West End Musicals
It feels as if there were fewer big West End musicals opening in 2015 than in the previous year.
There is still a proliferation of choice for every taste, with many of the old favourites such as Billy Elliot and Les Miserables continuing to sell well in the face of competition from the new kids on the block.
It has to be said that, as so often in the past, the biggest and best that London has to offer will frequently have first seen the light of day in New York long before crossing the pond.
That is certainly the case with the pick of the year, Beautiful—The Carole King Musical. This sure-fire winner combines the iconic songs, not only of Carole King and Gerry Goffin but also Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil with a well written Book from Douglas McGrath.
This means that everybody will have familiar tunes to enjoy at the same time as learning a great deal about the singer-songwriter and her topsy-turvy experiences to the 1960s and '70s.
The most serious competition comes from Kinky Boots which is one of the other American imports. Even though it has a book by Harvey Fierstein and music and lyrics from Cyndi Lauper, the underlying story, based on the movie by Geoff Deane and Tim Firth, is very British.
The show is set in Northampton family-run shoe factory that looks set to close after generations of success. However, the latest owner manages to avert disaster and despair with the assistance of a transvestite cabaret performer.
With catchy tunes, much comedy and appeal to the pink pound, this looks like a production that will run and run.
Bartlett Sher’s musical version of Pedro Almodóvar’s movie for Lincoln Center Theater Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown was fun and starred Tamsin Greig and Haydn Gwynne for its UK première.
From this side of the Atlantic, more precisely Chichester, comes the musical performance of the year from Imelda Staunton in Gypsy.
She may not be the biggest actress in town but Miss Staunton is certainly the gutsiest, giving her all pounding out songs every night as Momma Rose, the pushiest mother that any daughter could be unlucky enough to inherit. The songs are unforgettable too, particularly “Let Me Entertain You”.
High Society at the Old Vic presented the novelty of seeing a musical presented in-the-round. All credit to the imagination of director, Maria Friedman and her designer Tom Pye who pulled it off with aplomb.
It did no harm to have a superb performance from Kate Fleetwood in the central role, while Cole Porter’s timeless music was a joy.
Bend it like Beckham, drawing on another feel-good British movie, proved to be popular, telling the story of an Asian girl who decides to eschew her culture, exchanging it for glory on the football field.
Sweeney Todd represented by far the smallest scale but most ambitious West End musical presentation of the year. Having started life at Harrington’s Pie and Mash Shop this Tooting Arts Club transfer to a basement in Shaftesbury Avenue was a delight.
The audience got so close to the action that one feared for an ear or nose once the razors started flashing around, while Stephen Sondheim’s iconic music made an even more devastating impression in close-up.
This is certainly a company to watch and one hopes that they will get more opportunities to strut their site-specific staff in the West End, maybe even trying out a ground floor on Shaftesbury Avenue next time around.
Offering a very different kind of music, American Idiot, The Green Day Musical made its presence felt at the second attempt.
Its original London appearance had been part of a quasi-concert tour but now, the vibrant rock opera enjoyed a decent run and is preparing to tour.