Review: The Bodyguard - The Musical

I headed to the Edinburgh Playhouse on Wednesday evening not sure what to expect from The Bodyguard: The Musical. The premise of the show is a star singer, Rachel Marron, who is threatened by a fan who is infatuated by her. Enter Frank Farmer, a bodyguard with a past hired to protect her. Not the kind of thing to be taken lightly. However, there are comedic and touching moments in a show that turned out to be hugely enjoyable.

Produced by Michael Harrison and David Ian, The Bodyguard is based on the 1992 Oscar nominated film which starred Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner.  

Former X Factor winner Alexandra Burke plays the part of Rachel in the evening performances (Jennlee Shallow plays this part in the matinee shows). Burke certainly has a singing voice and has done well to cultivate an American accent. Her rendition of ‘I Will Always Love You’ was particularly impressive and an array of instantly recognisable songs such as Queen of the Night, So Emotional, One Moment in Time, Saving All My Love, Run to You, I Have Nothing, I Wanna Dance with Somebody ensure the show hits the heights.

Benoît Maréchal plays the bodyguard Frank Farmer and he and Burke seem the perfect pairing. The story of the show is the relationship between the pair. Each expects to be in charge but what they don’t expect is to fall in love. The show concentrates in Marron’s relationship with Farmer but also touches on Marron’s family’s reaction to their flowering relationship. Catching some considerable attention are Micha Richardson as Nicki Marron - who, herself, falls in love with Farmer - and Archie Smith who is one of six youngsters playing the part of Marron’s young son Fletcher.

The ingenious use of sets allows the stage to transform in every scene although the use of lights in the more upbeat numbers does tend to dazzle rather too brightly.  However, the sets and impressive dance numbers ensures The Bodyguard is a spectacular show. It will make you laugh; it will make you cry but, at the end of the night, you feel thoroughly entertained. 

The Bodyguard is on at the Edinburgh Playhouse from 9th to 20th July 2019. 

Musical Review: Club Tropicana

There seems to be something of a 1980s revival these days which, given some of the music and fashion from the decade that style forgot is something of a surprise. But if you still hanker after the days of legwarmers, white tee-shirts adorned with huge slogans and mobile phones the size of a large brick then Club Tropicana the Musical is for you.

It’s a show that’s been described as the Love Island of the 1980s (don’t ask, that’s lost on me too) and it bounced into Edinburgh on Tuesday evening for the first of a run of shows that end on Saturday. Innuendo abounds; camp is all around; and there’s love stories with rather predictable endings. But for all that, I loved it!

The main character is Garry, played with such energetic style by former X-Factor winner Joe McElderry. The story is set in Club Tropicana, a hotel for which the name chaos could have been invented. McElderry hams the action delightfully and has developed a comedic persona which comes to the fore in this entertaining romp through the 1980s.

Alongside McElderry is the brilliant Kate Robbins who plays the hotel maid Consuela. Robbins, of course, made her name as an impressionist of some ability, having contributed to one of the top sketch shows of the 1980s, the puppet satire that was ITV’s Spitting Image. Robbins has not lost her mimicry skills and she revels in ‘doing’ stars such as Tina Turner, Shirley Bassey and Liverpool’s singer turned prime-time 80s telly presenter Cilla Black. Robbins, for me, is the star of the show and she had the Playhouse audience in hoots of laughter.

The role of Serena, the hotel manager, is played by Amelle Berrabah, once of The Sugababes (who, I’m reliably informed, were an all-girl pop band) and while she isn’t as prominent as McElderry and Robbins, still provides one of the highlights of the evening with a spine-tingling version of the Yahoo classic Only You (Berrabah overcame a small technical issue at the start of the song quite brilliantly) Serena has her eyes on Rob, who was due to be played by Neil McDermott, a former EastEnders actor, but, on Tuesday’s performance was played by understudy Nye Rees.

During these troubled times, Club Tropicana will take you back to more innocent days and it’s clear the cast love performing and stomping out the instantly recognisable numbers from three decades ago. Like all good shows this is reflected in the feel-good factor that envelopes the show and there’s every chance you’ll leave the theatre with at least one of those 1980s hits buzzing around in your head for the rest of the evening. 

Girls Just Want to Have Fun, She Drives Me Crazy, The Look of Love, Don’t Go, Jump, Making Your Mind up (with a wee twist on the legendary Bucks Fizz tearing the skirts away routine) and many others will have you looking out your old Sony Walkman when you get home.

Club Tropicana is literally a blast from the past. It’s on at the Edinburgh Playhouse until Saturday 15^th June 2019. 

Theatre Review: The Mousetrap

The Mousetrap has made it name as the longest-running West End show ever, having run continuously since 1952 – before even I was born! So, when it was announced that this iconic theatrical production was heading to Edinburgh’s Playhouse, it was an event that I felt had to be seen. And, let me say at the beginning, I wasn’t disappointed.

It’s entirely appropriate that Agatha Christie’s classic ‘whodunnit’ has come to Edinburgh. The legendary author married her second husband Max Mallowan at St Cuthbert’s Church at the foot of Lothian Road in 1930 so there has always been an association with the author to Scotland’s capital city. 

Given the nature of the play, I won’t spoil things for those who haven’t yet seen it. The plot is the aftermath of a murder in London. Monkswell Manor, a guest house run by young married couple Giles and Mollie Ralston, welcomes five guests who, upon first impressions, don’t appear to have any connections with each other. Some of the guests are expected, some are not, due to a heavy snowstorm. 

Then the telephone rings. A woman has been murdered in London and the murderer is on the run. The police are warning there is a killer in the vicinity of the guest house and the newly arrived guests are in danger. Who will escape the clutches of the killer? Who is the killer? Is it one of the newly arrived guests?

You’ll need to see the show to find out. 

The characters are, as you might expect, an eclectic bunch with a cantankerous elderly woman, a retired army general and a superbly camp young bachelor. Fans of the classic BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses will recognise the elderly woman, Mrs Boyle, as Gwyneth Strong who played Rodney Trotter’s wife Cassandra in the hit show.  Geoff Arnold gives a strong performance as the army general as does Lewis Chandler who plays Christopher Wren but the star of the show, in my opinion, is David Alcock who plays the mildly eccentric Mr Paravicini, a character who offers more questions than answers.

As you might expect with an Agatha Christie story, there are no gimmicks or elaborate production features. It’s just good, old-fashioned, edge of your seat quality acting which keeps you hooked throughout. Without giving too much away, the killer reveals themselves to the audience towards the end of the show – and asks the audience to keep the revelation to themselves! I will say nothing more other than, given the characters and one of the cast involved, there’s more than a hint of irony!

The Mousetrap is a high-quality production of a classic Agatha Christie story. It flits between dark humour and suspense and is well worth a visit. But you’d better be quick – the show is only on until this Wednesday!

The Mousetrap is on at the Edinburgh Playhouse until Wednesday 29^th May. 

Review: Matilda Is A Must-See

Roald Dahl was one of the most prominent British novelist, poet and screenwriters of the 20^th century so when one of his many books – Matilda – inspired a musical it carried with it a ‘must-see’ tag. 

Matilda the Musical, from the Royal Shakespeare Company, opened at the Edinburgh Playhouse this week and as the winner of a multitude of awards worldwide its reputation went before it.

Dahl’s book was written in 1988 and has a thoroughly modern feel to it. I’m usually rather wary of musicals based on books – the beauty of the written word is it is left to one’s imagination to envisage the story – but this musical certainly does it justice.

Matilda Wormwood, played quite brilliantly by Scarlett Cecil, is a five-year-old girl of unusual precocity with astonishing intellectual abilities - not that this impresses her parents, played Rebecca Thornhill and Sebastien Torkia, loveable but intellectually challenged (‘you’re reading books? What’s wrong with the telly?!’) Matilda gets up to all kinds of pranks such as gluing her father’s hat to his head and bleaching her pater’s hair in acts of reprisal for her parents being so horrible to her. 

At school she forms a friendship with teacher Miss Jennifer Honey, played by Carly Thoms. However, the school’s headmistress, the tyrannical Agatha Trunchbull, brilliantly played by Elliot Harper is as equally unimpressed by Matilda’s unique talent as Mr and Mrs Wormwood who are of the notion they wish their child hadn’t been born at all. Mr Wormwood refers to Matilda throughout as ‘boy’. 

Trunchbull dislikes the children at her school – in fact, she dislikes all children and threatens them with all kinds of punishment. 

Matilda’s running fabricated story to library worker Mrs Phelps, played by Michelle Chantwell Hopewell, about an escapologist and acrobat underpins the show. There are frequent scenes with Mrs Phelps in the library, sat on a stool whilst battling with her emotions as Matilda relays chapter after chapter of the story of the two characters she has contrived. Or has she contrived? There’s a wee twist in the tale towards the end.

Matilda displays a mischievous streak throughout, but this is underpinned by a sense of innocence – and as a grandfather of five little horrors I understand this all too well!

The musical is energetic from the start. The opening number – ‘My mummy says I’m a miracle’ - is chanted with gusto by the ensemble and gets the show off to a feet-stomping start.

Most of the action takes place at Matilda’s school and the superb School Song with its dazzling visuals and choreography is one of the highlights of the evening. The songs fit the story perfectly with numbers such as When I Grow Up, Telly, The Smell of Rebellion and My House.

Matilda the Musical has everything one wants from a night at the theatre.  It is emotive, energetic, very funny and visually spectacular. All of the cast are superb, but a special mention must go to the leading lady. Scarlett Cecil was absolutely faultless as Matilda and worthy of the standing ovation she received at the end of the show. Here’s a young lady who is bound for stardom. 

With the Easter holidays looming this would be the ideal show to take your children to – they will love it. They may laugh, they may even feel they want to cry but, above all, they will feel thoroughly entertained. Roald Dahl died in 1990 but his legacy lives on. Had he still been around to see this musical adaptation, I have no doubt he would have approved.

Matilda the Musical is on at the Edinburgh Playhouse until Saturday 27^th April 2019. 

Review: Jersey Boys

My grandchildren, bless the little blighters, refer to the time when I was their age as ‘the black and white days’. My eldest grandson reaches 14 years of age in a few weeks. One of the hazy memories I have of when I was 14 was of dancing at the school disco (it was the 1970s) One of the first songs I danced to was December ’63 (Oh What a Night) by The Four Seasons.

Now, more than 40 years later, that same song resonated once again as I watched Jersey Boys - a musical based on the story of the Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons - at the Edinburgh Playhouse. 

The show begins at the beginning of the swinging 1960s and is the story of how four young lads with musical talent from New Jersey in the USA would become one of the biggest and most popular pop bands of that decade – and beyond. However, don’t be fooled by the Four Seasons initial clean cut image. As the story demonstrates, the foursome endure struggles with arguments, fights and even prison in an almost cliched tale of sex and drugs and rock and roll. The show tells their story over the ensuing decades, a story of success, debts, relationships and tragedy. 

What underlines their remarkable story, however, is the steadfast loyalty the boys show to each other, through thick and thin – even when one of the band walks out vowing never to return… 

While I can’t say I was ever a huge fan of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, Jersey Boys is worth seeing.  Like the best of these shows, the story moves swiftly, and this is perhaps what the audience want – they want to hear those songs that are part of their lives and which bring back so many memories. In this respect the show doesn’t disappoint. 'Sherry', 'Walk Like A Man’, ‘Big Girls Don't Cry', 'Can't Take My Eyes Off You' and, of course 'December 1963 (Oh What a Night)' soon had the audience tapping their feet. The early part of the show also includes some lesser known songs which are every bit as good as the big hits.

The production is top notch and there are some striking visual effects, based on the industrial architecture of New Jersey and the impressive use of light adds to the atmosphere of the show.

The cast are quite superb. Michael Watson has the role of Frankie Valli and he gives an astonishingly powerful performance. If you close your eyes you might think it’s actually Frankie on the stage. Simon Bailey plays the cheeky chappy role of Tommy Devito and it is Devito’s sometimes-reckless attitude that leads to spiralling debts and threatens the band. There are also fine performances from Declan Egan as Bob Gaudio and Lewis Griffiths as Nick Massi.

With over 30 songs brilliantly performed by a sterling energetic cast, Jersey Boys is a hugely enjoyable show. A wee word of warning, though. If your emotions are prone to get the better of you it’s advisable to take a packet of tissues for the second act! 

The show is on until the weekend after next and you’re guaranteed a night to remember – oh, what a night!

Jersey Boys is on at the Edinburgh Playhouse from until Saturday 2 March 2019.

Review - American Idiot

I have to admit that when I was invited to the opening night of American Idiot at the Edinburgh Playhouse on Tuesday evening I didn’t know what to expect. I asked a couple of friends who merely shook their heads and petted their lips. Eventually someone told me the show was based on the music of American pop-punk band Green Day. Grateful for the info, I was still none the wiser. Yet, it was an enjoyable evening even though there wasn’t a huge crowd at the Playhouse.

Green Day first came to prominence in the 1980s formed in 1986 by lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong and bassist Mike Dirn. It’s a level of my ignorance that I discovered Green Day have sold more than 85 million records worldwide and have won five Grammy Awards. Their 2004 album American Idiot was labelled a punk rock opera and depicts modern American life in the aftermath of traumatic events such as the attacks on New York and Washington in September 2001 and the Gulf War. As the title suggests this is the basis of the theatre production. 

The show starts with a bang and rarely lets up as you might expect from a punkish band. It’s difficult to label a particular genre on American Idiot but a starting point might be The Clash meets James Taylor meets Trainspotting meets Friends. If that sounds fanciful then head to the Playhouse and see for yourself.

The first act is just 50 minutes and comes to something of an abrupt end. However, the start of act two has a very powerful scene where leading man Johnny – played by Tom Milner, perhaps best known for being in BBC Television’s Waterloo Road – dabbles with strong drugs. It’s a scene which is unusual for a musical – it’s played in complete silence which adds to its powerful poignancy. It’s reminiscent of the ground-breaking film Trainspotting – there’s even a filthy toilet in the corner of the stage.

Some of the music certainly appealed to this ageing punk and this was mixed by more gentile numbers and the scene where Milner strums his guitar in a drug-infused stupor declaring his love for his girlfriend is very moving. 

It wouldn’t be a musical without hope, however, and the emotionally charged number When September Ends towards the end of the show demonstrates the characters belief that there can be better days ahead.

Kudos to a brilliant production and a passionate and energetic cast as well as the superb band situated at the top of the stage.

American Idiot is on at the Edinburgh Playhouse until Saturday 9^th February 2019

I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue

Aficionados of BBC Radio Four’s long-running antidote to panel shows I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue knew what to expect when host Jack Dee brought the team to the Edinburgh Playhouse on Sunday evening. And the hundreds who turned up weren’t disappointed.

Regular team members Barry Cryer – whose 80^th birthday bash is also being celebrated in the capital as part of the Fringe – Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor were joined by a favourite son of the show, Jeremy Hardy with resident pianist Colin Sell the butt of Dee’s acerbic wit as usual.

All the old favourite games were there; One Song to the Tune of Another, Pick Up Song, Sound Charades and Mornington Crescent and others were lapped up by an appreciate audience who couldn’t get enough. Dee brought a local touch to the humour with a couple of digs at Hibernian FC, much to the delight of those Hearts fans in the audience.

Provided with kazoos as part of the show, the audience joined in the swanee kazoo round with gusto and the veteran stars of arguably the most popular comedy radio show in the country provided brilliant entertainment. Even the mythical ‘Samantha’ provided comedy of the ‘double entendre’ variety – most of the audience had heard these gags before in the course of the show’s 43 year history but lapped it up nonetheless.

A wonderful evening’s entertainment and a cracking way to end the weekend.