THE BLACK AND WHITE BALL. To 4 May.
London.
THE BLACK AND WHITE BALL
music & lyrics by Cole Porter book by Warner Brown.
King’s Head Theatre 115 Upper Street N1 1QN To 4 May 2008.
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Mat Sat & Sun 3.30pm
Runs 1hr 50min One interval.
TICKETS: 020 7226 8561.
www.kingsheadtheatre.org
Review: Timothy Ramsden 20 April.
New show for old songs works well.
You could just release an album of lesser-known Cole Porter songs. But how much more creative to reset them in a new musical, as Warner Brown has done. These might not be the tunes people hum night and day, but each has some surprise turn in the melodic line that gives a distinctive quality, along with sophisticated lyrics that deceptively make lyric-writing seem a natural part of human behaviour.
Brown short-circuits problems of any mismatch between new book and older numbers by giving a framing perspective on events through brief scenes set in 1969, as a woman revisits the once-fashionable hotel where her stepfather was shot 20 years before.
His Ghost appears, in evening-dress formality contrasting her modern garb. A few moments tantalise, then it’s back to tell the whole story once we’re hooked. All good stock devices, followed by more ideas that might have come right out of the period. There’s Johnny Johnson, up from Montana, stumbling in New York upon elegant socialite publisher Suzanne, being re-christened Jay St John and publishing a novel which brings the instant success that came so easily in musicals. Inevitably, too, there’s angst to follow.
The plot’s only shortcoming is failing to establish how suspicion over his murder affected the lives of those around Johnny/Jay. But the eventual solution, the clue we see together with the adult Leah as events replay, is strong and ties in with the theme of the dead man’s artistic possessiveness and sexual self-questioning.
Matthew White’s production uses the limited King’s Head space fluidly, while designer Charlie Gridlan suggests former hotel magnificence simply, with Rick Fisher’s lighting at times creating a moonlit elegance. Performances are top-notch, Katherine Kingsley coolly confident, Chris Ellis-Stanton increasingly trying to maintain a confident front and Mark McGee bringing a glint of purpose and a suggestion of steel from his drag-act (in a ”men only” club, using forties parlance), which fleshes out into the production high-spot of Porter’s Can-Can.
Charles Shirvell and Liza Pulman fill-in many of the songs finely, Pulman’s gleaming-toothed, lipsticked affluence ironically showing high society sanitising the street-grit of ‘Love for Sale’.
Clark/Vincent/Slone/Waiter/Emcee/Bartender: Charles Shirvell.
Leah: Kaisa Hammarlund.
Johnny: Chris Ellis-Stanton.
Hettie/Dahlia: Liza Pulman.
Young Leah: Lillie Bone/Jafie Hobson.
Suzanne: Katherine Kingsley.
Ron: Mark McGee.
Director: Matthew White.
Designer: Charlie Gridlan.
Lighting: Rick Fisher.
Music Arranger/Supervisor: Larry Blank.
Music Director: Mark Bousie.
Choreographer: Kenn Oldfield.
2008-04-21 12:44:39