets people out of their passive frame of mind.
      What would be your ideal venue for show number four?
      I have contacted many times but never seem to be able to get through to Transport for London. They’ve got a lot of abandoned tube stations. They’d be ideal, because they’re so spooky. And their doorways are all really wide, so we wouldn’t have the doorway issue, which means we could go up to a slightly bigger capacity. And also the tube is so rich in its history, and so atmospheric. I think that would be really awesome, because sound travels really uncannily through those spaces. They’re a hard nut to crack, TFL.
      ImmerCity’s latest show, The Unholy Marriage of Slice and Sweetly (see our review here), is performed at St Matthew’s Church, Bethnal Green, until 6 September. You can also see Dead Quiet at Kensington Library (see our review here) from 27 September to 15 February, and The Silhouette in the Smoke at the London Museum of Water and Steam (see our review here) from 9 to 19 September.
      Full details and booking at http://www.immer-city.com/wp/?page_id=481. More

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      Chicago Blues Brothers: Motown Mission – Preview

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      With Chiacago Blues Brothers currently touring the UK, quite possibly coming to a town near you soon, as well as one night only in London on 4 August, we asked Brian Penn to reminisce about a show that for many people of a certain age is a cult classic.
      For a full list of upcoming venues and tickets see https://www.thebluesbrothers.co.uk/

      One of the outstanding films of my childhood was the Blues Brothers, directed by John Landis. It had pretty much everything; a dazzling R ‘n’ B soundtrack; cameos from Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and James Brown; and Dan Ackroyd starring alongside the mercurial John Belushi. The regulation shades and pork pie hats soon made their way into a certain teenager’s wardrobe; because they were soooo cool! This irresistible mix of great songs and hilarious set pieces could easily double as a great stage show. And sure enough, David Leland directed the stage version in a hugely successful West End run during the 90s. Since then it has returned in various guises wowing audiences with the same adrenaline fuelled performances.
      The latest incarnation, Chicago Blues Brothers: Motown Mission is now touring and coming to London’s Savoy Theatre on 4 August. Whilst the film had some semblance of a plot; Jake and Elwood trying to save their orphanage from closure; it is essentially driven by the music. The film aimed to recreate a 1960s live revue, much like the Stax shows featuring Otis Redding, Sam and Dave and Booker T & the MGs. The stage therefore becomes the perfect home for an authentic live performance. With the set broadened to include the cream of Motown, it stirs up a heady brew of good time soul and gut wrenching blues. I first saw the Blues Brothers in the old Whitehall Theatre; not only did they take the roof off but also at least one of the supporting walls.  They were simply amazing and had everyone dancing in the aisles; I’ve no reason to think the Chicago Blues Brothers will be any different.  The best show in town will only be here for one night; wouldn’t it be a shame if you missed it? More

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      Interview: Wilf Scolding on ‘The Sweet Science of Bruising’

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      The Sweet Science of Bruising is returning to Wilton’s Music Hall following a sold-out run at Southwark Playhouse in 2018. Written by Verity Bargate winner Joy Wilkinson (who has also recently penned stories for Doctor Who), the play treads the fascinating territory of the world of female boxing in 1869 Victorian London. A lesser-known trait of London’s history is brought to life through the stories of four women and their quest to become the “Lady Boxing Champion of the World”. Expect proper stage-fights, corsets and the most perfect setting for the underground realm of the backstreet boxing ring. Wilton’s is rugged and gorgeous at the best of times: Where better to stage a thrilling period piece than world’s oldest music hall?
      We caught up with actor Wilf Scolding (who previously played Rhaeger Targaryen on Game of Thrones) to give us an insider view on the rehearsal room and what to expect from a play with so much live action.
      Tell us about yourself! What have you been up to before The Sweet Science of Bruising?I’m in the Archers. I love doing that. Radio is such a lovely medium – I mean, you don’t have to learn your lines! It’s a real privilege to be doing it. It’s storytelling in one of its purest forms, as it utilises the listener’s imagination.
      I also recently did The Madness of King George III with Mark Gatiss in Nottingham. I played his naughty son who keeps trying to dispose of him.I have never heard that play described like that before. Please tell us about The Sweet Science of Bruising!It’s a play about four female boxers, set in Victorian London. It covers their journey: how they discover their inner power as women, and as boxers, and how that shapes the course of their lives. The themes Sweet Science tackles are so relevant. It tackles equality in the workplace. It covers FGM, which is in the news a lot right now. Joy brings these things to the forefront without being too graphic. The audience know what is going on without it having to be spelled out. The play deals with everything so skilfully and it’s an honour to be acting out Joy’s work. It covers the lack of female representation in government at the time, in any kind of workplace, a lack of support for women.
      The play is entertaining in itself, and it deals with current issues that need addressing in a really sophisticated way. We’ve had Joy in the room a lot – it’s been a real luxury. Often, you’re working with a script with a playwright who isn’t around anymore. We’ve been able to ask so many questions.
      Who do you play?I play Gabriel Lamb, who is the husband of one of our boxers [Anna, played by Emma McDonald]. Gabriel is an upper middle class Victorian gentleman. He is bright, works in the City and is successful. He is a confident alpha male, powerful and fully in control of his domain. On the surface, he is highly professional and respectable. Behind closed doors he has embarked on an affair outside of his marriage.
      He is privileged, wealthy, erudite and gets everything he wants in life. He has a nasty streak. Underneath the respectability he is thoroughly unpleasant and there is a cruelty and a darkness. He is perhaps typical of many Victorian men in that he believes that men should be in charge of women.What’s the history of women in boxing in the context of the 19th century?It’s been so fascinating researching this with Kirsty Patrick Ward, our Director, and Jackie [Fisher, the Assistant Director]. There were female boxers around at this time. Some of them had to box in corsets, which must have presented all sorts of challenges! There weren’t rules in boxing at the time of the play. The late 19th Century was the first time that boxing rules were introduced: before that you could kick, you could punch . . . it was a form of MMA. There were women fighting in Mixed Martial Arts style before that was coined as a phrase. There are records of female fighters going back even back to the 17th century, I believe. It was generally a male-dominated world. Women were not as well paid and their matches not as well attended.And there’s live boxing in the show!Yes – the fight direction is just incredible. We have a fantastic Movement Director [Natasha Harrison] and a Fight Director [Kate Waters], who is known in “the business” as Combat Kate. She is just wonderful. Her fights look so real because they come from a place of instinct. The way she choreographs them, she gets into position and utterly reacts as you would that situation.
      Do you box?I don’t within the play, but I do box outside of it, which is a happy coincidence. The women who box in the play are amazing; they’ve been training for weeks for this. They’re pretty rigorous routines that Kate puts them through!
      How many are in the cast?
      There are ten of us – I didn’t do the original production, so it’s all new to me! We’ve totally rehearsed it, we’re in the fourth week and it’s going really well. It’s going to look beautiful. The music in it is absolutely spectacular.
      Is the music a big feature? What is it like?It’s almost like the music from the movie Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr. [a beautifully mad battle between violin, piano, and banjo by Hans Zimmer], but a more refined, spookier version. It’s really chilling. It gets under your skin.Wilton’s is an amazing venue to host any show with an emphasis on music. It has such an atmosphere.Doesn’t it! It feels like you’re going back in time before you’ve even stepped into the space. Anna Reid, our designer, has really taken the feel of the venue into account. It’s just going to be gorgeous. The costumes are so rich, too. I love the dress of that period.Tell us your favourite thing about the play. Why should people see it?
      It deals with such a range of issues, which are as relevant now as they were in the 19th Century, and in such a clever way. As well as seeing some great drama, it makes you come away and think about serious, relevant issues. That’s one of the most special things that theatre can do.
      The Sweet Science of Bruising is currently playing at Wilton’s Music Hall through 29 June. More

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      Interview: Playwright David Finnigan on ‘Kill Climate Deniers’

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      The history of Kill Climate Deniers would make quite a hefty Wikipedia entry. Playwright David Finnigan’s satire was cancelled in Australia prior to its first intended theatre run in 2014, but the show has since found other ways of existing, including a concept album and even a self-guided walking tour of Australian Parliament. The play’s inflammatory title became fodder for right-wing ranting in the media, the most high-profile being from Alex Jones of Infowars, a far-right media platform in the US. Jones used Finnegan’s fiery play title as proof of left-wing politics’ intention to incite violence, claiming, ‘That’s what they [the left] want to do. They want to kill you.’  After years of being on hold, the show ran at the Griffin Theatre, Australia, after winning the theatre’s 2018 Playwriting Award. Now, comedian Felicity Ward will make her stage debut in the UK Premiere at the Pleasance Theatre, directed by the venue’s Head of Theatre, Nic Connaughton.
      Everything Theatre met with Finnegan to chat about the barmy premise of the play and why it’s proved to be near-fatally provocative, along with what the play is behind all of its media melodrama: there to entertain.
      Give us Kill Climate Deniers in a nutshell . . .
      This is an action thriller. A group of eco-terrorists take over the [Australian] Houses of Parliament during a Fleetwood Mac concert. They hold the entire government hostage, demanding an instant end to climate change . . . or everyone dies.
      It’s a big, spectacular, bombastic show. It has a soundtrack of early 90’s house and techno.
      Blimey. It is a comedy?
      It is an extremely head-on play, with big knife fights in the corridor . . . but it’s maximalist. It’s a head rush. It has music, comedy and excitement, but underneath it is this conversation about climate change as it happens in the world. It deals with politicians and how ridiculous they are. There’s absolutely the comedy of having this world-ending catastrophe potentially on its way, yet the people we’ve delegated the task of dealing with it are politicians. That is kind of hilarious . . .  
      KCD is not the kind of show where people sit in silence as a tense monologue builds.
      Has this play come from a place of activism? Or was the subject matter an artistic choice you made?
      I am a playwright who works with climate scientists and I write about global warming. For the last ten years, I have picked my words very carefully because I haven’t wanted to start a fight. I haven’t wanted to speak about it in a way that will generate debate or anger, pushback, or friction. This tension built, and one day I just sat down and wrote this play. I was commissioned to write it by a small theatre company in Australia. I thought I’d finally let it all out and say the things that I’ve wanted to for a long time. It isn’t activism in that it will impart a particular message. It is more about a question: Can something be good art and good politics?
      Has the backlash been mainly because of the title?
      I don’t want anyone to go out and kill climate deniers! But, it is an incendiary thing to say. Maybe it is too much. Maybe it is not okay to threaten murder in the title of your play. I don’t know, and I don’t think anyone else knows. I think a lot of activists might reasonably say that it’s falling into the tropes of tribalism: that it’s not helping the cause. My feeling is that it has been thirty years, and people have tried many different ways to connect [about climate change]. What would it take to get immediate reaction and not just hypothetical promises? Would it take people with guns taking over the Houses of Parliament? I wouldn’t want that to happen. Right now, there’s the week of civil unrest. [This interview took place during the Climate Change protests led by Extinction Rebellion.] I haven’t spoken to the group, but I imagine they may not be on board with this sort of violent imagery.
      This is such a current and important conversation: it’s amazing when theatre works to engage people concurrently to what’s going on in the real world.
      I don’t go to the theatre thinking, ‘I need a political education!’ I go for music, dancing, explosions, excitement, stories, fun . . . and then to learn something. And that’s what Kill Climate Deniers is. I first started working on it in 2014, and I expected it would be done in six months and forgotten about. But, instead it was shut down and it took two years before we were able to get any of the action out there—a book, a walking tour, a concept album . . . and only then, the play.
      Are you still adapting it?
      I keep folding in the story of the ongoing project. It began as an action story with a provocative title. Then a group of right-wing shock-jocks in Australia and the US attacked the work and the production had to shut down. Even then, though, we had all this interest, so we put out the album and created a walking tour. The newest part of the play reflects on asking: Who are the climate deniers? Not focusing on the people who are the big media personalities, who sell outrage as a product, but who is invested in the idea? And why are they invested in it?
      The evolution of this play is so interesting. It sounds like it is long in the making. Has it been strange to step away from this production, after being so involved previously?
      I have felt like I have had my own stake in the show so far, and now it’s exciting to watch other people work with it.
      To stage this play involves a lot of creative answers from a director. The solutions they find are often unexpected and surprising. I love throwing challenges at a director. It is a short play [80 minutes], and it must be all-guns-blazing.
      I am super excited to see it. My practice as a playwright is either very hands-on, making or devising, or it’s letting people take something and letting them do what they want with it. What I write in a script is not what people will see. It’s like you’re writing a blueprint for people to make something.
      This show is not doom and gloom. It is not even about eco-anxiety. It is a weird celebration—an odd celebration in the face of global crisis.
      Kill Climate Deniers runs at the Pleasance Theatre from 4-28 June. More