OLIVIER AWARDS: ‘Clybourne Park’, ‘Legally Blonde’ winners

Posted on March 13, 2011 by admin

oliviers 2011 alam carroll

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – “Clybourne Park”, a comedy by Bruce Norris that deals with racism in Chicago over 50 years, was named best new play and “Legally Blonde – The Musical,” based on the movie, won as best new musical Sunday at the 35th annual Laurence Olivier Awards.

Roger Alam won as best actor for his performance as Falstaff in “Henry IV Parts 1 and 2” at Shakespeare’s Globe while Nancy Carroll (pictured above with Alam) was named best actress and Adrian Scarborough won as best actor in a supporting role for the National Theatre’s production of Terence Rattigan’s “After the Dance”, which was named best revival.

Sheridan Smith (pictured below) won as best actress in a musical for “Legally Blonde” and that show’s Jill Halfpenny won the award for best supporting performance in a musical.

Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim received a Special Laurence Olivier Award for outstanding contribution to theatre to celebrate his 80th birthday. His work continued to garner awards as his 1986 show “Into the Woods” at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre won as best musical revival and David Thaxton was named best actor in a musical for “Passion” (1994) at the Donmar Warehouse.

Angela Lansbury, who starred on Broadway in Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music” in 1980 and “Sweeney Todd” last year, joined British theatre mogul Cameron Mackintosh (pictured with Sondheim and Lansbury) to present the award to Sondheim to a prolonged standing ovation.

oliviers 2011 lansbury sondheim mackintosh

Clearly moved, the still spry American said, “I want to talk about the contribution British theatre has made to me,” and he listed a string of productions starting with “A Funny Thing Happened On the Way To the Forum” through “Into the Woods”, “Assassins” and “Sweeney Todd”. “I am so grateful,” he said.

Sondheim and Mackintosh sat on stage as Lansbury sang the nostalgic number “Liaisons” from “A Little Night Music”, and the evening ended with a massed choir of theatre students who sang “Our Time” from “Merrily We Roll Along”.

Sondheim told reporters afterwards that he treasured what he called “the fresh eye” of British directors: “Having your work re-imagined is what makes theatre immortal.”

sheridan smith Oliviers x325Nancy Carroll accepted her award in an advanced stage of pregnancy with a due date in 12 days.  She said, “We celebrated my daughter’s third birthday this afternoon. If I don’t go into labour in the next 24 hours, I’ll be amazed.”

Roger Alam’s best actor prize came against stiff competition from Derek Jacobi in the title role of “King Lear” at the Donmar, Rory Kinnear as “Hamlet” at the National, Mark Rylance for “La Bête” at the Comedy Theatre and David Suchet for a revival at the Apollo Theatre of Arthur Miller’s “All My Sons”.

Alam said that he had performed in a production of Shakespeare only once in the last 20 years: “Patrick Stewart told me that Falstaff is the middle-aged actor’s ‘Hamlet’, so if you’re going to play the Globe, it’s the perfect role.”

As Sheridan Smith accepted the prize for best actress in a musical, she said, “I won’t keep you very long because we all want to get to the after party and get hammered.”

Rock star Brian May accepted the BBC Radio 2 audience award for the long running hit “We Will Rock You”, which features the music of Queen, and he said, “It’s great to be standing here with this award 10 years after getting the shittiest reviews ever.”

The Royal Court Theatre, which staged “Clybourne Park” before its West End transfer, also saw wins for Michelle Terry as best supporting actress for “Tribes” and Leon Baugh as best theatre choreographer for “Sucker Punch”.

The awards were handed out in a three-hour ceremony at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, a change from previous years when the event was in the form of a banquet. Sponsored by MasterCard, the show featured many performances from the nominated musicals and a medley by Barry Manilow, whose musical “Copacabana” had a two-year run in London in the 1990s.

Presenters included several screen actors who are now on the West End stage including Matthew Fox (“Lost”), Elizabeth Moss (“Mad Men”), Benedict Cumberbatch (TV’s “Sherlock”), Jonny Lee Miller (“Eli Stone”), and Patrick Stewart (“The X-Men”).

A complete list of 2011 Laurence Olivier Awards winners follows:

BEST ACTRESS

Nancy Carroll for After the Dance at the Lyttelton

BEST ACTOR

Roger Allam for Henry IV Part 1 & Part 2 at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Michelle Terry for Tribes at the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs at the Royal Court

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Adrian Scarborough for After the Dance at the Lyttelton

MASTERCARD BEST NEW PLAY

Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris at the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs at the Royal Court

BEST MUSICAL REVIVAL

Into the Woods at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

BEST NEW MUSICAL

Legally Blonde: The Musical book by Heather Hach, music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin at the Savoy

BEST ENTERTAINMENT

The Railway Children by E Nesbit, adapted by Mike Kenny at the Waterloo Station Theatre

BEST ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL

Sheridan Smith for Legally Blonde: The Musical at the Savoy

BEST ACTOR IN A MUSICAL

David Thaxton for Passion at the Donmar Warehouse

BEST PERFORMANCE IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MUSICAL

Jill Halfpenny for Legally Blonde: The Musical at the Savoy

BEST DIRECTOR

Howard Davies for The White Guard at the Lyttelton

BEST REVIVAL

After the Dance directed by Thea Sharrock at the Lyttelton

BEST THEATRE CHOREOGRAPHER

Leon Baugh for Sucker Punch at the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs at the Royal Court

BEST LIGHTING DESIGN

The White Guard designed by Neil Austin at the Lyttelton

XL VIDEO AWARD FOR BEST SET DESIGN

The White Guard designed by Bunny Christie at the Lyttelton

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

After the Dance designed by Hildegard Bechtler at the Lyttelton

BEST SOUND DESIGN

King Lear designed by Adam Cork at the Donmar Warehouse

BBC RADIO 2 OLIVIER AUDIENCE AWARD

We Will Rock You at the Dominion Theatre

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN AN AFFILIATE THEATRE

Lyric Hammersmith for Blasted

BEST NEW OPERA PRODUCTION

OperaUpClose and Soho Theatre’s La Bohème at the Soho Theatre

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN OPERA

Christian Gerhaher for his performance in the Royal Opera’s Tannhäuser at the Royal Opera House

BEST NEW DANCE PRODUCTION

Babel (Words) by Eastman vzw and Theatre Royal de la Monnaie at Sadler’s Wells, choreographed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DANCE

Antony Gormley for his set design of Babel (Words) by Eastman vzw and Theatre Royal de la Monnaie at Sadler’s Wells

Posted in Music, News, Theatre | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on OLIVIER AWARDS: ‘Clybourne Park’, ‘Legally Blonde’ winners

THEATRE REVIEW: Noel Coward’s ‘Blithe Spirit’

Posted on March 9, 2011 by admin

blithe spiritBy Ray Bennett

LONDON – Noel Coward’s spirited drawing room comedy “Blithe Spirit” is as ticklish and ephemeral as champagne bubbles but Thea Sharrock’s new production in the West End lets out most of the fizz and allows in all the play’s misogyny.

It tells of a debonair writer whose first wife returns from the dead to haunt his current marriage but much of the humor derives from mockery of women, whether they are alive or dead, young and uncultured or elderly and unconventional.

Legend has it that the play was a little number that Coward dashed off in five days in 1941 when Britain faced its darkest days of World War II. It made such an attractive wartime diversion, however, that it became his most successful play.

Rex Harrison was perfect casting when David Lean, the playwright’s close friend and co-director (In Which We Serve), filmed it in 1945 with Margaret Rutherford as Madame Arcati, a colorful and eccentric medium, a role she originated on stage.

British veteran Alison Steadman (pictured centre with Robert Bathurst and Hemione Norris with Ruthie Henshall behind them) takes the role in the new production and plays Madame Arcati very much as an English village busybody who makes many weird sounds and movements as she conjures visitors from the spirit world. Robert Bathurst plays Condomine with the right air of jaded sophistication and Hermione Norris (from TV’s Spooks) makes the second wife, Ruth, both brittle and vulnerable.

As the ghostly first wife Elvira, Ruthie Henshall, who usually does musicals, appears to be in some kind of contest to see how long she can maintain her fixed grin. She pauses now and then to let her voice tumble to a deep base in the mistaken belief that it’s how women speak when they wish to be alluring.

Jodie Taibi proves unexpectedly acrobatic as Edith, an uncoordinated maid, and Bo Poraji and Charlotte Thornton make up the numbers as friends of Charles and Ruth.

Hildegard Bechthler’s period set design is bright and filled with hidden surprises when ghosts become mischievous poltergeists at the end of the play. It helps make the production watchable and Sharrock keeps everyone occupied moving about between elegant furniture, a grand piano and a staircase.

The comedy depends on the antics of Madame Arcati and the trouble Charles gets into when he speaks to Elvira, whom only he can see, and his words are taken by Ruth as if he’s talking to her. It all tends to get a bit mean as Charles enjoys Elvira’s playfulness and offers little sympathy for Ruth’s distress.

The playwright’s snobbery is on display throughout but his instincts were right since the lines the earned the biggest laughs on first night came after lines that sneered at down-market English seaside resorts Folkestone and Budleigh Salterton.

Coward makes it clear that Charles would be quite content if both women lacked physicality and existed only as spirits, which is really quite dispiriting.

Venue: Apollo Theatre, runs through June 18; Cast: Alison Steadman, Robert Bathurst, Hermione Norris, Ruthie Henshall, Jodie Taibi, Bo Poraj, Charlotte Thornton; Playwright: Noel Coward; Director: Thea Sharrock; Set designer: Hildegard Bechtler; Lighting designer: Gregory Clarke; Sound designer: Gregory Clarke.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

Posted in Reviews, Theatre | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on THEATRE REVIEW: Noel Coward’s ‘Blithe Spirit’

THEATRE REVIEW: ‘Wizard of Oz’

Posted on March 2, 2011 by admin

Danielle Hope plays Dorothy on the yellow brick road in ‘The Wizard of Oz’

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – If ever a show was pre-sold it’s the new stage version of The Wizard of Oz with the 1939 movie a perennial favorite and Danielle Hope cast as Dorothy via a 10-week prime time BBC-TV reality show but it really does deliver.

Audiences might hum the film’s indelible tunes on the way into the London Palladium but when they leave they will be buzzing about the extraordinary sets and costumes that Robert Jones has created for Dorothy’s adventures on the yellow brick road.

The show features all the original songs by Harold Arlen and E. Y. Harburg with four new numbers by Tim Rice and producer Andrew Lloyd Webber, who adapted the show with director Jeremy Sams.

The film was more an adventure with songs than an outright musical, so Rice and Lloyd Webber, whose biggest success together was Evita, have filled in the gaps quite sensibly.

They have provided “Nobody Understands Me” as a scene-setter at the start for Dorothy and “Red Shoes Blues,” a rousing show-stopper for Hannah Waddington as the Wicked Witch of the West, plus two songs for star Michael Crawford, renowned for the title role in Lloyd Webber’s stage hit Phantom of the Opera.

As Professor Marvel he tries to get Dorothy to stay at home before the storm breaks with the jaunty “Wonders of the World” and as the Wizard he chants the dramatic mid-point curtain closer “Bring Me the Broomstick.”

Paul Keating, David Ganly, Edward Baker-Duly, Danielle Hope and Michael Crawford

Hope, who won the TV casting competition, has color and warmth in her voice and she delivers “Over the Rainbow” with control and without melodrama. She appears confident and mimics successfully Judy Garland’s stride on the stage treadmill that is the yellow brick road even if she lacks the original star’s wistful charm and vulnerability.

She is not helped by an adorable scene-stealing Toto, one of four white West Highland terriers that rotate in the role, who remains calm amid flashing lights and sudden bangs, and barks at the Wizard on cue, but declines to show any interest in the malarkey of walking on any treadmill.

Crawford displays his skill as a master showman in what are quite bief appearances, as in the film, and Waddingham rides her broomstick with relish, flying high above the crowd looking exactly like Margaret Hamilton in the film.

Edward Baker-Duly as the Tin Man, David Ganly as the Cowardly Lion and Paul Keating as the Scarecrow go to school on their film counterparts with good movement and comic timing. Emily Tierney makes her beautiful good witch Glinda pleasingly droll and there’s a talented bunch of children playing the Munchkins.

It’s all tuneful and entertaining but what takes the breath away is the wonderful design. The film starts off in black-and-white and then bursts into vivid color, and so does the stage show. Everything is dull and khaki in Kansas and the video sequence created by Jon Driscoll that shows the tornado is wonderfully out of this world.

Once Dorothy hits the road to Oz, everything is bright and dazzling with looming sets inspired by “Metropolis” brought up from below the Palladium’s stage with marvellous panache.  The Wicked Witch’s lair resembles Mad Max’s Thunderdome with fascistic soldiers marching with masks and weapons while the Emerald City glows with every green imaginable and the Wizard’s Chamber is like a daunting Gotham skyscraper.

Venue: London Palladium, UK (running through Jan. 15 2012); Cast: Michael Crawford, Danielle Hope, Hannah Waddingham, Edward Baker-Duly, David Ganly, Paul Keating, Emily Tierney; Music: Harold Arlen, Andrew Lloyd Webber; Lyrics: E. Y. Harburg, Tim Rice; Adapted by: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jeremy Sams; Director: Jeremy Sams; Set and costume designer: Robert Jones; Musical director: Graham Hurman; Orchestrations: David Cullen; Projection designer: Jon Driscoll; Lighting designer: Hugh Vanstone; Sound designer: Mick Potter; Choreography: Arlene Phillips

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

Posted in Music, Reviews, Theatre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on THEATRE REVIEW: ‘Wizard of Oz’

THEATRE REVIEW: ‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’

Posted on March 2, 2011 by admin

Spelling Bee x650

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – Lightweight, amusing and frothy, Broadway hit musical “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” seems an odd choice for the serious-minded Donmar Warehouse, but its U.S. high school hijinks and a cast full of fizz make it a welcome change.

As a motley assortment of teenagers strive to spell their way to success, Jamie Lloyd’s lovely production lampoons the Donmar’s sober tastes when the interlocutor uses “lachrymose” in a sentence: “Staging a musical comedy made a change from the theater’s usual lachrymose productions.”

Rachel Sheinkin’s book won a 2005 Tony Award, and here it keeps a sprightly pace as the kids face their orthographic challenges with much fun derived from what obscure words mean and how they are employed.

William Finn’s lively songs are filled with tongue twisters and outrageous rhymes, including one lyric by a young man in a state of inappropriate excitement who sings that his “unfortunate protuberance seems to have its own exuberance.”

Christopher Oram’s bright set resembles a high school gymnasium, with the seats in the Donmar’s small venue changed to match classroom chairs, all a vivid blue.

Katherine Kingsley plays Rona Lisa Perretti, a former spelling bee champion and current real estate salesperson who brings all the ersatz charm of the worst of that profession to running the current contest.

Steve Pemberton, from British TV’s “The League of Gentlemen,” is Vice Principal Douglas Panch, a teacher with a murky past who tries to make the test as devilishly tricky as possible. One kid overanalyzes the problem and gives the answer “vugghe,” thinking it to have arcane Cornish routes, when it is simply “vug.”

The contestants include an overweight mother’s boy (David Flynn), a space cadet (Chris Carswell), a future quarterback (Harry Hepple), an overachiever (Maria Lawson), a girl with a speech impediment and two fathers (Iris Roberts) and a lonely one whose mother is at an ashram in India (Hayley Gallivan).

They each get a chance to shine with Lawson, a sinuous firecracker as she demonstrates her six languages, proficiency in various sports and an ability to sing while dancing at high speed. Hepple keeps a song about a mistimed erection from being too vulgar, and Carswell plays a New Age kid named Leaf Coneybear with suitable bemusement.

Roberts keeps a joke about having a hard time with sibilants from becoming cruel, and Flynn makes the know-it-all momma’s boy sympathetic and establishes stage chemistry with Gallivan as the girl who misses her mom.

Slim, blonde and brassy, Kingsley quivers the gymnasium’s rafters in several numbers but also sings sweetly as the mother of one contestant. Ako Mitchell sings well and delivers some droll lines as a parolee whose community service requires him to dress in a bee outfit and provide comfort to the losing spellers.

The show has a pleasing gimmick in that four audience members are invited each night to join the spelling bee contestants. On press night, one of them was a critic from a London newspaper who acquitted himself with dignity; another was a young man who earned applause by getting a very difficult word right.

Donmar Warehouse, runs through April 2; Cast: Katherine Kingsley, Harry Hepple, Iris Roberts, Chris Carswell, David Flynn, Maria Lawson, Hayley Gallivan, Steve Pemberton, Ako Mitchell; Music and lyrics: William Finn; Book: Rachel Sheinkin; Director: Jamie Lloyd; Set designer: Christopher Oram; Lighting designer: Neil Austin; Sound designers: Terry Jardine, Nick Lidster for Autograph; Choreographer: Ann Yee; Musical director: Alan Williams.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

Posted in Reviews, Theatre | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on THEATRE REVIEW: ‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’

THEATRE REVIEW: ‘Million Dollar Quartet’

Posted on February 26, 2011 by admin

Ben Goddard, Robert Britton Lyons, Derek Hagen, Michael Malarkey as the ‘MIllion Dollar Quartet’, Gez Gerrard on bass

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – “Million Dollar Quartet” is a straightforward jukebox musical but since the music comes from Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis at Sun Records in the 1950s, it’s not your average jukebox.

Like “Sunday in the Park with George”, the stage show is based on a single image and like the Stephen Sondheim classic, it attempts to flesh out how the picture came about. That’s where the comparison ends as it’s not so much a musical as a concert.

In this case, it’s the famous photo of the four singers at a piano in Sam Phillips’ Memphis recording studio and the book by Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux reveals something about what was going on in those heady days of rock ’n’ roll in its infancy, but not a whole lot.

There is, however, a whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on as 23 numbers from that time are given full measure by director Eric Schaeffer, who has brought his creative team from Broadway. The show is as slick as Elvis’ hair.

American Robert Britton Lyons, who originated the role of Carl Perkins on Broadway and has appeared in every production since, joins an otherwise British cast. He has more of the strut and presence of an early rock star than the others although Derek Hagen as Cash, Ben Goddard as Lewis, and Michael Malarkey are all terrific performers.

Malarkey more resembles Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash in the movie “Walk the Line” than Elvis. He’s a little too compact for the legendary performer although he does catch Presley’s sneer in the right light and his baritone is strong if not an echo of the original in numbers such as “That’s All Right, Mama,” “Peace In the Valley” and “Hound Dog.”

Hagen looks less like Cash than John C. Reilly playing Dewey Cox but he has Cash’s way with a rhythm guitar and his rich, deep voice is a match for the man in black on songs including “Sixteen Tons,” “I Walk the Line” and “Riders In the Sky.”

Goddard is a little chunky for the skinny Lewis but he has his blond locks and powerful vocal delivery. He probably is a more versatile pianist than Lewis but he pounds out “Real Wild Child,” “Great Balls of Fire” and “Whole Lotta Shakin’” with tremendous verve.

It’s Lyons, however, who parades the real stuff of rockabilly. Like Perkins, he’s lean with slicked back hair and he has a mean way with a lead guitar. He conveys the bitterness that Perkins had over Presley winning all the glory for his song “Blue Suede Shoes,” which he performs to kick off the show, but also has the charm of a man whose compositions such as “Matchbox” and “Honey Don’t” became staples for later rock bands. The latter was not in the earlier productions but has been added to the West End show. The program makes a point of thanking Paul McCartney, who now owns the song.

Francesa Jackson joins the boys at the piano

Francesca Jackson is a welcome feminine presence as a girlfriend of Elvis and she demonstrates genuine flare on “Fever” and “I Hear You Knocking.” Gez Gerrard on double bass and Adam Riley on drums remain onstage the whole time and give the music the correct propulsion.

Lewis and Perkins trade insults throughout the show, which makes a break for Bill Ward as Sam Phillips, who tells what story there is of the four artists and Sun Records before they went on to fame and riches and he just got fabulously wealthy from radio stations and Holiday Inn stock.

The evening ends with the boys in gleaming jackets as the audience rises irresistibly to the beat of some mightily impressive and infectious rockabilly.

Venue: Noel Cowerd Theatre, London (running through Oct. 27); Cast: Robert Britton Lyons, Derek Hagen, Ben Goddard, Michael Malarkey, Bill Ward, Francesca Jackson; Book, Original concept and direction: Floyd Mutrux; Book: Colin Escott; Director: Eric Schaeffer; Musical arrangements and supervision: Chuck Mead; Set designer: Derek McLane; Costume designer: Jane Greenwood; Lighting designer: Howell Binkley; Sound designer: Kai Harada

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

Posted in Music, Reviews, Theatre | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on THEATRE REVIEW: ‘Million Dollar Quartet’

THEATRE REVIEW: Danny Boyle directs ‘Frankenstein’

Posted on February 24, 2011 by admin

Frankenstein2 x650

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – Fans of Danny Boyle’s movies such as “Slumdog Millionaire” and “127 Hours” will not be surprised to learn that his return to the stage directing a new play at the National Theatre based on Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” is a breathtaking mix of intimate drama and spectacular imagery.

Benedict Cumberbatch (pictured as the doctor), from BBC-TV’s new “Sherlock” series, and Jonny Lee Miller (“Eli Stone”) star on alternate nights as Victor Frankenstein and the Creature in a play by Nick Dear that grabs attention in the first minute and never lets go.

Cumberbatch has the edge in both roles due to his ability to convey by expression and voice a degree of madness that is just beyond Lee Miller. Cumberbatch nails Frankenstein’s air of innate superiority and he makes heartbreaking the Creature’s aching search for wisdom and compassion. Both performances are well worth seeing in a two-hour show that has shocks and surprises, some considerable horror and moments of great tenderness.

The play will be streamed to movie theaters across the U.K. on March 17 and 24 and also will be available in other countries including the United States and Canada, although dates might vary. Boyle, who attended First Night, told me he is not involved in the screen version, which is handled by the National Theatre.

The stage presentation has such invention and vitality that it should make a terrific impression on screen and the performances of the two leading actors are so precise and involving that they should only be enhanced by close-ups.

Frankenstein6 x650

The National’s vast Olivier stage is overhung by two large rectangular panels from which hang myriad lights that strike like lightning at the moments when the creature emerges from what he comes to think of as a cesspool of broken bones. For this Creature is a sentient individual who can assimilate information rapidly and the tale is really one of innocence corrupted.

At the beginning, a tall and wide circle of pulsing fabric strapped to a wooden rack becomes womb-like as it parts to reveal a man-sized newborn who falls to the ground and flaps like some nameless thing that Darwin might have discovered.

For more than 10 minutes, the fully naked creature struggles to stretch and stand; to gain motor control of limbs and how to walk and run. Exultant in his discoveries, he embraces the warming sun and cooling rain, and the simple pleasures of grass and soaring birds.

But soon his creator abandons him and strangers greet him with horror and beatings. Wandering, he discovers an old man, De Lacey (Karl Johnson), who is blind and generous, and who fills his hungry mind with literature, philosophy and general knowledge. That again ends badly, and the lonely creature goes off to seek his creator to ask him to make him a female partner. Frankenstein is a self-important scientist who believes himself a genius and is so obsessed with being the first man to create another that he ignores his lovely bride-to-be, Elizabeth (Naomie Harris), who only wants to give him babies.

When the Creature finds him, Frankenstein agrees to travel to a remote Scottish island where he will make a perfect being, but as his genius flows so does his fear, and soon the two are locked into a fate that will entwine them forever.

Set designer Mark Tildesley uses simple tracks of wood and grass for scenes in the open, brings up whole rooms and buildings from the basement of the rotating stage and others descend from the rafters.

Boyle early on introduces a raging contraption like a full-scale locomotive with huge wheels spitting flames and sparks to suggest the industrial turmoil that is the backdrop to the story. It leaves a bitter taste in the air that underpins the tragedy of a creator who has lost his way and a Creature unsure of why he is here and what he is supposed to do but directed by a man who knows exactly what he’s up to.

Venue: National Theatre, runs through May 2; Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Jonny Lee Miller, Naomie Harris, Karl Jognson; Playwright: Nick Dear, based on the novel by Mary Shelley; Director: Danny Boyle; Set designer: Mark Tildesley; Costume designer: Suttirat Anne Larlarb; Lighting designer: Bruno Poet; Music and sound score: Underworld.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter. Photos by Catherine Ashmore.

Posted in Reviews, Theatre | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on THEATRE REVIEW: Danny Boyle directs ‘Frankenstein’

BERLIN FILM REVIEW: Julie Gavras’s ‘Late Bloomers’

Posted on February 19, 2011 by admin

late bloomers x650By Ray Bennett

BERLIN – William Hurt and Isabella Rossellini (pictured) play a couple whose long marriage runs into the bumps caused by intimations of mortality in Julie Gavras’s lightweight “Late Bloomers” but while it’s pleasant to watch these two professionals at work, there are no dramatic fireworks.

A snapshot of two people who must learn to face the realities of aging, it offers no surprises or particular insights and will probably settle more comfortably into TV and DVD release.

Hurt plays Adam, a top architect whose major achievements have been in designing airports but who is tempted now to tackle the design of a new museum in London’s disused Battersea Power Station. One of the spurs towards this is that among the young designers at his firm who are keen on the challenge is an attractive and flirtatious young woman named Maya (Arta Dobroshi).

Adam’s wife Mary (Rossellini), meanwhile, is alarmed by a couple of moments of forgetfulness and finds that little things she does to make life a little easier on aging limbs and eyes only annoy Adam. He starts working late at the office while she joins an exercise club at a swimming pool run by a handsome man named Peter (Hugo Speer).

Soon, Adam starts sleeping at the office and the pair’s three grown children start plotting ways to keep them together. The situation is further complicated by money problems at the firm with a client (Simon Callow) who demands designs for hospices rather than a museum.

There’s sick grandmother and assorted little ones, and the conversations cover predictable ground about families, generations and mid-life crises. Callow relishes some bright lines about how a hospice is much like a transportation terminal – somewhere people go on the way to somewhere else.

Joanna Lumley also shines as Mary’s breezy best friend, a do-gooder who confesses that she wishes she’d put more energy into a marriage than into her charitable work.

The film is shot like a TV movie with plenty of light and bright colors. Hurt mixes charm with Adam’s fear of waning talent and vigor while Rossellini plays against her beauty as a woman who finds she needs reassurance about her appeal. They are genial company, but will hardly be remembered by tomorrow.

Venue: Berlin International Film Festival, Berlinale Special; Cast: William Hurt, Isabella Rossellini, Joanna Lumley, Simon Callow; Director, screenwriter: Julie Gavras; Screenwriter: Oliver Dazat; Director photography: Natalie Durand; Production designer: Eve Stewart; Music: Sodi Marciszewer; Costume designer: Marianne Agertoft; Editor: Pierre Haberer; Producers: Sylvie Pielat, Bertrand Faivre; Production: Les Films du Worso; Sales: Gaumont; Not rated; running time, 95 minutes.

Posted in Berlin International Film Festival, Film, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on BERLIN FILM REVIEW: Julie Gavras’s ‘Late Bloomers’

BERLIN FILM REVIEW: Jonathan Sagall’s ‘Lipstikka’

Posted on February 18, 2011 by admin

Moran Rosenblatt and Ziv Weiner in Jonathan Sagall’s ‘Lipstikka’

By Ray Bennett

BERLIN – Canadian director Jonathan Sagall’s intriguing drama “Lipstikka” tells of two women whose memory of a dramatic incident when they were teenagers is markedly different and affects their lives in complicated ways.

Set in London with flashbacks to 1994, the film tells of two Palestinian women and their encounter as teenagers with two Israeli solders during the intifada. More of a human drama than a political one, it still hinges on the fact that in the circumstances the girls had no control over their fate.

The nature of their relationship at the time and the way their lives have turned out since give Sagall’s four actresses plenty to work with and the film should thrive at festivals and find appreciative audiences, especially among women, in key territories.

Clara Khoury plays Lara, who explains in a voice-over that she has accepted her life, which is one of suburban London comfort with a spotless home, a smart son, and a businessman husband named Michael (Daniel Caltagirone) who hasn’t slept with her since the boy was born. She keeps herself in good shape, however, with just a little vodka to soften the world.

A knock at the door one day brings a face from her past, Inam (Nataly Attiya), a slim beauty who looks little frazzled and has an edgy manner. Flashbacks reveal that Inam had a relationship with Michael before they married, and the two women also shared an intimacy felt more deeply by Lara.

Their relationship is even more complicated due to the incident more than 15 years earlier after the two of them broke curfew to go to see a movie in old Jerusalem. The young Inam (Moran Rosenblatt) was pretty and boy-crazy while young Lara (Ziv Weiner) viewed her friend’s adventures with more jealousy than envy.

Sagall gives over information about the earlier event in pieces. It involved a sexual encounter between Inam and one of the soldiers, but exactly what happened depends on very different points of view. He also reveals only slowly the truth of the women’s lives today. It makes for growing suspense, especially when Inam elects to pick up Lara’s son from school without telling her.

As the grownup Lara, Khoury offers a telling portrayal of a woman whose life did not turn out as she expected but has managed to make the most of it. Elegant and sweet looking, Khoury very subtly unveils the steel that Lara has learned to deploy while Weiner is effective as the young Lara, all watchful and self-contained. Attiya keeps Inam’s nervousness just barely under control and with just a look or change of vocal tone suggests that she could easily fall apart.

Rosenblatt has in many ways the toughest assignment since she must act more or less the same scene in two sharply different ways – as a sexy teenager in control of events, and as a victim of sexual brutality. Hers is the standout performance of the film, first smiling and provocative, and then knowing and sacrificial. Her scenes underpin what develops between the grownup women and help give Sagall’s film a satisfying resonance.

Venue: Berlin International Film Festival; Cast: Clara Khoury, Nataly Attiya, Moran Rosenblatt, Ziv Weiner; Director, screenwriter, producer: Jonathan Sagall; Directors of photography: Xiaxosu Han, Andreas Thalhammer; Production designers: Myles Grimsdale, Ofer Shara; Music: Jody Jenkins; Editor: Yuval Netter; Producer: Guy Allon; Production: Obelis Productions, John Reiss & Assoc., Monumental Productions; Sales: Obelis Productions;  Not rated; running time, 90 minutes

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

Posted in Berlin International Film Festival, Film, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on BERLIN FILM REVIEW: Jonathan Sagall’s ‘Lipstikka’

BERLIN FILM REVIEW: ‘The Terrorists’

Posted on February 16, 2011 by admin

By Ray Bennett

BERLIN – Thunska Pansittivorakul’s documentary “The Terrorists” is a message picture about the way the government in Thailand persecutes and exploits minorities. Oh, here’s one now, a pretty young man who happens to be naked, soaping himself in the shower.

The film commences with titles that excoriate and curse the Thai government for serious abuses and proceeds without narration to scenes accompanied by poetry or political invective. Many of them involve young men in the nude bathing or sleeping.

the terrorists x325It appears aimed at a gay audience that would need to be remarkably tolerant of inept camerawork and unexplained sequences, and be prepared to listen to lectures about an oppressive society. The title of the film is intended to be ironic but if the filmmakers wish to have their opinions considered widely, this does not seem to be the best way to go about it.

The film begins with a group of languid young men in shorts on a fishing boat at night; then a bound and blindfolded young man is stripped, and masturbated by male toes and fingers; young men in shorts load sheets of rubber onto a flatbed truck; a young man sleeps naked in various stages of arousal; and another young man is heard complaining about his father while he bathes nude in a mountain stream.

One unexplained sequence shows some kind of unrest on an urban street with police in riot gear with guns and tear gas, and cowering locals, and another shows a young man tapping trees for sap at night. It’s very dark so it’s not clear if he’s naked.

Venue: Berlin International Film Festival, Forum; Director: Thunkska Pansittivorakul; Producer: Jurgen Bruning; Director of photography: Thunska Samart Vorakorn; Sales: Jurgen Bruning Filmproduktion; Not rated; running time, 103 minutes.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

Posted in Berlin International Film Festival, Film, Reviews | Tagged , , | Comments Off on BERLIN FILM REVIEW: ‘The Terrorists’

BERLIN FILM REVIEW: Paula Markowitch’s ‘The Prize’

Posted on February 16, 2011 by admin

the prize x650By Ray Bennett

BERLIN – The cold, bleak seashore of Argentina in winter matches the powerfully lurking threat of fascism in Paula Markowitch’s autobiographical Competition film “The Prize” about a young mother and her infant daughter in hiding from nameless dread.

Slow-paced and somber, the film boasts remarkable performances by first-time actress Paula Galinelli Hertzog as Cecilia, a freckle-faced 7-year-old, and Laura Agorreca as her mother Lucia, who tries to keep her safe as she waits to hear from the girl’s father, who has disappeared and is feared dead.

The film eschews the polemics of many films about a society overtaken by those who would tell people how to live and what to think and so it is unlikely to make a commercial mark. It’s a warm reminder, however, of how vulnerable and short-lived childhood innocence can be and it should gain considerable festival attention.

The long opening sequence sets the tone for the rest of the picture: A little girl in a winter coat on a wide stretch of isolated beach attempts to roller-skate in the sand much as a free spirit attempts to fly in a fascist state and with similar results. In another sadly apt scene, the girl dances from bed to chair to table as her mother attempts furiously to sweep out water that floods in beneath the front door.

“What is a pessimist?” Cecilia asks her mother after she glimpses a telegram that contains precious little information about her missing Dad. Markowitch discloses information very slowly as the mother and child go about trying to survive by the ocean in a rundown cabin that lets in the fierce winds and torrential rain.

An urchin with lively eyes that can narrow in suspicion or widen with an open smile, the girl is keen to go to school and so joins a local class with firm instructions to reveal nothing about her home life. She takes it to extremes, and when other pupils ask questions, she always replies, “My father sells curtains; my mother is a housekeeper”.

She makes friends with another little girl, Silvia (Sharon Herrera), and the two play games in the sand with a dog she calls Jim and a local boy named Walter (Uriel Lasillo). She shines in class but makes the mistake of helping Walter with a test that their teacher knows he couldn’t possibly have passed without help.

The teacher, Rosita (Viviana Suraneti) punishes the entire class until Silvia names Cecilia as the one who helped Walter cheat, and she makes her stand out in the cold as further punishment. The next day, Rosita praises both girls. She tells them it is patriotic to inform when someone does something wrong so that next time that person will do right.

The teacher’s sense of how to get along in a state-controlled society is tested when the class has to write essays in praise of the army but Cecilia writes things such as “the army is bad”, “soldiers are crazy”, “they killed my cousin”. Lucia is mortified when Cecilia shows her a copy and she knows she must try to get the essay back before the army sees it.

The tension in the film grows menacing very slowly enhanced by cinematographer Wojciech Staron’s washed-out images of the child by the sea as waves and sand change constantly. Hertzog’s freshness and Suraniti’s naturalistic acting combine to make the pair thoroughly credible, and Markovitch draws equally fine performances from the rest of the cast.

Venue: Berlin International Film Festival, In Competition; Cast: Paula Galinelli Hertzog, Sharon Herrera, Laura Agorreca, Viviana Suraniti, Uriel Lasillo; Director, screenwriter: Paula Markovitch; Director of photography: Wojciech Staron; Production designer: Barbara Enriquez; Music: Sergio Gurrola; Editor: Lorena Moriconi; Producer: Izrael Moreno Production: Kung Works, Chiapas 31, Col. u Mex Roma, Alex Cuantémoc; Sales: Umedia; Not rated; running time, 123 minutes.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

Posted in Berlin International Film Festival, Film, Reviews | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on BERLIN FILM REVIEW: Paula Markowitch’s ‘The Prize’