Archive for May, 2025

The Frogs (Southwark Playhouse Bprpugh)

Posted: May 31, 2025 in Uncategorized
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Photo: Pamela Raith

Music and lyrics: Stephen Sondheim

Writer: Aristophanes

Adaptors: Burt Shelvelove and Nathan Lane

Director: Georgie Rankcom 

⭐️⭐️💫

Let’s face it, even William Shakespeare had a few bad days at the office, so it should come as no surprise that, among the masterpieces of Stephen Sondheim, there lie some green slimy things. Maybe it is a little uncharitable to remind enthusiasts for the late God of musical theatre of this, but director Georgie Rankcom’s off-West End revival does so and makes a valiant attempt to turn The Frogsinto a prince among musicals.

A big surprise is that The Frogs premiered after Sondheim’s sophisticated hit A Little Night Music; a surprise because it has all the feel of a year-end college revue by a bunch of Classics undergrads. This could be down to the fact that, in its early form, with a book by Burt Shevelove, the show did the rounds of universities, opening at Yale gymnasium in 1974, with Meryl Streep and Sigourney Weaver in the chorus. The version seen here has a new book by Nathan Lane, who starred in the first Broadway production in 2004. The United Kingdom  premiere came at London’s tiny Jermyn Street Theatre in 2017.

We are told at the outset that the time is the present and the place is Ancient Greece. Freely adapted from a BC405 Greek comedy by Aristophanes, the story tells how the ranidaphobic God of Drama, Dionysos (Dan Buckley) and his upstart slave, Xanthias (Kevin McHale) set off for Hades on a mission to retrieve George Bernard Shaw (Martha Pothen), eventually opting for William Shakespeare (Bart Lambert) in preference. The journey is plodding, but Buckley and McHale make up a pleasing double act in the Laurel and Hardy style.

On the road, the pair meet up with Dionysos’ brother, Heracles (Joaquin Pedro Valdes), taking a break from his labours to give guidance on fashion, and an aggressive ferryman, Charon (Carl Patrick overacting towards the point of stealing the show). Things go wrong when Dionysos is kidnapped by frogs and the second act, set in Hades, is much like Hell for the audience, culminating in a seemingly interminable battle of words between the two playwrights.

The show has none of Sondheim’s most instantly recognisable songs, but the ones that are here have much merit and, generally, the lyrics are stronger than the music. The problem with the show is not the songs, they are the highlights as progress creaks and croaks between them. The book is ridiculously self-indulgent, mixing high brow arguments with low-brow topical gags while, at the same time, submerging itself in a sea of silliness where even the hardiest of amphibians would struggle to stay afloat.

Rankcom’s production often feels lifeless between the songs, but it redeems itself when the six-member chorus bursts into action, particularly for The Frogs and Hymn to Dionysos on either side of the interval and It’s Only a Play, later. Here, the work of choreographer Matt Nicholson is outstanding and it stretches to high camp with the appearance of glamour queen Pluto (Victoria Scone), inserted as if a cabaret act, to perform Hades.

In the early 1970s, perhaps Sondheim was still learning how to expand the boundaries of musical theatre and it is interesting to discover some seeds of later successes being sown here. Even so, the highlights of The Frogs are all musical ones and they come as oases in a fairly arid desert.

Performance date: 27 May 2025

1536 (Almeida Theatre)

Posted: May 18, 2025 in Theatre
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Photo: Helen Murray

Writer: Ava Pickett

Director: Lindsey Turner

⭐️⭐️😂⭐️

From the drama and intrigue of the Wolf Hall trilogy and A Man for All Seasons to the musical frivolities of Six, the reign of King Henry VIII continues to grip theatregoers. Playwright Ava Pickett follows this trend with 1536, the title referring to the year in which Anne Boleyn was executed. The play looks at historic events from a very different perspective; it is new writing, tackling age-old issues.

The place is a field in rural Essex, which, in Max Jones’ set design, is overgrown and dominated by the remains of a dead tree. This gives the production a bleak and unforgiving look. Before social media, television, radio and even newspapers, gossip spread far and wide and lowly folk were fascinated by the private affairs of the rich and famous, relating news to their own simper lives. Perhaps little has changed in almost 500 years. As word of Anne Boleyn’s imprisonment in the the Tower of London filters through, women talk of Henry’s Queen as a hapless victim, while men speak of “the great whore”, thereby highlighting the gender divide which Pickett sets out to explore thoroughly and thoughtfully.

Siena Kelly excels as the free-spirited and unapologetically promiscuous Anna. She is unable to resist the sexual advances of the duplicitous Richard (Adam Hugill), even though he is about to marry her best friend, the much more sedate Jane (Liv Hill). These two women meet in the field, along with community midwife Mariella (Tanya Reynolds), who is bitter after being  spurned by William (Angus Cooper). The women gossip and catch up on the latest news from London, all of it grim for Queen Anne.

From here, Pickett allows a soap-style plot to drive the play to its dramatic conclusion, leaving herself ample room to expose the cruel injustices of a male dominated society. Her focus is entirely on the three women and her writing includes no sympathy for the men whose actions are inspired by the behaviour of their role model, the King.

Kelly, Hill and Reynolds all give passionate performances, bringing out the individual plights of three very different personalities. They style themselves as modern day Essex girl stereotypes, encouraged by dialogue that is embellished by over-generpus sprinklings of the “f” word. In the play’s early stages, some of their banter is very funny on the level of a sitcom such as Blackadder, but, overall, this proves to be a minor distraction from the writer’s main purpose.

There is more than enough meat to sustain the drama for its 110-minute running time and performing it without an interval helps greatly in building up intensity. Under the assured direction of Lindsey Turner, 1536 moves effortlessly from inconsequential comedy to high drama, leading up to a climax that is memorably powerful.

Performance date: 13 May 2025