The Sunday Times - UK (2022-04-10)

commitment are

remarkable.

Best actress

in a musical

Jessie Buckley

for Cabaret;

Sutton Foster

for Anything

Goes; Beverley

Knight for

The Drifters Girl

at Garrick

Theatre;

Stephanie

McKeon, above with

co-star Oliver Ormson, for

Frozen the Musical at

Theatre Royal Drury Lane

Prediction: Discovered in

a TV talent show, Jessie

Buckley is a genuine talent.

She made it to the top the

hard way and now has an

Oscar nomination under

her belt. Sutton Foster

was ace, but it is surely

Jessie’s year.

My choice: Cabaret was

feeling like an overpriced

indulgence until Buckley’s

Sally Bowles peeled aside

her introspection, opened

her lungs and belted out

Maybe This Time. A superb,

show-saving moment.

Best new musical

Back to the Future:

The Musical at Adelphi

Theatre; The Drifters Girl

at Garrick Theatre; Frozen

the Musical at Theatre

Royal Drury Lane; Get Up,

Stand Up! The Bob Marley

Musical at Lyric Theatre;

Moulin Rouge! The Musical

at Piccadilly Theatre

Prediction: The commercial

heft of Frozen is hard to

ignore, but after a tricky

year for musicals, the story

of Faye Treadwell, the

widow who took over the

Drifters pop brand, may

well grab the No 1 spot.

My choice: You may

groan at the thought of

another “jukebox” musical,

but The Drifters Girl was

a cut above the norm. Cool

staging, great singing and

a story about a woman

prospering in a male

milieu. c

The Oliviers are on

ITV tonight at

10.15pm

Grumpy old men

wreaking havoc

Both of this week’s offerings

are led by grumpy old men.

For once we had no sign of

gender-blind casting. Just two

crabbed, age-bent, binary

males being nasty. Outrageous.

In The Fever Syndrome

the misanthrope is Professor

Richard Myers, a New York

grandee of genetics and IVF.

Weakened by Parkinson’s

disease, Myers has been

nominated for a lifetime

achievement award. His adult

offspring arrive at his house

to join him for the ceremony.

It is soon apparent everyone

would have been happier had

they stayed at home and left

Myers (Robert Lindsay) to

collect his gong with his third

wife (Alexandra Gilbreath).

On the face of it this is a

Science Play. Those capital

letters may convey the

self-importance of such shows.

Science Plays, like TV adverts

for shampoo, have passages of

scientific research intended to

make the audience feel small.

The thing about drama,

however, is that it usually

boils down to more human

and everyday foibles such as

ambition, lust, fear, delusion.

Alexis Zegerman, a by-the-

numbers sort of playwright,

is less good at handling these.

She chucks too much into the

pot and it becomes unclear

what she wants to say.

Myers’s daughter (Lisa

Dillon) is a politically correct

control freak married to a

plodder (Bo Poraj). Myers

can’t bear them. Of his two

sons, one is a California

cryptocurrency trader and

the other is a gay artist.

Zegerman skilfully sets up

the family tensions, assisted

by a set that shows us the

bedrooms as in a doll’s house.

By the interval I was

impressed, but the second

half dribbles away to a

humdrum conclusion that

nothing, despite science’s

whizziest endeavours, is

guaranteed. We probably

knew that when we took our

seats. Lindsay, doing his

usual over-fussy turn, is not

convincing as someone in the

later stages of Parkinson’s.

From what I have seen of that

cruel disease, his Myers is too

shouty and vain. Then comes

the spectacle of Lindsay at his

curtain call, nodding as if to

say: “Yep, I’m good.”

Keith Allen plays Max in

a touring version of Harold

Pinter’s The Homecoming.

Max is paterfamilias of a

cavernous suburban

household in Sixties London.

He stomps about with a

walking stick, provoking

two adult sons (Geoffrey

Lumb and Mathew Horne)

and his brother Sam (Ian

Bartholomew). Widowed Max

claims to have worked in the

meat trade, but now wastes

his days sitting in an armchair,

bragging and bullying.

Allen does a workmanlike

turn. Horne, best known

from TV’s Gavin & Stacey, is a

revelation of surreal menace

as Max’s pimp son, Lenny.

Bartholomew is perfect as

chauffeur Sam. Just when we

are about to scream at the

claustrophobia of it all,

Max’s third son, Teddy (Sam

Alexander), arrives home

from America. He is an

academic there and has

brought his wife for everyone

to meet. The men think they

can dominate her. She knows

that the opposite is the case.

How dated some aspects of

Pinter now feel: the idiomatic

English, the understatement,

the pauses. The men light

panatellas. I hadn’t smelt

cigar smoke for ages.

Heavenly.

The Homecoming is cold and

cruel, but if Pinter is your bag,

this is a strong production. c

For theatre tickets, visit

thetimes.co.uk/tickets

THEATRE

QUENTIN

LETTS

The Fever Syndrome

Hampstead Theatre,

London NW3 HHH

The Homecoming

Touring

HHHH

Our theatre critic

Quentin Letts gives

his verdict on the

Olivier awards

Best new play

The nominees: Best of

Enemies at Young Vic; 2:22

A Ghost Story at Noël

Coward Theatre; Cruise at

Duchess Theatre;

Life of Pi at Wyndham’s

Prediction: Best of

Enemies was a critical hit

but 2:22 was a notable

commercial success,

pulling in a new generation

of thirtysomethings who

loved having their spines

tingled. That may edge it.

My choice: James Graham

reduces 20th-century

political events into

gripping, amusing theatre.

I enjoyed Best of Enemies,

his account of the 1960s

debates between Gore

Vidal and William Buckley.

Best actress

Lily Allen for 2:22 A Ghost

Story; Sheila Atim for

Constellations — Donmar

Warehouse at Vaudeville

Theatre; Emma Corrin for

Anna X at Harold Pinter

Theatre; Cush Jumbo for

Hamlet at Young Vic

Prediction: You would

struggle to find a more

natural fit for the right-on

awards circuit than

Cush Jumbo’s

androgynous prince.

Add water, stir, sit

back and claim

your Olivier.

My choice:

Lily Allen

annoys the heck

out of me as a showbiz/

social media personality

but as a spooked young

mum in 2:22 she radiated

stage presence and chimed

with a new audience.

Best actor

Hiran Abeysekera for Life

of Pi; Ben Daniels for The

Normal Heart at National

Theatre, Olivier;

Omari Douglas for

Constellations; Charles

Edwards for Best of

Enemies

Prediction: Life of Pi

has fine puppets and a

beguiling innocence,

but it is a deserved hit

because at its core is

Hiran Abeysekera’s

warm, vulnerable,

shipwrecked

orphan, frail,

insistent, superb.

My choice: I

admire Charles

Edwards but he

didn’t quite nail

the furtiveness of

Gore Vidal. So I’ll go for

Abeysekera, who manages

that rare thing of an adult

playing a child.

Best musical revival

Anything Goes at Barbican;

Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club,

Playhouse Theatre; Spring

Awakening at Almeida

Theatre

Prediction: Bad luck on

Spring Awakening but it is

likely to be Anything Goes or

Cabaret.

My choice: No hesitation

from me in hailing Anything

Goes, whose sparkle, glamour,

tap-dancing, classic script and

most of all sheer optimism was

a total post-lockdown tonic.

Best actor in a musical

Olly Dobson for Back to the

Future: The Musical at

Adelphi Theatre;

Arinzé Kene for Get Up,

Stand Up! The Bob Marley

Musical at Lyric Theatre;

Robert Lindsay for

Anything Goes; Eddie

Redmayne for Cabaret

Prediction: They’re

bound to go for

Eddie Redmayne,

left. I found his

performance

unconvincing

— too much

look-at-me-

being-exotic — but he has a

following and the show

brought oodles of cash into

London theatre.

My choice: Arinzé Kene,

right, is unforgettable in

Get Up, Stand Up! and

makes an otherwise

drab show special.

He may be too

muscular

for Bob

Marley, but the

voice and

MARC BRENNER, CRAIG SUGDEN, TRISTRAM KENTON

In two family reunions from hell

and tonight’s winners should be...

10 April 2022 15