THE APPLE TREE. Landor, To 19 October
The Apple Tree
Book, music and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock
Additional book material by Jerome Coopersmith
Landor Theatre to 19 October
Tues - Sat 7.30 pm
2h 10 mins. One interval.
TICKETS 020 7737 7276
Review Danny Braverman 9 October
The Landor Theatre serves up a musical meal with this London premiere of an American musical. The hors d'oeuvres may be disappointing, but the main course and dessert are delicious.
A three-course meal of American musical is served up by the Landor Theatre's own company. This is a portmanteau piece, comprising three tenuously linked stories given the Broadway treatment.
The hors d'oeuvres is the most disappointing course. It takes almost an hour to consume this bland soufflé, an adaptation of Mark Twain's The Diary of Adam and Eve. In this production, with English accents replacing the original American ones, this is really just Terry and June with fig leaves and unmemorable songs. Disappointing.
Then we get the interval, anxious to see if the two courses on the second half menu will enliven the palate. They do. Suddenly we're in the terrain that America musical theatre does so well: authentic accents, lashings of irony, smotherings of pzazz.
The main course is the succulent The Lady or The Tiger, based on Frank R. Stockton's fable about jealousy and love. Director Robert McWhir pulls the huge talents of the ensemble together with immaculate staging. I also suspect that John Stacey, billed as responsible for 'musical staging', deserves more than a soupcon of credit for the deft choreography and sparkling pace and rhythm.
After a modest wait to let our main course go down (and to let the cast get changed), we're presented with a seemingly light dessert, but one which has a contemporary flavour as it wittily satirises the nature of celebrity. A twisted Cinderella tale, sweetness is tempered with tartness as chimney sweep Ella is transformed temporarily into movie star Passionella.
In the second half, the main ingredient of the whole show shines. The icing on the cake is the superb performance of Suzanne Toase, playing the female lead in all three stories. No stranger to the West End already, Ms Toase is a wonderful musical theatre performer. Her singing combines charm, guts, variety of tone and a great vocal range. If there's any justice, this is a performer to watch out for in the future.
Graham Dalton: Adam/Sanjar/Flip
Suzanne Toase: Eve/Barbara/Passionella
Ian Dring: Snake/King Arik/Narrator
Christopher Stewart: Balladeer/Ensemble
David Craik: Prisoner/Mr Fallible/Producer
Lucy Thatcher: Nadjira/Ensemble
Callum McIntosh: Ensemble
Danielle Marks: Ensemble
Jessica Williams: Ensemble
Sue Appleton: Flute
Michael Kantola: Guitar/Accordion
Michelle Long: Violin
Lorna-Marie Moore: Clarinet/Saxophone
Natalie Moss: Keyboards
Director: Robert McWhir
Musical Director: Paul Hayward
Musical Staging: John Stacey
Settings: Rachel Baynton
Costumes: Jo Sharp
Lighting: Sara Wood
Stage Management: Jim Woods
Casting Director: Shirley Teece
Produced by Linda Edwards and Robert McWhir
2002-10-10 16:04:53