LOVING ART to 21 June 2008.
Loving Art
Book and Lyrics by Barry Fantoni. Music by Barry Fantoni and Barry Booth.
The Landor Theatre, 70, Landor Road, LONDON, SW9 9PH to 21st June 2008.
Tuesday to Saturday at 7.30pm.
Runs 2hrs One interval.
TICKETS: 020 7737 7276.
www.landortheatre.co.uk
Review: Geoff Ambler 5th June 2008.
Fine music and a finer cast, meet a flawed book in record label madness.
Loving Art is a quirky tale of family infighting, music, love, both unrequited and the good sort and copyright theft all set in a struggling 1960’s record label. This rarely deployed plot device isn’t enough; Loving Art even employs a barrister, collects evidence and witnesses but thankfully stops short of the musical Old Bailey trial.
Luke Hallifax plays Buck Wax as an extreme Apprentice style arrogant bastard who takes over the family business after father Max Wax (John Mawson) suffers a heart attack. Max had been dramatically clutching his left arm up to that point so an early almost demise was plainly on the cards. After a chance meeting Bucks fiancée Helen falls for muso Art and sets in motion Bucks ridiculous revenge and plan to recapture Helens love.
Why Helen Rigg falls for Art is undeniably due to fiancé Buck Wax’s complete absence of any redeeming feature whatsoever and the plot relies on the preconceived notion that beautiful women will choose the musician over the middle manager every time. Despite Trevor Jary’s best efforts, brooding Art struggled to be appealing to anyone other than Helen whom, it must be said, already had low standards being engaged to Buck. There may be a decent book here but Barry Fantoni hasn’t quite found it yet.
Despite the lack of a coherent reason for being there, the cast of Loving Art are the real delight. The Landor like most of the fringe theatres is a reliable source of fresh young brilliance and it continues the trend. A delightful Jennifer Potts as Art’s Sister uses her one solo to emphasise an unexpected and exceptional musical talent; Emma Odell is delightfully over the top and while her motivations may be spurious, she makes the most of “posh totty” Helen and brings a sparkle to the stage. Trevor Jary struggled to make Art the misunderstood genius musician but this was more due to Art being underwritten however Luke Hallifax’s fool Buck Wax was over the top evil and over the top entertaining, verging on certifiable madness, especially during the inexplicable denouement.
Loving Art has many fun moments, a fine young cast and great musicians (playing three stooges) and while it could have benefitted from several more weeks in workshop, it is still good fringe entertainment.
Charles Rigg QC: Julian Bird
Mo: Alex Browne
Dino Valentino: Ido Gonen
Buck Wax: Luke Hallifax
Art: Trevor Jary
Max Wax: John Mowson
Helen Rigg: Emma Odell
Sis/Miss Freud: Jennifer Potts
Mitch: David Randall
Kingdom J Power: Adam Rhys-Davies
Manny: Gary Trainor
Director: Robert McWhir
Musical Director: David Randall
Set Design: Mike Lees
Costume Design: Nina Morley
Lighting Design: Martin Terry
2008-06-11 08:39:00