I Shall Hear In Heaven: Tama Matheson impressively incarnates Beethoven in an evening that puts music alongside the spoken word

Tama Matheson as Beethoven in his play, Beethoven: I Shall Hear In Heaven

Tama Matheson: Beethoven: I Shall Hear In Heaven; Tama Matheson, Jayson Gillham, Quartet Concrète, English Chamber Choir; Opera Holland Park
Reviewed 6 August 2025

Tama Matheson effective combines spoken drama with music to illuminate Beethoven's life in an evening both theatrical and musical

Biographies of artists are, in the main, tricky because if you are not careful you can lose sight of the essential, the act of creation. Writers at least leave something that can be included, but with other artists the written word struggles as can anything dramatised. Director, playwright and actor Tama Matheson has been extending the way we dramatise musicians' lives by writing plays that incorporate their music, not as simple background but as an integral part of the theatrical experience.

Beethoven's life was eventful enough, but a simple recitation or dramatisation of the facts would lose sight of the essential core of his life, the creation of music, everything else was largely irrelevant. Tama Matheson's Beethoven: I Shall Hear In Heaven debuted at the Wimbledon International Music Festival in 2021 and was nominated for the 2022 RPS Storytelling Award. In it, Matheson combines a dramatised biographical portrait of Beethoven with the man's music, performed live.

Matheson's Beethoven: I Shall Hear In Heaven played the first of two performances at Opera Holland Park on 6 August 2025. Matheson played Beethoven and was artistic director of the project and was joined by pianist Jayson Gillham along with actors Robert Maskell and Suzy Kohane, plus Quartet Concrète (Anna Brown, Leon Human, Dominic Stokes, Joseph Barker) and the English Chamber Choir.

A highly effective synthesis: James Joyce's The Dead in a dramatised reading from Niamh Cusack with music from The Fourth Choir that underscored the emotional drama

The Dead - Niamh Cusack, The Fourth Choir, Jamie Powe - Wilton's Music Hall (Photo: Kathleen Holman)

The Dead: James Joyce, Sarah MacDonald, Rhona Clarke, Robert Parsons, Bellini, Aine Mallon, Joanna Marsh, Samuel Barber, Healey Willan, Bo Holten; Niamh Cusack, The Fourth Choir, Jamie Powe, Seamus Rea; Wilton's Music Hall
Reviewed 14 January 2025

The slightly unlikely combination of Joyce's masterly long short-story and music from Robert Parsons to Healey Willan and Samuel Barber to Joanna Marsh and Bo Holten proved a surprisingly effective synthesis, creating an engaging theatrical experience, not quite dramatic reading and not quite musical treatment.

James Joyce's The Dead, the final short story in his 1914 collection Dubliners might seem a somewhat unlikely inspiration for musical treatment, but it has inspired more than one dramatic adaptation including a Broadway musical. Music does, in fact, play an important part in the story. The first half depicts a Dublin party which seems an amusing examination of Irish identity, but a folksong The Lass of Aughrim raises such powerful memories and emotions in the hero, Gabriel Conroy's wife, Gretta, that the second half of the story where Gabriel and Gretta Conroy retire to a hotel, goes in an entirely surprising direction. The story ends with Gabriel watching the snow and considering the role of the dead in people's lives - "His soul swooned slowly, as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe, and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead".

On Tuesday 14 January 2025, The Fourth Choir, musical director Jamie Powe, presented a dramatised reading of James Joyce's The Dead at Wilton's Music Hall, with actor Niamh Cusack. The work was adapted and directed by Séamus Rea, and developed in collaboration with Jamie Powe, with lighting by Guy Hoare.

The Dead - Niamh Cusack, The Fourth Choir, Jamie Powe - Wilton's Music Hall (Photo: Kathleen Holman)

The result was surprisingly engaging and thought-provoking, a dramatised reading of The Dead interspersed with music that sometimes referenced the story and sometimes simply heightened the atmosphere. 

Lush romanticism was a long way away: an immersive contemporary interpretation of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater from Figure

Our Mother - Rowan Pierce, Emma Kirkby, Alexandra Achillea Pouta - Figure at Stone Nest (Photo: Kristina Allen)

Our Mother: Pergolesi: Stabat Mater with interludes by Alex Mills; Emma Kirkby, Catherine Carby, Rowan Pierce, Alexandra Achillea Pouta, Nadya Pickup, Figure, Frederick Waxman, Sophie Daneman; Stone Nest
Reviewed 23 March 2024

An abstract, immersive staging, concentrating on dramatising the emotional arc of Pergolesi's work interleaved with impressive new interludes from young composer Alex Mills

Historical performance group, Figure, music director Frederick Waxman, has become known for its fascinatingly staged interpretation of classics and recent work has included Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream at Opera Holland Park and This is my Body, an immersive staging of Buxtehude's Membra Jesu Nostri [see my review]. For their latest project, Our Mother at Stone Nest (seen 23 March 2024), Figure performed Pergolesi's Stabat Mater with new interludes by composer Alex Mills. The soloists were Dame Emma Kirkby, Catherine Carby, Rowan Pierce, Alexandra Achillea Pouta and Nadya Pickup, with a five-piece instrumental ensemble directed from the organ by Frederick Waxman. The staging was directed by Sophie Daneman with lighting by Chris Burr.

The action took place on a cruciform stage at the centre of Stone Nest's auditorium with audience on three sides, mainly standing with some sitting and looking down from the gallery. Alex Mills' music wrapped around that of Pergolesi, beginning and ending the evening as well as forming interludes between the movement's of the Stabat Mater. Mills' writing was in no way pastiche, this was tonal yet modern and often dramatic, taking threads of Pergolesi and weaving them into radically different material.

Our Mother - Catherine Carby - Figure at Stone Nest (Photo: Kristina Allen)

Jerry Herman & Harvey Fierstein's La Cage aux Folles at Regents Park Open Air Theatre

Jerry Herman & Harvey Fierstein: La Cage aux Folles
Carl Mullaney - Regents Park Open Air Theatre (Photo Johan Persson)

Jerry Herman & Harvey Fierstein: La Cage aux Folles; Carl Mullaney, Billy Carter, Ben Culleton, director: Timothy Sheader; Regents Park Open Air Theatre

A production that brings out the personal element amidst the glamour with terrific solo performances and a strong chorus

Having followed up his hits Hello, Dolly! (1964) and Mame (1966) with a sequence of interesting but cult musicals (Dear World, Mack & Mabel, The Grand Tour), in writing his 1983 show, La Cage aux Folles, composer Jerry Herman was deliberately aiming at an optimistic song-and-dance entertainment.

Thus despite the involvement of gay-activist Harvey Fierstein, writing the book, and the political Arthur Laurents, as producer, the resulting musical has many traditional elements of a Broadway musical and despite weaknesses has gained far more currency than a sharper, more political show might have.

What La Cage aux Folles did was bring drag onto mainstream Broadway for the first time and present a musical which was, at its heart, about the love between two middle-aged men. Despite an overly sentimental story, the show does not shy away from this and the finale ends with the two men singing of their love for each other.

What is surprising is that despite the passage of 40 years, the basic plot is alarmingly prescient with the attempt of a right-wing politician to expunge drag from the scene. The musical (which is based on Jean Poiret's original play, not the film) keeps this element low key and perhaps fudges it too much. In the film, drag queen Albin's incarnation as Jean-Michel's mother is in alarming agreement with Edouard Dindon's right-wing views.

We caught up with Regents Park Open Air Theatre's production of La Cage aux Folles on Saturday 19 August 2023. The weather was kind and we had the unlikely experience of seeing an all-singing, all-dancing Broadway musical in the open air. The theatre's departing artistic director, Timothy Sheader was directing with Carl Mullaney as Albin and Billy Carter as Georges, plus Ben Culleton as Jean-Michel.

Jerry Herman & Harvey Fierstein: La Cage aux Folles - The Cagelles - Regents Park Open Air Theatre (Photo Johan Persson)

South Pacific: Stupendous performances from Julian Ovenden & Gina Beck head this striking new version of Rodgers & Hammerstein's classic

Rodgers & Hammerstein: South Pacific - Julian Ovenden, Gina Beck - Chichester Festival Theatre, 2021 (Photo Johann Persson)

Rodgers & Hammerstein: South Pacific; Julian Ovenden, Gina Beck, Joanna Ampil, Rob Houchen, director Daniel Evans; Chichester Festival Theatre production at Sadler's Wells
Reviewed 30 July 2022 (★★★★★)

A striking reinvention of Rodgers & Hammerstein's classic that reflects its big Broadway roots as well as the story's remarkable complexity

That Rodgers and Hammerstein could write belting songs can sometimes disguise the fact that they used their shows to examine complex issues. They effectively reworked the American musical into a genre that could tell serious stories, integrating music, drama, song and dance. That the structure of their pieces can be somewhat formulaic and that they reflect social attitudes of the time should not hide their remarkable achievement. We all remember South Pacific for its songs, some of the greatest in American musical theatre, but who on hearing a fine rendering of 'This nearly was mine' remembers that Emile is singing it because the woman he loves has just told him she can't marry him because she cannot accept that his previous wife was a local, Polynesian girl. And this song comes in a scene where Lieutenant Cable, recognising his own prejudices, has the musical's most remarkable song, 'You've got to be carefully taught'. A song that caused problems during the musical's early runs but which Rodgers and Hammerstein refused to cut.

Daniel Evans' production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific debuted last year (2021) at the Chichester Festival Theatre, it has now arrived at Sadler's Wells Theatre for a month's run with many of the original cast. Julian Ovenden was Emile, Gina Beck was Nellie, with Joanna Ampil as Bloody Mary, Robe Houchen as Lieutenant Cable, Douggie McMeekin as Luther Billis and Sera Maehara as Liat. Designs were by Peter Mckintosh, choreography by Ann Yee, the musical director was Cat Beveridge, orchestrations by David Cullen, sound design by Paul Groothuis, video by Gillian Tan and lighting by Howard Harrison. (Note, the photos were taken from the 2021 run at Chichester).

Rodgers & Hammerstein: South Pacific - Sera Maehara, Rob Houchen- Chichester Festival Theatre, 2021 (Photo Johann Persson)

Daniel Evans and Ann Yee have deliberately sought to refocus the work without changing its essentials. Key to this was their approach to the piece's two most problematic characters, Liat (Sera Maehara) and Bloody Mary (Joanna Ampil). Here, the production makes it clear that the Bloody Mary we see in the first scene trading with the American servicemen is a construct, designed to entertain the soldiers and sell more goods. Later Ampil strips off the make-up and reveals Bloody Mary to simply be a woman who will do anything to provide her daughter (Liat) with a better life. And that daughter is incarnated by dancer Sera Maehara so that throughout the piece, we 'hear' from Liat far more than in a traditional production via expressive dance. The love scene between Liat (Maehara) and Lieutenant Cable (Rob Houchen) becomes far more balanced.

Real intimacy: Lerner & Loewe's My Fair Lady in a concert staging at The Grange Festival

Lerner and Loewe My Fair Lady; Ellie Laugharne, Steven Pacey, Peter Polycarpou, dir: Guy Unsworth, cond: Alfronso Casado Trigo, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra; The Grange Festival
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 19 July 2021 Star rating: 4.5 (★★★★½)
A concert staging of Lerner and Loewe's 'perfect musical' which combined high musical values with engaging imagination in presentation

Lerner and Lowe's My Fair Lady is a strange musical, there are few proper dance numbers, the big song and dance pieces being quite limited, and for all the American creators desires to open Bernard Shaw's play up somewhat, the ghost of Pygmalion (written in 1912 and receiving its UK premiere in 1914 with Mrs Patrick Campbell and Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree) hangs over the entire enterprise. The result gives the piece a slightly more acerbic quality than many American musicals, to its great benefit. The sense that for all that it is a Broadway Musical, there is still something of the chamber piece with its series of intimate dialogues in drawing rooms, means that presenting My Fair Lady as a concert staging works rather better than many other 1950s American musicals, and has the big advantage that we do not have to suffer the amazing dancing Cockneys.

The Grange Festival presented Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady in a concert staging directed by Guy Unsworth with Alfonso Casado Trigo conducting the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra gloriously live on stage and playing the orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett and Philip J Lang (if any musical needs to have a full orchestra it is surely this one). Ellie Laugharne played Eliza with Steven Pacey as Henry Higgins, Peter Polycarpou as Doolittle, Susie Blake as Mrs Higgins / Mrs Pearce / Cockney Woman, Richard Suart as Colonel Pickering and Nadim Naaman as Freddy Eynsford-Hill.

The orchestra spread out at the rear of the stage, with cast and chorus sitting in front. Cast members were in concert dress but were off the book, and there was an acting area at the front over the pit. The book was slightly edited (no ball scene, some characters missing) but we got a very full version musically. The cast was a mixture of the operatic (Laugharne and Suart) and those from spoken and musical theatre. 

Ensemble collaboration: Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music from Opera North and the Leeds Playhouse

Sondheim: A Little Night Music - Opera North, Leeds Playhouse (Photo Sharron Wallace)

Sondheim A Little Night Music; Dame Josephine Barstow, Quirijn de Lang, Stephanie Corley, dir: James Brining, cond: Opera North; Opera North and Leeds Playhouse
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 3 July 2021 Star rating: 5.0 (★★★★★)
With a largely operatic cast yet staged at Leeds Playhouse this fine collaboration brings a different focus to Sondheim's intriguing evening of marital disharmony

Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music was planned by Opera North and the Leeds Playhouse for May 2020, a follow-up to their hugely successful production of Sondheim's Into the Woods in 2016. the production finally saw the light of day on 26 June 2021, in a suitably modified production.

We caught Sondheim's A Little Night Music at the Leeds Playhouse on 3 July 2021. The production was directed by James Brining (artistic director of Leeds Playhouse) and conducted by James Holmes (Opera North's former head of music) with the orchestra of Opera North using Jonathan Tunick's original orchestrations, and members of the chorus of Opera North cast in around a dozen roles. The cast included Dame Josephine Barstow as Madame Armfeldt, Stephanie Corley as Desiree Armfeldt, Lucy Sherman as Fredrika Armfeldt, Quirijn de Lang as Fredrik Egerman, Corinne Cowling as Anne Egerman, Laurence Kilsby as Henrik Egerman, Amy J Payne as Petra, Christopher Nairne as Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm, Helen Evora as Countess Charlotte Malcolm and Ivan Sharpe as Frid. The quintet was double cast and we saw Miranda Bevin, Amy Freston, Hazel Croft, James Davies and Stuart Laing. Designs were by Madeleine Boyd, lighting by Chris Davey, and choreography by Lucy Hind. Sebastian Frost was the sound designer and it is a tribute to his work that I hardly noticed it.

Sondheim: A Little Night Music - Josephine Barstow - Opera North, Leeds Playhouse (Photo Sharron Wallace)

The stage at the Leeds Playhouse is a surprisingly capacious place. It was fully opened up with James Holmes conducting the 25-strong orchestra at the rear. For the overture and the opening to Act Two, the orchestra was visible whilst for the remainder of the show they were hidden behind a black scrim.

The set was a simple open space populated with objects under dust-covers at first. The quintet, in mid-century work outfits, unpacked and set the scene and throughout were responsible for moving props and furniture around. The setting was mid-century with Desiree as a working woman which of course meant that Josephine Barstow's Madame Armfeldt wore a fabulous 1930s-style satin gown. The props included a dolls-house for Frederika to play with yet also hinting at the wider antics of the play. For Act Two, the fountain was placed centrally forming a significant part of the action.

Opera North has a long history of performing American musicals, though generally British opera companies do not explore this repertoire (the way many regional German companies do). Yes, Sondheim needs trained voices but we usually hear it with music-theatre trained ones. Bringing the members of the chorus of Opera North as the vocal quintet provided a fascinating change to the sound world. Vibrant and present, these five were part of the theatre itself, not observers but active participants with a suitably live-in quality to the performance.

Opera North's new production of Kurt Weill's Street Scene weaves the work's various stylistic strands into a compelling whole and showcases the superb talents of the chorus members

Kurt Weill: Street Scene - Opera North (Photo Clive Barda)

Kurt Weill Street Scene; Gillene Butterfield, Alex Banfield, Giselle Allen, Robert Hayward, dir: Matthew Eberhardt, cond: James Holmes; Opera North at the Grand Theatre, Leeds
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 25 January 2020 Star rating: 4.5 (★★★★½)
A brilliant ensemble revival of Weill's Broadway opera which does justice to the work's stylistic diversity

Kurt Weill: Street Scene - Giselle Allen - Opera North (Photo Clive Barda)

I first knew Kurt Weill's Street Scene by reputation and via recorded excerpts, the first UK professional staging was not until the 1980s (a charity one-off with Janis Kelly and Paul Harrhy as Rose and Sam). Since then there has been David Pountney's 1989 production at Scottish Opera and English National Opera, and John Fulljames for the Opera Group and more. But the work's fluid form, moving between opera and musical theatre, and its 30 named roles ensure that it remains something of an occasional piece.

Matthew Eberhardt's production of Kurt Weill's Street Scene at Opera North (seen 25 January 2020 at the Grand Theatre, Leeds), conducted by James Holmes, embraces the work's diversity and multiplicity. Central to the performance is the ensemble of the Opera North chorus, providing over 20 of the named roles including Rose Maurrant (Gillene Butterfield) and Sam Kaplan (Alex Banfield). This ensured a terrific sense of community in the denizens of the tenement block. Rose's parents, Anna and Frank Maurrant were Giselle Allen and Robert Hayward(last seen here as Tosca and Scarpia), with Christopher Turner as Lippo Fiorentino, John Savournin as Carl Olsen, Byron Jackson as Henry Davis and Quirijn de Lang as Harry Easter. And alongside the opera singers, musical theatre trained Michelle Andrews and Rodney Vubya as Mae Jones and Dick McGann.

Opera North has form both with Kurt Weill and musical theatre, having performed other rare Weill including Love Life and One Touch of Venus, as well as the series of Sondheim musicals done in conjunction with the West Yorkshire Playhouse. So the blending of operatic and musical theatre traditions was beautifully done.

The designs were by Francis O'Connor, the set eschewed the traditional brownstone facade for a more flexible structure, a skeletal staircase and balconies which formed the building's central space, but could double as the outside. Costumes were firmly 1940 (Christopher Turner as Lippo Fiorentino was even a GI), the era when the opera debuted. Elmer Rice's original play (with a whopping 50 named roles) appeared in 1929.

Kurt Weill: Street Scene - Claire Pascoe, Byron Jackson, Amy J Payne, Richard Mosley-Evans, Miranda Bevin, John Savournin, Christopher Turner, Robert Hayward - Opera North (Photo Clive Barda)

For the serious vein of the piece, the tragedy of the Maurrants (where Anna, restless and dissatisfied, is cheating on her husband Frank who ultimately kills her), Kurt Weill is firmly in operatic territory. But around them the music varies, as characters are introduced Weill replaces the operatic character arias by more Broadway inclined elements. It works, but requires careful musical and dramatic pacing. It can be too tempting to linger over the Ice Cream Sextet or the jitterbug 'Moon Faced and Starry Eyed' to make the Big Production Numbers, but that can lead to a first half (it lasts 90 minutes) which drags and sags.

Here James Holmes and Matthew Eberhardt calculated things brilliantly, we never felt short-changed but each number slotted into the whole so that Act One fair bowled along as it should. It helped that Howard Hudson's lighting meant that the stage could be moved between moods in a simple yet imaginative manner.

Magic realism, politics and terrific songs: Weill and Kaiser's Winter's Fairy Tale in an imaginative production from English Touring Opera

Weill: The Silver Lake -  Ronald Samm, David Webb - English Touring Opera (photo Richard Hubert Smith)

Kurt Weill & Georg Kaiser Der Silbersee (The Silver Lake) ; David Webb, Ronald Samm, Clarissa Meek, Luci Briginshaw, James Kryshak, Bernadetta Iglich, dir: James Conway, cond: James Holmes; English Touring Opera at the Hackney Empire
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 7 October 2019 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
Daringly re-thought version of Weill and Kaiser's play with music which makes this a real Winter's Fairy Tale for our modern times

Weill: The Silver Lake -  Ronald Samm
English Touring Opera (photo Richard Hubert Smith)

Whilst Kurt Weill's collaboration with Bertolt Brecht gets star billing, that with the German playwright Georg Kaiser tends to be less well known. Yet, Weill and Kaiser would create three major works together, the operas Der Protagonist (1926) and Der Zar lässt sich photographieren (1928) and Der Silbersee: ein Wintermärchen (The Silver Lake: a Winter's Fairy Tale) (1933). This latter is a play with music and would be Weill's last major piece written in Germany. It premiered on 18 February 1933 simultaneously in Leipzig, Erfurt and Magdeburg, just three weeks after the Nazi Party's Machtergreifung on 30 January 1933. Kurt Weill, fled Nazi Germany in March 1933, and fragments of the music from Der Silbersee would find their way into his second symphony, written for the Princesse Edmond de Polignac (Wineretta Singer) in Paris.

Despite having some superb music, and terrific songs, Der Silbersee is rarely performed because the full version lasts around three hours with equal quantities of music and spoken drama, it requires singers who can act, and actors who can sing.

English Touring Opera (ETO) braved the conundrum, and staged Kurt Weill and Georg Kaiser's Der Silbersee: ein Wintermärchen (The Silver Lake: a Winter's Fairy Tale) at the Hackney Empire (seen Monday 7 October 2019) as part of their Autumn tour. A modern German singspiel to complement Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail [see my review]. James Conway directed, with designs by Adam Wiltshire, lighting by David W Kidd and choreography by Bernadette Iglich. James Holmes conducted. David Webb was Severin, Ronald Samm was Olim, Clarissa Meek was Frau von Luber, Luci Briginshaw was Fennimore, James Kryshak was the Lottery Agent and Baron von Laur, and Bernadette iglich was the narrator. ETO's ensemble of nine singers (representing shopgirls, gravediggers and youths) was joined by a choir from the London hub of Streetwise Opera. At further performances in other towns and cities, ETO will be collaborating with other local choirs, including the Nottingham and Newcastle hubs of Streetwise Opera.

Weill: The Silver Lake -  David Horton, Jan Capinski, David Webb, Maciek O'Shea, Andrew Tipple
English Touring Opera (photo Richard Hubert Smith)

Der Silbersee is a magical work, and by its sheer rarity every performance is an occasion, even though each company needs to make some sort of adaptation to cope with its distinctive performing requirements. Broomhill Opera performed it in 1999 at Wilton's Music Hall, in a translation by Rory Bremner, the first musical theatre event there in the modern era. But my abiding memory is of the performances given at the old Camden Festival in 1987, with a company of actors and singers in a production by, I think, David Pountney with Nigel Robson as Severin. This was perhaps the closest I am every likely to come to seeing the work as its creators intended.

For ETO, James Conway had come up with a relatively compact version of the work, suitable for touring.

Barrie Kosky’s imaginative production of Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story returns the musical to its harshness and explosive power

Bernstein: West Side Story - Komische Oper, Berlin (Photo: Iko Freese drama-berlin.de)

Bernstein West Side Story; Alma Sadé, Johannes Dunz, Sigalit Feig, dir: Barry Kosky, cond: Koen Schoots; Komische Oper, Berlin  
Reviewed by Tony Cooper on 5 April 2019 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
With a riveting and upbeat score by Leonard Bernstein coupled with Stephen Sondheim’s pretty, witty and bright lyrics, it underpins the world success of West Side Story

Amazingly, in the repertoire of Komische Oper since November 2013, this well-deserved revival of Barrie Kosky’s production of West Side Story - based on an original idea by legendary Broadway choreographer Jerome Robbins - returned this iconic and well-loved musical to its harshness and explosive power in a fast-paced production that hit the mark in every conceivable way.

The Komische Oper, Berlin's latest revival of Barrie Kosky's production of Bernstein's West Side Story (seen 5 April 2019) featured Alma Sadé as Maria, Johannes Dunz as Tony, and Sigalit Feig as Anita, conducted by Koen Schoots.

Highly acclaimed for his innovative ballets structured within the traditional framework of classical-dance movements, Robbins not only created West Side Story - a major achievement in the history of American musical theatre highlighted by its excitable and volatile dance sequences not least, too, by its innovative setting - but also dance sequences for other signature musicals such as Call Me Madam (1950), The King and I (1951) and The Pyjama Game (1954).

In the same year as Pyjama Game, Robbins also adapted, choreographed and directed a musical version of Peter Pan but I think it’s fair to say that his Broadway career is underpinned by West Side Story whose scenario (based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet) surrounds the tragic story of the star-crossed lovers torn apart by racial fanaticism played out through the rivalry and bitterness of New York gangs fighting for supremacy on the streets of Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

Offering a riveting and upbeat score by Bernstein coupled with Stephen Sondheim’s pretty, witty and bright lyrics, West Side Story (from a book by Arthur Laurents: German translation by Frank Thannhäuser and Nico Rabenald) was a pathfinder in so many ways not least by its extended dance sequences that progressed and styled its own narrative.

Broadway had never seen anything quite like it when it opened at the Winter Garden Theatre, New York, in 1957. Neither had the West End when it arrived at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Haymarket, in 1958, carrying its Broadway magic with it. The show was the talk of the town and I had the great pleasure of seeing it. A highly-impressive production, it was staged on a grand scale with a huge budget but Barrie Kosky’s production for Komische Oper (assisted by Esther Bialas who, incidentally, designed the costumes for ENO’s new production of The Merry Widow) was equally impressive and economical, too, in its staging.

Barrie Kosky’s stylish production of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide at Komische Opera was carefully crafted and performed by a superb cast

Bernstein: Candide - Anne Sofie von Otter - Komische Oper, Berlin (Photo Monika Ritttershaus)

Bernstein Candide; Paul Curievici, Meechot Marrero, Anne Sofie von Otter, dir: Barry Kosky, cond: Jordan de Souza; Komische Oper, Berlin Reviewed by Tony Cooper on 3 April 2019 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
A work that seems to defy categorisation, Bernstein’s Candide needs to be more widely known and, hopefully, this production will help towards that goal

Komische Oper’s artistic director, Barrie Kosky, scored with a brilliant and entertaining production of Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story and followed it up by a brand-new production of Bernstein’s lesser-known (but intriguing) operetta, Candide (seen 3 April 2019). A fast-paced piece, it centres round the question: ‘Why do bad things happen to good people?’ I have often pondered that myself! Paul Curievici was Candide, with Meechot Marrero as Cunégonde, Franz Hawlata as Voltaire/Dr Pangloss and Anne Sofie von Otter at the Old Lady. Jordan de Souza conducted. The work was performed in an edition based on John Caird's Scottish Opera version.

French philosopher, Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet) created the character of Candide whom, like himself, was an illegitimate child born to a nobleman but unlike him was easily led. After Candide is found out about his illicit love-affair with Cunégonde, the less-than-noble-born Candide unceremoniously quits the place of his birth and embarks on a journey round the world inspired by Dr Pangloss’ thinking that travelling is good for the soul. Therefore, clinging to Pangloss’ philosophy and the optimism surrounding it, Candide’s worldly odyssey takes him all over the show from Bulgaria to Lisbon and from Paraguay to Venice. Along the way he encounters a string of hair-raising moments and natural disasters ranging from war to earthquakes and slavery to prostitution. But driven by an invincible optimism, nothing brings him to stray from his belief in the good and love for Cunégonde. Finally, after countless global adventures, he’s reunited with her.

First appearing on the Broadway stage in 1953, Candide raised a few prurient eye-brows as to its content. The production featured Max Adrian (Voltaire/Dr Pangloss), Robert Rounseville (Candide) and Barbara Cook (Cunégonde). A box-office disaster, the show folded after 73 performances with the libretto being considered too serious by the critic of the New York Times. How times have changed!

The first London production was seen at the Saville Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, in 1959, following out-of-town previews at the New Theatre Oxford and Manchester Opera House. The cast included Laurence Naismith (Voltaire/Dr Pangloss), Denis Quilley (Candide) and Mary Costa (Cunégonde).

The National Theatre mounted a further London production in 1999 with Simon Russell Beale (Voltaire/Dr Pangloss), Daniel Evans (Candide) and Alex Kelly (Cunégonde) while the Southwark-based Menier Chocolate Factory mounted an excellent production in 2013 (which I had the pleasure of seeing) featuring James Dreyfus (Voltaire/Dr Pangloss), Fra Fee (Candide) and Scarlett Strallen (Cunégonde).

Komische Oper’s production - featuring Franz Hawlata (Voltaire/Dr Pangloss), Paul Curievici (Candide) and Meechot Marrero (Cunégonde) - proved a wondrous affair and one to chalk up. Ms Marrero, for instance, was absolutely brilliant in her role and delivered the show’s most famous and telling number ‘Glitter and Be Gay’ with confirmed passion coupled with a touch of Broadway glitz while Mr Curievici’s portrayal of the pivotal role of Candide was exemplary. A tour-de-force of a role, he’s on stage for the best part of the show and delivered a thoroughly credible and entertaining performance.

Andreas Homoki directed a stylish production of Frederick Loewe’s My Fair Lady, a musical bridging Low Life and High Life, often referred to as ‘The Perfect Musical’

Lerner & Loewe: My Fair Lady - Komische Oper, Berlin (Photo Iko Freese)

Lerner & Loewe My Fair Lady; Max Hopp, Katharine Mehrling, dir: Andreas Homoki, cond: Peter Christian Feigel; Komische Oper, Berlin Reviewed by Tony Cooper on 2 April 2019 Star rating: 5.0 (★★★★★)
Defying the generation gap, My Fair Lady proved a winner all the way to the finishing line

Lerner & Loewe: My Fair Lady Komische Oper, Berlin
(Photo Iko Freese)

Max Hopp - coming fresh from the starring role of Tevje the milkman in Fiddler on the Roof - put in a commanding and athletic performance as the eccentric professor of phonetics, Henry Higgins, in this welcome revival of Komische Oper’s 2015 production of Frederick Loewe’s My Fair Lady (dubbed ‘The Perfect Musical’) based on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, directed by Andreas Homoki, conducted by Peter Christian Feigel, with Katharine Mehrling as Eliza and Jens Larsen as Alfred Doolittle.The German translation for this production was undertaken by Robert Gilbert.

Dressed as a dapper English gentleman sporting a pair of dark horn-rimmed spectacles, Mr Hopp over-exaggerated and awkwardly played the pivotal role of Professor Henry Higgins (of 27a Wimpole Street, Marylebone, central London) to a high comedic level that was light years away from that of Rex Harrison especially in relation to the elocution lessons given to the brassy flower-girl, Eliza Doolittle, vividly (and gushingly) portrayed by Katharine Mehrling, who, incidentally, won the ‘Golden Curtain’ Berlin audience award for her performance.

It’s a gift of a part, though, and Ms Mehrling absolutely revelled in it delving deep into the low-life of Eliza Doolittle’s colourful character to the delight and amusement of a packed house. Right from her opening number with the Covent Garden barrow boys to the eloquence and sophistication of High Society rubbing shoulders with top-hatted toffs at Royal Ascot - a long way off from her humble beginnings - Ms Mehrling excelled in her role and gave old Higgins a good run for his money in more ways than one.

Ascot is always a memorable scene and, of course, one of the biggest (and most explosive) in the show especially when Eliza comes unstuck delivering a mouthful of some unchosen words cheering on her horse while her mount and the rest of the field were heard to good effect racing through the auditorium by a tremendously-effective pre-recorded sound sequence.

Diverse tapestry: Clare Norburn's 'Burying the Dead' at Baroque at the Edge

Clare Norburn: Burying the Dead - Ceruleo (Photo Robert Piwko)

Henry Purcell, Clare Norburn Burying the Dead; Niall Ashdown, Ceruleo, dir: Thomas Guthrie; Baroque at the Edge Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 5 October 2018 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
Clare Norburn's latest concert drama takes us into the dying Henry Purcell's bedroom, populated by characters from his life and from his dramas

Clare Norburn: Burying the Dead - Ceruleo (Photo Robert Piwko)

Clare Norburn is becoming known for her concert dramas, music theatre pieces dealing usually with a classical composer which combine plays with music with drama in a way which illuminates the subject. I first saw one of them in 2013 when Breaking the Rules was presented at BREMF, with Finbar Lynch as the dying Gesualdo and the Marian Consort singing the composer's music, madrigals and sacred pieces, in a way which illuminated the composer's thoughts, and Norburn's subsequent concert dramas have treated subjects as diverse as Galileo (whose father was a composer), Hildegard of Bingen, and Beethoven.

Clare Norburn's Burying the Dead debuted last year and having been performed at a number of venues and festivals in the UK, came to London on Saturday 5 January 2019 as part of the Baroque at the Edge festival at LSO St Luke's. The work is written for the early music ensemble Ceruleo, Emily Owen and Jenni Harper (sopranos), Satoko Doi-Luck (harpsichord), Kate Conway (cello), Toby Carr (theorbo) with actor Niall Ashdown, directed by Thomas Guthrie. The piece takes us into the composer Henry Purcell's bedroom as lays dying of a fever in 1695, and his imagination peoples the room with both real beings and characters from pieces he has written.

We have very little concrete biographical information about Purcell, so Norburn has had a relatively free reign in terms of the details. She brings in the known facts and weaves about them a convincing narrative which encompasses Henry remembering key moments from his life such as the Great Plague of 1665 when Henry would have been six, and the Fire of London in 1666, when he was seven, as well as the death of Queen Mary. But also the deaths in childhood of many of the Purcell's children.

Striking a chord: Alison Bechdel's Fun Home as a musical at the Young Vic

Tesori, Kron & Bechdel: Fun Home - Kaisa Hammarlund - Young VIc (Photo Marc Brenner)

Jeanine Tesori, Lisa Kron, Alison Bechdel Fun Home; Kaisa Hammarlund, Eleanor Kane, Jenna Russell, Zubin Varla, dir: Sam Gold; Young Vic Theatre Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 6 July 2018 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
The musical based on Alison Bechdel's graphic novel exploring her complex relationship with her father

Eleanor Kane, Cherelle Keete - Young VIc (Photo Marc Brenner)

I was a great devotee of Alison Bechdel's comic strip Dykes to watch out for, and so eagerly read her graphic novel Fun Home, which  she describes as a family tragiccomic. I was intrigued, to say the least, by the idea of turning Fun Home into a musical. Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron's musical Fun Home debuted in 2013 in a production by Sam Gold. And Gold's production has now come to the UK, at the Young Vic where we caught in on Friday 6 July 2018. Kaisa Hammarlund played Alison, with Eleanor Kane as Medium Alison, Harriet Turnbull (alternating with Brooke Haynes) as Small Alison, Jenna Russell as Helen, Cherrelle Skeete as Joan, Zubin Varla as Bruce, plus Ashley Samuels, Archie Smith and Eddie Martin. Design was by David Zinn with choreography by Danny Mefford and lighting by Ben Stanton. The instrumental ensemble was conducted by Nigel Lilley, and the orchestrations were by John Clancy.

Alison Bechdel's graphic novel explores her complex relationship with her father, with the Alison of the present looking back on the past with a distinct authorial voice. It is a story in which there were no easy answers, as Alison came to terms with her own sexuality and came out to her parents she learned that her father has had affairs with men throughout his marriage. Not long after Alison's coming out to her parents her father died, apparently committing suicide and the book is an exploration of Alison's relationship with her father in an attempt to make sense of all this.

Rip-roaring fun: Elena Langer's Rhondda Rips It Up!

Elena Langer: Rhondda Rips It Up! - WNO Ladies Chorus - Welsh National Opera (Photo © Jane Hobson)

Elena Langer Rhondda Rips It Up!; Madeleine Shaw, Lesley Garrett, Welsh National Opera, dir: Caroline Clegg, cond: Nicola Rose; WNO at the Hackney Empire Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 5 June 2018 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
A vaudeville style celebration of the life and achievments of the Welsh suffragette entertains and uplifts

Madeleine Shaw - Welsh National Opera
(Photo © Jane Hobson)

Elena Langer's follow-up to her 2016 opera for Welsh National Opera, Figaro gets a divorce couldn't be more different. Langer's Rhondda Rips It Up! is most definitely not an opera, it is an entertaining mix of cabaret, vaudeville and music hall, all celebrating the life of the Welsh suffragette, Margaret Mackworth, 2nd Viscountess Rhondda. Using an all female ensemble (singers, musicians, production team) with music by Elena Langer [read my interview with Elena] and words by Emma Jenkins, Welsh National Opera debuted the work on 7 June 2018 in Newport and is taking it on tour. We caught the performance on 22 June 2018 at the Hackney Empire.

Madeleine Shaw played Lady Rhondda with Lesley Garrett as Emcee and an ensemble of women from the WNO Chorus who played all the other roles (male and female). Nicola Rose conducted the instrumental ensemble, the director was Caroline Clegg and designer was Lara Booth.

Whilst the work is described as a cabaret opera, the references are as much to music hall and vaudeville. Emma Jenkins libretto uses individual numbers linked by dialogue whilst Elena Langer's score combines very definite point numbers, pastiche and musical references with an acute ear for timbre and colour which links everything together. Langer's instrumental ensemble consisted of ten players, piano, violin, cello, double bass/bass guitar, accordion, clarinet/saxophone, trumpet/cornet, trombone, tuba, and drumkit/percussion. With these she achieved a remarkable variety of colours, and influences ranged from the brass bands of South Wales to salon dance music, yet the whole was shot through with Langer's voice and the instrumental underscoring of the dialogue ensured a continuity. Langer's scoring was often spare, her use of strong instrumental colours acute.

Brilliant ensemble: Cole Porter's Kiss me Kate from Opera North

Cole Porter: Kiss me Kate - Opera North (Photo: Tristram Kenton)

Cole Porter: Kiss me Kate; Quirijn de Lang, Stephanie Corley, Zoë Rainey, Alan Burkitt, John Savournin, Joseph Shovelton; dir: Jo Davies/Edward Goggin, cond: James Holmes; Opera North at the London Coliseum Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 20 June 2018 Star rating: 4.5 (★★★★½)
A strong ensemble performance in this uplifting revival of Jo Davies' 2015 production

Quirijn de Lang, Stephanie Corley - Opera North (Photo: Tristram Kenton)

Not every musical is suitable for an opera company to produce, but Cole Porter's 1948 musical Kiss me Kate (with book by Bella and Samuel Spewack)  seems tailor made. The re-working of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew combines the play with back-stage fighting by the cast, with the result that Porter's score alternates between standard musical numbers and something approaching operetta, in fact the original two principals were drawn from the operatic world. The original orchestrations were done by that great Broadway musician Robert Russell Bennett (in collaboration with Don Walker), and one of the advantages of an opera company revival is the chance to hear the original orchestrations in their full orchestral splendour.

Opera North has revived Jo Davies' 2015 production of Cole Porter's Kiss me Kate and is touring it. Having opened in Leeds and travelled to Ravenna, Italy, the show opened at the London Coliseum on 20 June 2018 (and is there until 30 June 2018). The production was revived by Edward Goggin and conducted by James Holmes with a cast which spanned both opera and musical theatre, including Quirijn de Lang as Fred/Petruchio, Stephanie Corley as Lilli/Kate, Zoë Rainey as Lois/Bianca and Alan Burkitt as Bill/Lucentio, plus Joseph Shovelton and John Savournin as the Shakespeare-loving gangsters. The cast was completed by the inestimable Opera North Chorus (which provided three of the smaller roles), plus a group of dancers, whilst James Holmes conducted the Opera North orchestra in the pit.

Zoe Rainey, Alan Burkitt - Opera North (Photo: Tristram Kenton)

Davies' inventive production, based around mobile flats (designs by Colin Richmond), moved easily and fluidly from the backstage scenes to on-stage presentation of the play. The whole production was very crisp and tight, with superb participation from the Opera North chorus which moved alongside the dancers in an admirable manner with none of the separation between singing chorus and dancers which can happen.

I have to confess that I have always found the cod Shakespeare bits of the musical have their longeurs, but Davies and Goggins brought a lively imagination to the bad Shakespeare staging and of course, Bella and Samuel Spewack's book makes the backstage fighting between Fred and Lilli spill over into the scenes between Petruchio and Kate, giving a superb sense of uncertainty as to whether we were experiencing Kate in the play or Lilli in real life, something which gave the climactic scene at the end of Act One real zest in this performance.

Coloured lights: Kander & Ebb's The Rink makes a triumphant return

Gemma Sutton and Caroline O’Connor in The Rink, Southwark Playhouse. Photo: Darren Bell

Kander & Ebb The Rink; Caroline O'Connor, Gemma Sutton, dir; Adam Lenson, cond: Jo Bunker; Southwark Playhouse
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 8 June 2018 Star rating: 4.5 (★★★★½)
Kander & Ebb's 1984 musical makes a triumphant return as a powerful two-hander

Kander & Ebb's 1984 musical The Rink made it's not very successful West End debut in 1988 (at the Cambridge Theatre), but then again the musical's original Broadway run in 1984 had not been much of a success either, despite the presence of Chita Rivera and Liza Minelli in the cast. The strange thing is that the piece seems to have created more of an effect when playing in smaller theatres. The new production of The Rink at the Southwark Playhouse (the musical's first London appearance since 1988), directed by Adam Lenson with musical director Joe Bunker, completely re-focussed the show. Lenson and his designers Bec Chippendale and Libby Todd concentrated on the relationship between the two women, mother Anna (Caroline O'Connor) and daughter Angel (Gemma Sutton), creating effectively a strong two-hander. Not that the large-scale numbers were neglected, we did have dance (and roller-skate) numbers from the ensemble of six, Stewart Clarke, Ross Dawes, Michael Lin, Elander Moore, Ben Redfern and Jason Winter.

Jason Winter, Michael Lin and Ross Dawes, The Rink, Southwark Playhouse. Photo: Darren Bell

I did see the original 1988 production and my main memory of it is the way the piece got rather lost in the huge set of the dilapidated roller-skating rink.