London Week One

I hit the ground running in London, thanks to a bunch of theatre-loving friends who were keen to catch shows or take me to shows they loved. Here are some mini-reviews in chronological order…

Groundhog Day (Old Vic) ★★★★★

Book by Danny Rubin. Music & lyrics by Tim Minchin. The Old Vic. 20 May – 19 Aug 2023.

I saw this twice back in 2017 when it first opened so I knew I would love it. Andy Karl returns to the role he originated, and is the only person to play Phil Connors, the arrogant weatherman stuck in a time loop. The production has been slightly scaled back (I wouldn’t have noticed if it hadn’t been pointed out to me) but the magic remains. The scale of the theatrical trickery is still impressive in an unshowy way. The music is top notch with tunes I’ve been listening to on repeat for the last six years.

I heard Tim Minchin say on a podcast that Australian producers were chomping at the bit to bring the show to Australia, so hopefully we can all see it again, and again, and again, and again… for ourselves.

Brokeback Mountain (Soho Place) ★★★★

Written by Ashley Robinson based on Annie Proulx’s short story. Soho Place. Till 12 Aug, 2023.

To be honest, my main motivation to see Brokeback Mountain was to have a look at Soho Place, the first new-build West End theatre in 50 years. The area around the theatre was shut down for over a decade as London built its Crossrail/Elizabeth Line underground line. In doing so London lost some iconic venues (RIP the Astoria). Unlike most traditional proscenium arch theatres in the West End, Soho Place is set up in the round. It feels intimate despite seating slightly more than 600 people. It’s very shiny, very new… and a little bit soulless for now. 

The show itself is beautiful, but nothing really remarkable. A terrific cast, lead by Mike Faist (Dear Evan Hansen, West Side Story) and Lucas Hedges (Lady Bird, Boy Erased), deliver all the heart you expect from the story. My only complaint is that at a swift 90 min running time, it doesn’t really have the scope to show the impact of Ennis & Jack over the decades, but the love story remains intact and as strong as ever. The play is accompanied with music by Dan Gillespie Sells (The Feeling, Everyone’s Talking About Jamie). The tunes act as an emotional shorthand that help sell the feelings these two taciturn men feel without turning it into a musical. If you know and love the film or the short story of Brokeback Mountain, then the stage show will continue that. If you didn’t, I don’t think it’ll convince you otherwise.

A Little Life (Harold Pinter Theatre) ★★★1/2

Based on the novel by Hanya Yanagihara. Adapted by Koen Tachelet, Ivo Van Hove & Hanya Yanagihara. Harold Pinter Theatre (moving to the Savoy Theatre). 25 Mar – 5 Aug, 2023.

Disclaimer: I hate this book. I read the first third and threw it away. It was misery porn that grotesquely revels in the pain it inflicts on Jude. In many ways I went to see the English translation of the play (£25 ticket thanks to the lottery) to see what the fuss was about and so I could legitimately rant about it – it was a hate-watch. 

So colour my surprise when… I liked it!

I still don’t love it! This isn’t a Damascene moment. I think it’s pornographic love of pain and abuse is deeply unpalatable but these elements work differently on the stage than on the page. And I think my seat helped. Being front row on the side with a restricted view meant I was up close and intimate, but also shielded from some of the worse elements (eg my eyeline was stage height so I couldn’t see blood pooling on the stage and I could see the fake skin on James Norton’s arm that he would cut etc)

At 3hr 40min this is a slog of a show, but Ivo Van Hove’s direction is fiercely theatrical (as in, it’s designed for the stage, not any other medium). Some intriguing design choices, like a heavy box suspended over the stage, are somewhat bizarre in context, but the performances are impressively dynamic. Both James Norton and Luke Thompson really impressed me (Omari Douglas and Zack Wyatt are underserved). Elliot Cowan gives a towering performance as an amalgam of all of Jude’s abusers – loathsome roles, brilliantly portrayed. I’d say he deserves awards but I’d hate to elevate these characters. 

When Winston Went to War with the Wireless (Donmar) ★★★

Written by Jack Thorne. Donmar Warehouse. 2 Jun – 29 Jul, 2023.

Writer Jack Thorne is prolific. Across stage and screen his name is everywhere. From plays like Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Let the Right One In, TV shows like Skins, Shameless and His Dark Materials, and Netflix’s Enola Holmes films, he is kind of everywhere. His new play, When Winston Went to War with the Wireless, is a love letter to the BBC. 

Set during the 1926 General Strikes in the United Kingdom it tells of the media war between the only two news sources not on strike, a government run newspaper The British Gazette (edited by then Chancellor Winston Churchill) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (run by closeted gay man John Reith). 

I just wanted a bit more from this one. It had all the right things in the right places but I was unmoved by it all. Interestingly there is an element of live radio-play on stage, with live foley sound effects being produced from the back of the stage, which is a great idea never fully realised. The ever excellent Haydn Gwynne stole the show for me. Playing multiple smaller roles she’s just a stage gem. 

It’s a great set up for the characters and there is some interesting drama, but in the end I just wondered what point Thorne was trying to make. Admittedly, seeing it the same day as I saw A Little Life meant I was rather tired, so maybe it’s just me.

Patriots (Noël Coward Theatre) ★★★1/2

Written by Peter Morgan. Noël Coward Theatre. 26 May – 19 Aug, 2023.

Well I’ve never been in a theatre with so many Russians in the audience before! Peter Morgan (The Crown) has written a play about the ascendancy of Putin, seen through the eyes of a corrupt, but very entertaining, real-life oligarch Boris Berezovsky (played by Tom Hollander).

Starting in 1991, we see Berezovsky ruling as one of Russia’s uber-wealthy elite, doing deals, bribing and threatening his way to everything he wants. When he is approached by the young deputy mayor of St Petersburg named Vladimir Putin (Will Keen), he is only too happy to help to gain influence in the Kremlin. But Putin’s accumulation of power isn’t always in Berezovsky’s favour.

Tom Hollander is wonderful and this role feels like it was tailored to his style. Fast dialogue, zinging sarcasm and a lot of energy make Berezovsky a fun character to spend time with. Will Keen brings his determined self-belief (seen recently in His Dark Materials) to the stage, and Will Thallon (Albion, The Inheritance) shakes off his “soft-boy” image as Roman Abramovich. 

Of course, the audience knows what’s coming when his associate, Alexander Litvinenko goes out to have some tea (also well chronicled in Lucy Prebble’s A Very Expensive Poison) and Putin’s rise is inevitable. But what does this play say about the future, the Ukraine War? I’m not sure.