pyekan

Starting here starting now This tiny theatre in the middle of Waterloo is host to one of the great delights of this strange season. It is a revue of heart warming and heart warning songs by David Shire and Richard Maltby. Sung, danced and beautifully performed by three highly accomplished leading West End favourites. A Blonde a Brunette and a Bloke. Nikki Bentley who appeared as the evil witch Elphaba and Glinda in Wicked, the very funny Gina Murray who was Mama Morton in Chicago and a well known face from TV and Movies, and the versatile Noel Sullivan from the group “Hear Say” as well as starring in Grease and playing the lead role in Flashdance. Together, they perform around twenty songs, mostly dealing with relationships, love songs with a twist – reminiscent of lyrics by the great Lorenz Hart which in my book is the highest honour one can bestow on a lyricist.So true. What is so interesting is that these people in the songs find themselves in the kind of situation we can all recognise. Gina’s first number. ‘I’m a little in love and I wish I wasn’t. Noel and Gina sing about their surprise in that “We can talk to each other” which really means “I talk and you listen” A few sweetly sad torch -carrying numbers. “Autumn” and “Christmas never happended”I Comedy routines – the make up girl who says “I’ll make you beautiful…like me” as she swipes Ginas face with the kind of brush usually used for wallpapering. A cynical look at self deception deception in marriage“Having other lovers makes us so much closer” The sad and lonely girl who says”I’m a girl you need to know” Noels dances of joy as he sings “That special moment when you win somebody’s heart. ”And the old complaints. About degeneracy and the Snowflakes. “Where is dash, where is flair, where is romance? “I keep wondering if tomorrow ever comes” After the sadness, the heartbreak, the sad joy of love there is the golden number.“One step and Wow” As they regain their strength and happiness. This is really an unusually brilliant show, without words with just a lot of really good songs great lyrics and brilliant performers. Should be seen.There is social distancing, so you will have plenty of room beside you to put your handbags and things.Happy gap for you, [pretty sad for the cast and creatives.whp long for more people. Try and get there. alinewaites

wh

UPSTAIRS AT THE GATEHOUSE

HIGHGATE ILLAGE LONDO N6 4BD

My joy was extreme this evening, to visit one of my favourite theatres, the expertly run by the family Plews in the middle of beautiful Highgate.

It was a deliht to see “Forever Plaid” the four part harmony show. I saw it in the West End and remember very well interviewing thefour gorgeous young men in their dressing room. A funny and enjoyable experience.

A barbershop show doesn’ spoud all tht exciting. There is limit to the amount of harmonising one can live with but it could never fail in the hands of katie Pleews – producer, Joh, direcetor and their daughter, my friend Racky in charge of the choreography.

The show has a curious theme.

Fur young men at the very beinnin of a highly successful career as a group, and on 9the Febdruary 1964 were about to appear at the airport Hilton Cocktail Bar when they were killed in an accident.

Fifty years later they are brought back to life and to regroup to perform music of their age and to enchant the people with the music of their age – the early sixties.

Just the beginning of rock and roll, but they are still peerforming sweetness and jazz complete with doowahs.

To divert a little. This particularly brought back memories of the great Film and theatre direct Wendy Toye who used to come and see our shows and practically falling off her chair laughing at the doowahs the late David Wykes pianist extraordinaire, and I put into various numbers.

But true to form I am wandering from the point at issue. Forever Plaid

The singing was. of course, superb with musical direction from Ian Oakley award winning musican and composer.I was even more amused by the precision of the movements by the guys. Absolutely spot on, except when on eof them would make a mistake for comic effect.

The show is packed with comedy.

Of course it suffers alittle from a audiece wearing masks and it might have been disastrous if we had not been without theatre for so long and hadf beome accustomed to the strangemness. It must have been awful for the cast looking out at an audience of masked faces. But we were able to enjoy the chorus of grunts of enjoyment from the illustrious press night audience.

The guys were in for anything that made a good joke and they were highly appreciated by the customers. They got rhough about thirty numbers allharmonically sung with terrific precision and with different movementsfor each number. Not an eady show to be put together

I thought it was absolutly terrific.Happily I was sitting with a friend of ine who didnt mind the fact hat I couod not keep still when the music was playing.

Oneof the silliest and most accomplished was their American version of a new group from Lieerpool Enle more concentration on the personalities of the guys.gland called the Beatles. She Loves you – with doowahs and very little relationship with the actual words or tune.

Onething I would have liked was a little more concentration on the personalities of the men. It may be my age, but I was not really sure which was which out of Frankie, Jinx,Smudg3 and Sparky.

An occasion of great joy . Just the kind of thing we need after our fifteen months of deprivation.

Happiness all round. xxx

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that’s Jewish Entertainment.

NIGHTMARE

Aline Waites

Sarah woke with a start, fighting for breath, heart thumping. She was over heated, the bed clothes felt damp and heavy. She could smell the fear emanating from every pore.  Her right hand was clutched over the area of her ribs where the knife had entered, smoothly, swiftly without pain. When she removed the hand from her chest, she was surprised to find no blood. With an effort of will, she steadied her pounding heart and exhaled to the end of her lungs.

 

She knew she had to remember the dream. Her mother had always told her that dreams only come true if you don’t tell them. She must tell this one to prevent it happening, but first she must get it right.

She’s in a train. There’s a man. The man with the face, eyes like black olives, hair dark and slightly frizzy, balding at the temples, shadow of stubble on his chin. In his hand he has a knife. Looking straight into her eyes, he drives the knife into her chest. She knows she shouldn’t try to remove it, but cannot help doing so. It goes in so easily, but she has to tug hard to get it out. She wriggles it about, trying to loosen it. The pain is excruciating, but she perseveres. Finally it comes out with a jerk and she lies gasping for breath as the blood surges out fountaining its way out of her body in huge spurts.

That is the end, but what is the beginning? There is no beginning. Every night it is the same dream, unless she is dreaming that too. Every detail is familiar as it occurs. Each time she says to herself ‘It is happening again’# and she goes through it all again right to the end. The man with the face, the knife, the blood – but she can’t remember the beginning.

 

Sarah stood on the platform and the tube train came in. She was careful not to get into a compartment with a man onhis own. She heard of knifings and rapes while the train was between stations. She couldn’t understand how it could possibly happen – two minutes between stations, didn’t give much time. Nevertheless she took the same train every day and took the same precautions.

She got into the train at the back – the compartment next to the guard. His face seemed oddly familiar to her, he must be the regular on the line so she smiled at him in case. He smiled back. He had a reassuring kind of smile.

There were five scattered occupants – only one of which looked up as she got in. A young girl in a flimsy voile mini skirt, woollen tights, Doc Martin boots, heavy makeup and a ring through her nose. Sarah regarded her indulgently wondering why such a pretty girl could make such a guy of herself.

The girl got off the train a couple of stops later and smiled at her in a friendly way. Sarah settled back into her place, putting her bag on the seat next to her. She was sorry the colourful girl had left the train. The people who surrounded her were pretty ordinary looking. A business man in a grey suit and slender tie, completely absorbed in the financial Times – he never looked up once, a middle aged couple in anoraks and back packs – obvious tourists with their heads together studying a large map of London – a young man with long hair and jeans who had his eyes kept on his iphone throughout the journey. Nobody to talk to – a shame, she always likes to start a conversation on the way to work – it helped the journey along. However, it took twenty minutes to Finchley Central so she could take short nap. She found it easy to have a quick sleep on the train if there was no body to talk to. The rocking motion helped and she didn’t have to  worry about missing her station because at East Finchley she always woke when the train emerged into the open air.

However, they had just left Camden and were hurtling towards Kentish Town when all of a sudden there was a jerk and a judder and the train s topped. Totally dead. No engine ticking over, no sound at all just a slice of deafening silence. There was no way she could sleep without the comfort of the rocking train. She ventured to glance despairing at her fellow passengers, intending to give them a reassuring grin and a philosophical shrug of the shoulder.

But when she looked up she found that all eyes were upon her. She looked from one to another, her eyes flicking between the faces. There was no reaction, just a cold stare from each of the faces. Her half smile faded and she could feel her own face freeze. What were they all looking at? Subconsciously she put out her had to take the bag that she had place on the seat beside her.

‘Don’t’ the word came like a whiplash from the man in the grey suit

‘Don’t touch it’

She snatched her hand away and began to tremble as the four people rose silently and slowly to their feet and began to advance on her.

Her eyes flashed madly from one to another, but they came on towards her – purposefully, remorselessly. She forced herself to stand, feeling less vulnerable on her feet. She had no idea what she was planning to do, or even if she had a plan of any kind.

She tried to turn towards the door, but the young man with the long hair and ripped jeans was somehow there in front of her. She turned the other way and found the business man was almost there facing her, still with  his eyes upon her. The four passengers  formed a cage around her, there was no way she could get past them.

‘What do you want?’ she gasped.

They made no reply and they seemed to be coming even nearer. Their four heads getting bigger and bigger as they came towards her.

They were almost there, their breath was rising in the air she could see it and smell it. Foul like the smell that came from a vase of dead flowers.

Suddenly the train gave another jerk, the four of them were temporarily thrown off balance and their heads whipped round in the direction of the front of the train.

Seizing her chance, she made a dash towards the adjoining compartment where she knew the guard would be. She saw his shadowy form through the window

‘Thank God’ she sobbed and hammered on the glass.

The four fiends had recovered their balance and advanced again, trapping her against the door. She became of the purple redness in their eyes as they kept them fixed on her face

The Guard’s face appeared at the window. The reassuring smile had gone and at last she knew why his face was familiar. Black eyes like olives, dark hair, slightly frizzy and balding, shadow of stubble on his face.

He thrust the door open, casting her roughly to one side and sending the four villains sliding across the floor of the carriage. She waited behind the door, shaking, as he stood surveying them. They cringed under his basilisk stare. He took out his intercom and made a call.

The train came to with a shudder and started to move slowly on its way to Kentish Town. The guards set Sarah back on her feet and put his arms around her.

‘Don’t worry’ he said ‘it’s all over’

At Kentish Town, the police were waiting to take the gang away. The guard took Sarah into his own compartment at the end of the train. It was empty but for the two of them.

As if he had all the time in the world, he took out the knife from beneath his jacket, and, looking her in the eyes, slid the knife between her ribs into her heart. She fell without a sound. No longer afraid.

 

alinewaites@hotmail.co.uk

30 upper park road, NW3 2ut

02077225395

07962726970

http://www.alinewaites.com

 

THRILLER – all I can say is wow. *****

The Michael Jackson show

What more can I say about Thriller? I have reviewed it five times already and it just goes on getting better. I started out thinking ‘Oh it’s Thriller AGAIN’ and I was looking forward to taking a new person to the show, that was to be my treat – and yet I was as enraptured by it as if it was my first time. It is constantly kept fresh. Change of cast, change of scenery and lighting, change of numbers. Gary Lloyd, Director and Choreographer just won’t let it lie. He is working just as hard after nine years and now it is the fifteenth ever longest running musical in the West End.  This is what the show I attended last week was all about.  It was a celebration and there was new stuff.  In addition to all the glitter and streamers that turn up everywhere even in the audience, there were surprising plumes of smoke or sparkling lights arising from the stage like fountains.

Michel Jackson may have died young, but he has left a huge body of work – enough to fill three or four productions. There are some that stay, like numbers from Thriller and Bad, but there are enough songs to keep changing, and there are mash ups of several tunes in some of the items.

 The Jackson story would not be correct without the Jackson Five and there are six young people who take it in turns to play the young Michael. On the Celebration night, it was Marcelllus Virgo Smith to entertain us and he did brilliantly.

Singing ‘She’s Out of my Life’ – one of Jacksons most heartrending ballads is Reece Bahia – a young man who has been following Thriller since he was nine and is now one of the principal vocalists.  He has a beautiful lyrical voice and can sing pretty, as well as belting up a storm. He gets an enormous round of applause at the end.

Dajiow does a long stunning solo turn impersonating Michael Jackson, a perfect lookalike using all his hero’s own idiosyncratic dance moves.

The female socialist singer is the very sexy and delightful Cleo Higgins lead singer from the band Cleopatra. Here is a real star of musical theatre appearing in practically every item in different costumes that become more spectacular as the evening progresses. She is a versatile singer who can also wallop along with the best.

It is mainly a dance and spectacular show and Lloyd has a difficult job in finding new dance moves. Luckily, he has an imagination and talent to discover/invent something different for each item.

The show is backed up by John Maher and his magnificent rock orchestra which is usually hidden upstage behind a blind, but occasionally the blind rises, and we get a chance to see them as they play the pulsating rhythms of Jackson’s music. 

The settings are sensational – all colours patterns and shapes, thrilling lighting effects. – a wondrous combination of talents. Jonathan Park as designer and lighting by Nigel Catmur

Everybody can enjoy a show like this. It is pure escapism even to traces of pantomime and a little gentle audience participation which everybody is eager to join in.

I was happy that my classically trained friend was just as eager as I was to stand up and jig about with the guys.

You don’t have to be a Jackson fan to get a kick out of this show. It is a Terrific production. Great family entertainment

THAT’S JEWISH ENTERTAINMENT ****

BY CHRIS BURGESS

UPSTAIRS AT THE GATEHOUSE.

 

If you feel you want to have real entertainment what do you do? You go to an American musical. Entertainment that is dominated by the mixture of sentimentality sweet music and cynical humour that is the hallmark of Jewish performers.

In this show, Chris Burgess is showing us how this style evolved and has constructed a show in which he traces the beginnings in American Jewish history from the earliest immigrants right up to the present day.

 The songs they brought with them were in Yiddish, and here they have been thoughtfully translated into English by the author. For instance, we have Schlof Mein Kind, sung first in its original tongue and then in English as Sleep my child.

Behind the actors and on space is a truly magnificent but tiny orchestra led by Charlie Ingles/Alex Bellamy, Andrew Richards, Joe Atkin Reeves and James Pritchard. It is a simple setting but it is all that is needed. Just the Gatehouse star cloth and some attractive and effective lighting by Ben M Rogers.

It is comparatively recently that Jewishness is used as a banner rather than something to be hidden. Sophie Tucker did it with her Yiddisher Mamma and other songs, she was one of the few. Irving Berlin who put a little Jewish humour into an early number a about a typical Jewish man on his deathbed, he says to his children, ‘Cohen owes me ninety-seven dollars.’ Making sure they get what is owed to them after he’s gone.

Many of the Jewish community – like Al Jolson worked in Blackface Minstrel shows.  For many years, the Jewish community were cautious about showing their Jewishness trying to turn themselves into real Americans – many of them making a fortune on Hollywood running the film studios. To celebrate this, the cast go into numbers from Mack and Mabel (Movies were Movies) and others that celebrated Al Jolson as the first voice to be heard on film in the ‘Jazz Singer’.

The rise of Hitler made life even more dangerous for the Community but they managed to inject

Jewishness injected into music and shows surreptitiously. Oklahoma was a story about lost people finding and praising their new homeland. Gershwin managed to put Jewish cadences into Rhapsody in Blue.

In this show the music of Irving Berlin, Gerry Herman and Gershwin, comedians like the Marx Brothers, Fanny Brice and Woody Allen are well represented. Along with excellent impressions of Barbra Streisand who bore her pedigree like a banner. Streisand turned Jewishness into fashion almost singlehandedly, refusing to alter her appearance and getting through simply on her amazing three octave voice and acting talent. Joanna Lee and Emma Odell give excellent impressions of her -most especially ‘Don’t rain on my Parade’ which exactly expresses the singer’s Independent personality.

The other two actors Matthew Barrow and David McKechnie both have first class voices and he whole company have fun with a rapid fire of quotations – one of Goldwynisms and another of phrases from The Marx Brothers.

But the most moving part is when they perform a song that has never been heard since the second world war. A heart-breaking number, beautifully harmonised by the company, was composed in a Ghetto by people waiting to be sent off to a concentration camp. It is this raw emotion that adds power to this production, directed by Kate Golledge and performed with enjoyment and lots of fun.

A happy occasion and a great tribute to Jewish History and American Entertainment