A Little Night Music In Concert

I was confused by A Little Night Music at first. Not by the plot - a delightfully simple tale of marraige, infidelity and finding a happy ending - but by how and why such a stellar cast were performing together for one night only in Guildford. It was only when I read the programme after that I realised the debt that we as an audience owe to the producer/musical director  Alex Parker (@alexparker91 on Twitter), who is lucky enough to live the theatre-goer's dream: gathering your favourite cast and putting on a classic, under-appreciated show. I know I would do the same given half the chance!

A recent BMus graduate, Alex has achieved a remarkable amount for someone so young, working on a wide range of productions, including, most recently, The Pajama Game. As a result, he has put together an enviable little black book, which he put to excellent use in A Little Night Music. I realise I'm prone to hyperbole when it comes to blogging about musicals, but when I say stellar in this case I really mean it: Janie Dee (Desirée Armfeldt) and Joanna Riding (Countess Charlotte Malcolm) are both double Olivier award winners, Anne O'Byrne (Anne Egerman) recently starred as Christine in the DVD of Love Never Dies, Fra Fee (Henrick Egerman) is fresh from the barricades of the Les Mis film, and the entire cast have a long and impressive list of stage and screen credits to their name. This concert version - no props, no costumes, and scripts still in hand - displayed just why this cast are so successful. Their vocal and acting performances were strong enough to completely envelope us in the production, to make us laugh out loud or marvel at their singing abilities, without any of the usual accompanimients to a musical of this scale.

Of course, the cast are helped by the material they're given to perform, and A Little Night Music certainly lends itself to a concert version. Essentially the story of a handful of characters in one location over one weekend, the show relies on Sondheim's music and lyrics, which at 40 years old, are as fresh and captivating as ever. With the Menier Chocolate Factory version of Merrily We Roll Along finally bringing Sondheim's classic the acclaim it deserves in the West End, and the Chichester production of Sweeney Todd cleaning up at this year's Oliviers, Sondheim's work is once again proving its enduring worth.

My last brush with Sondheim was the new, fully orchestrated version of Sunday in the Park with George staring Julian Ovenden at Theatre du Chatelet, which I had to listen to on the radio (thank you France Culture) as the ticket price and a trip to France was a bit steep even for an obsessive like me. While there are some great songs (like Move On, which you can watch here), they are interspersed with far too much dialogue. I realise Sondheim wanted to make a point about the nature of art, especially after the original production of Merrily had just flopped, but Sunday just left me cold. Thankfully, A Little Night Music couldn't be further from Sunday. It's HILARIOUS, stuffed full of laugh out loud moments. It's also filthy, opening with a song in which Frederick (David Birrell) considers ways to get his wife of 11-months to finally sleep with him, and continuing in a similar fashion. Yet somehow at the same time, there are incredibly moving moments, full of Sondheim's trademark wry observations on human failings in relationships.

As well as the cast, Parker's concert benefitted from a 31 piece on-stage orchestra who really made the most of the score, full of 3/4 time waltzs. Apart from the ubiquituous Send in the Clowns, the songs from A Little Night Music are not well known, but they should be. Every Day A Little Death, the lament of the cheated yet loyal wife, is one of Sondheim's most heartbreaking ballads, while perhaps the most rousing first act closer ever (though Les Mis fans may disagree with me), A Weekend in the Country, is so catchy that it's been stuck in my head on and off for the last three years now, since I first watched the incredible Stephen Sondheim 80th birthday prom in 2010. 

Alex Parker states that his aim is to produce the highest quality short runs and one-off productions that everyone will be talking about for a long time after. He certainly achieved that with A Little Night Music. I can't wait to see what he comes up with next!

Coalition @ Pleasance Theatre

Having voted Lib Dem at the last election, I have a tiny share in the responsibility for the coalition that is torn to shreds in Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky's new comedy play, which finished its run at the Pleasance Theatre this weekend. Whatever your thoughts on the coalition politically, there's no denying its comic potential.

The first term of the coalition is drawing to an end, and somehow they've made it through. Before the next general election, Liberal Democrat leader and Deputy Prime Minister Matt Cooper (Thom Tuck) - Nick Clegg in all but name - is determined to get himself out from the Prime Minister's shadow and assert his authority. The result, through increasingly complicated layers of bartering and betrayal - of people and of principles - is a rapid downward spiral of defections and defeats.

Thom Tuck as Lib Dem Leader and Deputy PM Matt Cooper

Weaving together the political (particularly criticism of the Liberal Democrat's supposed sacrifice of everything they believe in for power) and the comedic, Coalition takes us through the nightmare of constituency surgeries, appeasing back-benchers, fielding incompetent candidates in by-elections and facing the constant glare of public opinion (as compiled and analysed by a blithering PR geek). 

An unnerving Phil Jupitus as Sir Francis Whitford

While the coalition power plays are inherently funny, it's the cast who really make the play. Thom Tuck displays great physical humour as a man on the edge, all fists pumping and eyes bulging. As Sir Francis Whitford, whose only role in cabinet seems to be turning up mysteriously and messing with Liberal Democrat minds, Phil Jupitus was really quite unnerving.  He played everything so drily, recalling real life politicians who don't realise how unwittingly funny they are. Jupitus was not the only famous comedian on stage; equally dry-witted Jo Caulfield played Chief Whip Angela Hornby, who wasn't nearly as dominatrix-y as her job title would suggest, and a little unconvincing as someone in such a position of power, but still amusing.

Jo Caulfield as Lib Dem Chief Whip Angela Hornby

Although Coalition's primary purpose is to make you laugh, the play does prompt questioning of contemporary politics, and we all left discussing how the coalition will really end. My lasting impression of Coalition was that the exercise of power is far more trouble than its worth... but I guess that's why I'm not in politics!

Community

While I haven't been able to get out and about much - certainly no theatre trips - I have had time for lots of reading, films and TV, so I thought I should share some of what I've been enjoying on here, starting with my latest TV binge: Community.

My dad put me on to Community after it recently won a TV Choice Award for Best Sitcom. It's horribly addictive and only 20 minutes per episode, so I've now already watched all three series (a fourth will start in October). Community is very, very silly, but if you get passed that it is a lot of fun and also very clever, especially if you're a film and TV buff. 

When it is discovered that his degree is fake, smooth-talking lawyer Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) finds himself at Greendale Community College, possibly the world's worst school. In an attempt to seduce wannabe political activist Britta Perry (Gillian Jacobs), he starts a Spanish study group, bringing together a diverse mix of characters that otherwise have nothing in common - straight-A student turned Adderral addict, Annie Eddison (Man Men's wonderful Alison Brie); ex-high school football star, Troy Barnes (Donald Glover); strongly Christian mum, Shirley Bennett (Yvette Nicole Brown); film & TV nerd, Abed Nadir (Danny Pudi) and retired businessman growing old disgracefully Pierce Hawthorne (Chevy Chase, basically playing himself). Surprisingly the group come together as a support system and eventually a very unconventional family, inspired by creator Dan Harmon's real-life experience at community college.

The characters start of as complete stereotypes, but they acknowledge that and the humour is completely self-aware. Through the three series, however, the characters evolve in surprising and rewarding ways, and you can't help but get sucked in to the web of relations between them. The most distinctive feature of Community though is how very meta it is - every episode is either pastiching a certain programme or genre, or stuffed full of pop culture references. This may annoy some viewers, but I really appreciated how the characters and setting adapted to everything from CSI to Lars Von Trier's Dogville. Equally, I loved the experimentation with form of certain episodes, from stop-motion animation to 80s video game.

So if you're stuck for something to fill a 20 minute gap in your viewing schedule, give Community a go. Just as the characters learn to embrace life at Greendale, if you give Community a chance you'll be very happy there.

Act One & Xpress Radio present Sherlock Holmes & The Hoards of Dracula

This year, Xpress Radio, Cardiff University's student radio station, have shown an incredible dedication to producing diverse content and on Tuesday evening they took on their most ambitious project yet, live radio drama.

Throughout the year, Head of Speech for Xpress, Amanda Cooper, has been working with the university's drama society, Act One to write, record and produce new radio dramas. So far the first episode of The Secret of Alexander (the secret being she's a girl) is up on iTunes, while The Bullingdon Boys is in production. On Tuesday, the whole six episode series of Sherlock Holmes & The Hoards of Dracula, written and performed by Act One members, was broadcast live in a technical feat involving the most microphones in Xpress history. The series will now be edited into podcasts, soon to be available to download (I'll keep you posted with when).

For a story called The Hoards of Dracula, there wasn't a huge amount of the blood-thirsty Count, but a whole range of literary references, from Frankenstein to Murder on the Orient Express. At its core, of course, was the irresistible bromance between Holmes and Watson. The six episodes all had different writers, but ran together well (credit to directors Rob Thomas and Aleks Ford). Each writer did bring their own style to their episode though, and I have to say Aled Bidder's was my favourite, while Darren Freebury-Jones' felt just a touch too repetitive.

The whole thing was incredibly funny - sometimes silly slapstick or scatological humour, sometimes really clever wit. At one point I actually laughed so hard I cried, although that had a lot to do with the unfortunate wardrobe mishap that revealed more of James Davies than anyone wanted to see. They promised nudity in the advert and they almost delivered!

Speaking of Davies, as the titular character, he joked that he'd based his performance on Benedict Cumberbatch, but I found him much more charismatic than the BBC's sleuth. As his devoted companion Watson, Adam Feltham revealed a real comedy talent. He has an incredibly expressive face - not great for radio - but luckily an equally expressive voice.  He also seemed totally unperturbed by having to perform most of the evening in his boxers (Act One's costume department must have a small budget). James 'Rolly' Rollinson was a great choice for narrator, again very funny and with a really strong voice for radio.

I really have to praise the hard work of the whole cast and crew for putting an event like this together to such a high standard, and especially Amanda Cooper and Tom Gerken, without whose dedication none of this would have been possible.

Gareth Gwynn on The Pantheon of Heros

Last night I went to a live recording of a BBC Wales comedy radio show called The Pantheon of Heroes. The premise of the show is that comedian Elis James and his side-kick Ben Partridge go through the canon of great Welshmen and women trying to work out who's the most interesting. While it's packed with facts, it's also surprisingly funny - it is after all a comedy show, not a piece for BBC Learning.

Today I caught up with Gareth Gwynn, who writes the show with Elis and Ben, to discuss the writing process, as well as his own personal Welsh heroes.

 Gareth Gwynn on Pantheon of Heroes by Never A Frown

The Pantheon of Heroes will be on BBC Wales from Friday 13th January 2012.