TAKE FLIGHT to 22nd September.
London.
TAKE FLIGHT
book by John Weidman lyrics by Richard Maltby music by David Shire.
Menier Chocolate Factory, 51/53 Southwark Street SE1 1RU To 22 September 2007.
Tue-Sat 8pm Mat Sat & Sun 3.30pm.
Runs 2hrs 30 mins One interval.
TICKETS: 020 7907 7060.
www.menierchocolatefactory.com
Review: Geoff Ambler 26 July 2007.
Rousing music and an inspired cast help this new musical Take Flight.
As this new musical crosses the Atlantic, theatregoers could take a look south of the river at something different and at times unexpectedly funnTake Flight charts the achievements of Charles Lindberg, Amelia Earhart and the Wright Brothers, effectively mingling their disparate but connected histories, joined by one irrepressible desire - to take to the air.
The simplicity of David Farley’s set allows the audience to focus entirely on the actors, music and stories being told in Sam Buntrock’s production. In the confines of the Menier and with just a beach and step-ladder, the production seemed to lack nothing. Mike Jibson’s Lindberg sitting intently atop the ladder in a flight-jacket, with sweat-furrowed brow, all intense concentration makes a realistic plane unnecessary. Jibson seems to have more than his fair share of rousing Richard Maltby Jnr and David Shire numbers; his opening ‘Sky!’, with Ian Conningham, lifting the show off the ground.
Sam Kenyon and Elliot Levey as the Wright Brothers provide most of the show’s humour. They carry off the improbable, making blandness, physics, maths and avionics humorous and their reappearances between the dramas of Lindberg and Earhart is welcome. Clive Carter, magnificent as Otto Lilienthal, the Wright brothers’ inspiration, fills in the rest of the humour and not a little historical narration, particularly on the body-count incurred during the journey to take flight.
Sally Ann Triplett’s Amelia Earhart is encumbered with history, contributing to the book’s weaker elements and it takes all her extensive musical talents to engage the audience. But in the second act it all becomes worthwhile. Earhart's desire to live up to her media-manipulated reputation and relationship with George Putnam (Ian Bartholomew) is delved into and while the ending may involve a little musical license, it works and Triplett's irrepressible charms breaks through.
While Take Flight at times suffers a little book-related turbulence it is a piece of refreshingly new musical theatre with soaring songs and a thoroughly fine cast, portraying some characters who lived in a time when only pioneers flew the skies, adventures were still possible and not every hero had a happy ending.
George Putnam: Ian Bartholomew.
Otto LilienthalNoonan: Clive Carter.
Byrd and others: Christopher Colley.
Ray Page and others: Ian Conningham .
Hall and others: John Conroy.
Follies Amelia and others: Helen French.
Burke and others: Edward Gower.
Amy Phipps and others: Kaisa Hammarlund.
Charles Lindbergh: Michael Jibson.
Wilbur Wright: Sam Kenyon.
Orville Wright: Elliot Levey.
Mrs Lindbergh and others: Liza Pulman.
Amelia Earhart: Sally Ann Triplett.
Direction: Sam Buntrock.
Designer: David Farley.
Lighting: David Howe.
Sound: Sebastian Frost for Orbital.
Musical Director: Caroline Humphris.
2007-07-29 01:40:11