THE HOKEY COKEY MAN To 21 June.
London.
THE HOKEY COKEY MAN
by Alan Balfour.
New End Theatre 27 New End NW3 1JD To 21 June 2009.
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Mat Sat & Sun 3.30pm.
Runs 1hr 45min One interval.
TICKETS: 0870 033 2733.
www.newendtheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 13 June.
A play that could do with being shaken about a bit.
Danced and sung from dance-halls to private parties, ‘The Hokey-Cokey’ (or ‘Hokey-Pokey’, or even ‘Cokey-Cokey’) has been related to an American ice-cream vendor’s street cry, Catholic Liturgy, and Canadian references to a children’s game, drugs and being crazy.
Some of which is mentioned in this new play by the grandson of the man who devised the number in the early 1940s. Al Tabor’s story could make a good subject for an episode in a TV series on Forgotten Band Leaders.
Why TV? Because, the realistic sets and editing would give a greater sense of reality and continuity. On stage, apart from the need for disconnecting scene-changes on Lotte Collett’s divided-set (a neat image of Tabor’s divided existence), the short scenes do little to explore character.
Alan Balfour’s play could do with more of the sense of English society’s constriction as it hits the philandering Tabor, the wife to whom he always returns, Jenny, and Victoria, the singer-dancer who stands out as a love amongst his many affairs.
Al was a potentially fine violinist who wouldn’t stick to practice as a child. He could have a stormy temper, yet in business he let a commercial music dealer cheat him of his one-hit success by claiming the ‘Hokey-Cokey’ as his own.
Maybe Balfour remains too close to the characters (his younger self appears briefly in the play). Events are laid out, but even the great Hokey-Cokey moment, having been preluded at the beginning with the ice-cream vendor’s call, merely occurs around a piano. Neither the song’s spreading fame nor Tabor’s loss of the rights is explored for their impact on the characters.
An interesting enough life-story then, but missing dramatic enrichment as it unfolds. Still, there are some strong performances, particularly James Doherty, bringing as much as possible to Al in his various moods, and Anna Acton, distinguishing between the loving young woman turning into a loyally tight-lipped wife, and her more upfront, angry daughter, stepping out to a risky life where the play, sadly, doesn’t follow her. Unsurprisingly. Issy van Randwyck’s cabaret performer is something of a star-turn at the microphone.
Jenny/Eileen: Anna Acton.
Alan/Abraham/Journalist/Jimmy: Michael Gilroy.
Al Tabor: James Doherty.
Jack: Lee Ormsby.
Victoria: Issy Van Randwyck.
Director: Ninon Jerome.
Designer: Lotte Collett.
Assistant director: Jason Moore.
2009-06-14 23:47:17