London Spotlight: February 2011
Andrew Lloyd Webber brings in his adaptation of The Wizard of Oz at the London Palladium (February 7-September 17). The elusive title character is none other than original Opera phantom Michael Crawford, with Hannah Waddingham as the Wicked Witch of the West and the winner of the reality TV competition, Over the Rainbow, Danielle Hope, starring as Dorothy. To put minds at ease, it’s the E. Y, Harburg-Harold Arlen score with add-on tunes by Lord Lloyd-Webber and Tim Rice.
The Broadway hit Million Dollar Quartet makes its London debut at the Apollo (February 8-October 1). It takes place on the day when Sun Records owner and operator played host to Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. Eric Schaeffer directs and the music is choice rock. Then there’s the William Finn tuner, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the Donmar Warehouse (February 11-April 2). The title tells a good part of the tale, although this spelling bee is peopled by some particularly weird spellers — at least one of whom is picked from the audience. The libretto is by Rachel Sheinkin, and Jamie Lloyd directs.
More musical fun can be had at Adam Gwon’s Ordinary Days (Trafalgar Studios 2, February 8-March 5), telling the story of what happens to four New Yorkers after one young woman loses her graduate thesis. Julie Atherton is one of those singing about the predicament. The Stephen Sondheim-George Furth Company gets a dusting-off at the Southwark (February 2-March 13). And how about the promise of many more song-&-dance outings from Showstopper! at Ambassadors (February 8-March 29), which is sort of by Adam Meggido and Dylan Emery. The idea is that an original musical is created nightly, thanks to a cast of nine quick-witted cast members (Meggido and Emery, among them) running up ideas provided from the ticket buyers. And don’t quickly dismiss the Jonathan Miller treatment of The Mikado at the London Coliseum (February 26-March 11).
The spectacle of the month is Frankenstein at the National (February 5-April 17). In the Nick Dear adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic tale of nature futzed with, Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller switch nights as experimenting doc Frankenstein and his monster. Oscar-winner Danny Boyle directs.
Juliet Stevenson opens in The Heretic by Richard Bean at the Royal Court’s Jerwood Theatre Downstairs (February 4-March 19). It’s a comedy about climate science, a topic not too much of a laughing matter elsewhere. Jeremy Herrin directs. At the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs is Our Private Life (February 11-March 12), a play from Colombia by Pedro Miguel Rozo and translated by Simon Scardifield. It’s about family secrets and lies in the heat.
At the Soho is Winterlong (February 3-March 12) by Andrew Sinclair, about a guy trying to make something of himself after being beleaguered from birth. Water, created by Filter and David Farr and directed by Farr is at the politically-committed Tricycle (February 1-March 5). Here, the lives of two Canadian brothers, a young German woman and an Englishman in Mexico cross paths one way or another.
Then there’s Moment by Dierdre Kinahan at the Bush (February 25-March 26). An ex-con sits down with his family and truths behind a dark crime come to light. David Horan directs. Enda Walsh, who has deep and fascinating recesses in his brain, presents Penelope, which involves a group of suitors for Odysseus’ faithful wife. While these oddballs wait for an encouraging word from her, they lounge around an empty tile pool.
Something else to look into is The Biting Point, a first and apparently autobiographical work by Sharon Clark at Theatre503 in Battersea (February 15-March 12). The tough subject is the race riot of the ’80s. And don’t overlook the London premiere of Alan Ayckbourn’s Drowning on Dry Land at the Jermyn Street (February 24-March 19) about a man famous for being not so famous and his agent. A revival worth knowing about is Accolade by Emlyn Williams and controversial in its 1950 day. Not seen locally since then, this tale of an about-to-be-knighted writer with a homosexual past will be seen at the Finborough (February 1-26). Aden Gillett is in it.
Finally, Robert Lepage directs The Blue Dragon, which he wrote with Marie Michaud as a sequel to his Dragons’ Trilogy. It’s at the Barbican (February 17-26) and should benefit from the usual unusual Lepage flights of fancy.
