January 19, 2023
Kiev (Kyiv though) Ukraine: Nice City, Interesting Sights, Indeterminate Vibeby Randi / March 28, 2018
It’s Theatre Thursday! Today we’re talking about the Hampstead Theatre’s production of “Caroline, or Change” playing until April 21. It transfers to the West End in November.
I was always obsessed with musical theatre, and in 2004 I could finally travel alone to NYC whenever I wanted/whenever my college schedule allowed and see Broadway shows more often. It was a big year – that was the year of ‘Wicked’, ‘Avenue Q’, ‘The Boy From Oz’, Alfred Molina’s ‘Fiddler’, Donna Murphy’s ‘Wonderful Town’, Audra in ‘Raisin in the Sun’. Such a busy season! I got to see Idina in ‘Wicked’, but another new show with a supposedly killer leading lady role slipped under my radar. That was ‘Caroline, or Change’, starring Tonya Pinkins as Caroline, a Tony-winning Anika Noni Rose as her daughter Emmie, and a score by Jeanine Tesori and Tony Kushner. It seemed pretty beloved, an interesting civil rights-age drama taking place in Louisiana, about a black maid working for a Jewish family but also with singing electrical appliances. How did that work, I wondered? It remained high on my list of shows I wanted to see someday, and so when the current English revival moved closer to the West End – to the Hampstead Theatre up north of the city – I did a little jig and said halleluyer, because I would finally see it.
It was not good.
I feel terrible saying it, because I know so many theatre fans like myself really love it, but I do not understand why. I wanted to love this show SO BADLY and no matter how much I was putting out there, hoping that it would offer me just the eeniest bit of love back, it gave me nothing. The book was a mess. How can you mess up the drama and complexities of relationships between black people and their white bosses, during the ‘60s, in the American south, right when JFK gets assassinated? I mean come on, that setting is PRIME for dramatic mining. Well, you mess it up by trying to shoehorn into a single show the stories about the relationship between the black maid and the white child of the family she works for, AND how the white boy’s mother had recently died, AND how the boy’s musician father remarried his wife’s best friend so they would have a wife/mother, AND how the white boy is handling the new mother, AND how the maid is handling the new boss, AND how the maid is dealing with raising her kids alone, AND how the maid’s kids are growing up, AND how the white boy’s grandparents from each side clash with each other over politics, AND how those grandparents conflict with the maid’s daughter over politics, AND how the maid has to deal with her pride, AND how the maid is a real B word to her fellow maids that she sees at the bus stop and refuses to be civil toward, AND how the other maid that we see like maybe twice is going to night school and wearing bobby socks, AND how the moon is an actual character AND how the electrical appliances in the basement where the maid spends most of her time SING AND DANCE and it’s all supposed to mean something? Oh and how the one thing that bonds the maid and the white boy is that she lets him light her daily cigarette.
That’s a lot of story threads that instead of braiding together and forming a solid yarn, they diminish into little wisps and amount to nothing. All these little nothing wisps mashed together mean that there’s simultaneously wayyy too much going on and yet there’s zero emotional heft, zero connection with the material when there should be loads. I know ‘Angels in America’ is a masterpiece but I’m a little wary of seeing it now, Tony Toni Tone. It was like this was going for ‘Love, Actually’ with that many threads but instead it gave us ‘Valentine’s Day’. And like the stories in that movie, you end up not being satisfied with any thread and walking out thinking it was pedestrian at best. If they focused on the relationship between Caroline and Noah, and how Noah imagined his maid’s family life versus what it was actually like (the one minute where they do that is the most compelling part), then we’d have a worthwhile story. Oh, and if Caroline were anything close to being sympathetic or even a little kind. But she’s not. She’s been through a lot of hardship, and as a black woman in the ‘60s south her hardships will never end, but that’s not enough of a reason to accept her being a vessel of pure hatred towards everyone around her. I get that anti-heroes are popular nowadays, but they usually have an appealing trait of some sort, or the whisper of charm or a sense of humor or something. Caroline gives us nothing, and maybe the point is that she doesn’t have to, and in real life she wouldn’t have to, she wouldn’t owe anyone anything, but if you want me to care about this character in a play she’s going to have to be worth caring about. If we’re supposed to feel something besides revulsion, there’s no opportunity or reason for doing so.
The main story is: Caroline is the maid working for the Gellmans, a jewish family with a little boy named Noah, who is dealing with his mother’s loss and his new stepmother, Rose. You think at first that Caroline and Noah might have a sweet relationship, bonding in the basement after school as Caroline does her work, but she’s pretty mean to him all the time. Their one thing, like I said above, is that she lets Noah light her cigarette and he’s like ‘oh boy oh boy!’ and she’s like ‘hurry up I need a smoke then get out of my face’ and we’re like this is neither cute nor sweet nor appropriate for this kid, also his mother died from smoking. The stepmother, Rose, is upset with Noah because he always leaves his money in his pockets, which Caroline finds every day as she does the laundry, and she fills the bleach cup with it and returns it to the Gellmans, every penny of it. Rose tells Caroline, you know what, to teach Noah to value his money, let’s say that everything he leaves in his pockets, everything in the bleach cup at the end of the week, is yours to keep. This is difficult for Caroline to accept because it makes her seem like a beggar, scrounging for pennies, while Rose doesn’t see the problem with it. The extra money would help Caroline so much, but taking it is a huge blow to her pride. And so the ‘change’ of the title is both the change in the times and the literal change in the bleach cup. It’s kind of trite. Caroline has it hard, with four kids, one at war, and an ex-husband who was abusive. She’s understandably mean to everyone – her employers, Noah, the other maids in the neighborhood – but just because it’s understandable doesn’t mean it’s forgivable. She kind of sucks, and then at the end, as she gets meaner and meaner and for some reason unleashes her rage on Noah, she’s reprehensible.
Tony Kushner also wrote the lyrics, and they had me cringing in my seat. There were so many clunkers. I remember in the opening one of the grandfather’s sings about his deceased daughter’s smoking: “It killed her. She died. It killed her. She’s dead.” JESUS. Every other song mentioned how in Louisiana, the dead – and Caroline as she’s always in the basement – aren’t underground, but underwater. It’s kind of poetic and sets a certain mood, right? Yeah, the first 4 times. When you’re getting to the 20th, 30th mention of how we aren’t underground but underwater, it’s no longer profound or elegant or anything other than repetitive and annoying. We also hear a lot about how Noah’s mother played the bassoon. That’s an interesting fact, I guess. They talk about it a lot. Like a lot a lot. It does not seem that important the 15th time.
I wish that I could say Jeanine Tesori’s score was great despite Tony Kushner’s abysmal lyrics, but it wasn’t. Everything sounded the same and that same was pretty dull. It’s a real shame because I love Tesori’s other works – ‘Fun Home’ is a masterpiece, a true masterpiece, but I guess partnering with Lisa Kron was required for that one to shine. She wrote the great ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’, with lyricist Dick Scanlon. And she wrote ‘Violet’, which I adore, with Brian Crawley, and ‘Shrek’, which is surprisingly magical, with David Lindsay-Abaire. Suffice it to say, she doesn’t have a steady writing partner, and she needed one for ‘Caroline’. She’s such a legendary, wonderful musician and I just don’t get what she was doing here. The only song that I remembered when I left was the one when Noah sings, revolving round and round the stage, ‘On the first day day day Caroline stayed away way way and she didn’t come back back back and she didn’t come back back back.’ Repeat 5 times. And yes the melody is just as you think, like just a childhood rhyme. Omg it was painful. Now it’s in my head again dammit.
When I first realized I was trying incredibly hard, too hard, to enjoy this show, I figured it’s because the book and score, the bones of the show, are weak and inadequate. I assumed this production did the best it could with what meager bones it was working with, but I don’t think that’s entirely true. Directing this show is a huge challenge, and as I’ve only seen it once I can’t say what is this production’s doing differently. But I can say that the tone was all over the place, impossible to pin down. We have all the troubled relationships, all the misery and despair of the south, and then we have the bubbly singing washing machine, the terrifying singing dryer, the singing trio of girls (with ever-changing matching outfits that were impressive) representing the radio. At first I thought that was cute, and I assumed that the show would be the sort that could handle such bizarre portrayals of home goods, but it isn’t. Things only fell apart more when the moon arrived – the actress sits in a moon-shaped seat and floats through the rafters for a good chunk of the show – and still refuses to make any sense when paired with the dismal realism of the rest of the show. Nothing ever really gels, and yes a huge reason for that is because of the material, but the direction doesn’t help at all, nor do the performances, and I really hate saying that because this show has a great cast. But while Abiona Omonua’s Emmie was winning and adorable, Anika Noni Rose has that incredible voice that could really rip into her songs and make more out of them. I didn’t even realize until I looked at the programme after the fact that Rose was played by Lauren Ward, as in Miss Honey from the original West End and Broadway “Matilda” cast. Just had no idea. It’s hard to shine in that role. The Noah we saw was Aaron Gelkoff, a really talented kid who successfully made us feel for Noah even though he’s super annoying. And I always like Ako Mitchell but playing the dryer is just weird; there’s not much he can do with it even though it’s somehow one of the biggest parts.
But the biggest issue is with Caroline. She’s played by one of the few West End actors I actually really like, Sharon D. Clarke, who has been exceptional in everything I’ve seen her in. I thought she was fine here, making do with an unrewarding role, playing a woman who hates everyone and so we hate her back. But since seeing it, I’ve fallen down the youtube rabbit hole (fun fact: ‘Rabbit Hole’ was written by Tesori’s ‘Shrek’ writing partner Lindsay-Abaire) to watch videos of the original Caroline, Tonya Pinkins. Sharon was very one-note the entire time, but Pinkins adds layers that made it just a little easier to not hate her the entire time. Pinkins’s rendition of the one big song, “Lot’s Wife”, the 11 o’clock number, shows so much more emotion. Instead of just seething with anger and resentment, Pinkins’s performance shows anguish and hope and regret and a wish with her entire being that she could be better. Sharon’s Caroline was just stone-cold anger and hate; I got nothing else from her, and I think that’s a huge reason why it didn’t work for me.
Of course, Caroline isn’t a likable character, as written, and so there’s not much the actress can do with her anyway. She has no positive attributes to make an audience root for her. And instead of coming around at the end, maybe giving Noah a hug or even an encouraging word to show that their relationship is warmer than it seems, she unleashes all her venom onto him, all the hate that bubbles within her, and tells him that “Hell is where Jews go when they die.” I choked a little bit on the pure hatred that fills this statement — and the rest of the audience laughed. And I don’t mean nervous, tense laughter; I mean they belly laughed like this was a funny joke. I ran this by my Broadway people to see if it happens usually in other productions and, except for one person who said that a few people laughed when she saw it but it was really disturbing and most people gasped, everyone was like, ‘what, no that’s not a laugh line, that is so fucked up.’ It really is. Is Europe so awash in anti-Semitism again that London audiences are laughing at stuff like this? I’m horrified, as a NORMAL person would be, FFS. Anyway, after Caroline says a line that that to a little child, you lose whatever care you had for her and since she never makes amends for it or any of her bad behavior, it just loses you completely.
Even though this is all prettayyy prettayyy negative, it’s not entirely painful to watch. The cast is good, the vocals are all good. The story, or hodgepodge of potential stories, just really didn’t work for me, no matter how badly I wanted it to. I wonder if it will change at all before the West End transfer, but I don’t know how much of what’s problematic they actually could improve.
AUDIENCE
Clearly fucked up and terrifying.
HAMPSTEAD THEATRE
Whoever designed the Hampstead Theatre is batshit crazy. The only bathrooms are by the entrance, behind the box office. That’s REAL DUMB. God people are paid to do jobs like this, I can’t even believe it.
The bathrooms are cool though, with each stall featuring a full-length portrait of a famous actress from a role played at this theatre. Well, all famous actresses save for Simon Russell Beale, who is pictured from a show where he played a woman. Fun times.
I feel terrible saying it, because I know so many theatre fans like myself really love it, but I do not understand why. I wanted to love this show SO BADLY and no matter how much I was putting out there, hoping that it would offer me just the eeniest bit of love back, it gave me nothing. The book was a mess. How can you mess up the drama and complexities of relationships between black people and their white bosses, during the ‘60s, in the American south, right when JFK gets assassinated? I mean come on, that setting is PRIME for dramatic mining. Well, you mess it up by trying to shoehorn into a single show the stories about the relationship between the black maid and the white child of the family she works for, AND how the white boy’s mother had recently died, AND how the boy’s musician father remarried his wife’s best friend so they would have a wife/mother, AND how the white boy is handling the new mother, AND how the maid is handling the new boss, AND how the maid is dealing with raising her kids alone, AND how the maid’s kids are growing up, AND how the white boy’s grandparents from each side clash with each other over politics, AND how those grandparents conflict with the maid’s daughter over politics, AND how the maid has to deal with her pride, AND how the maid is a real B word to her fellow maids that she sees at the bus stop and refuses to be civil toward, AND how the other maid that we see like maybe twice is going to night school and wearing bobby socks, AND how the moon is an actual character AND how the electrical appliances in the basement where the maid spends most of her time SING AND DANCE and it’s all supposed to mean something? Oh and how the one thing that bonds the maid and the white boy is that she lets him light her daily cigarette.
That’s a lot of story threads that instead of braiding together and forming a solid yarn, they diminish into little wisps and amount to nothing. All these little nothing wisps mashed together mean that there’s simultaneously wayyy too much going on and yet there’s zero emotional heft, zero connection with the material when there should be loads. I know ‘Angels in America’ is a masterpiece but I’m a little wary of seeing it now, Tony Toni Tone. It was like this was going for ‘Love, Actually’ with that many threads but instead it gave us ‘Valentine’s Day’. And like the stories in that movie, you end up not being satisfied with any thread and walking out thinking it was pedestrian at best. If they focused on the relationship between Caroline and Noah, and how Noah imagined his maid’s family life versus what it was actually like (the one minute where they do that is the most compelling part), then we’d have a worthwhile story. Oh, and if Caroline were anything close to being sympathetic or even a little kind. But she’s not. She’s been through a lot of hardship, and as a black woman in the ‘60s south her hardships will never end, but that’s not enough of a reason to accept her being a vessel of pure hatred towards everyone around her. I get that anti-heroes are popular nowadays, but they usually have an appealing trait of some sort, or the whisper of charm or a sense of humor or something. Caroline gives us nothing, and maybe the point is that she doesn’t have to, and in real life she wouldn’t have to, she wouldn’t owe anyone anything, but if you want me to care about this character in a play she’s going to have to be worth caring about. If we’re supposed to feel something besides revulsion, there’s no opportunity or reason for doing so.
The main story is: Caroline is the maid working for the Gellmans, a jewish family with a little boy named Noah, who is dealing with his mother’s loss and his new stepmother, Rose. You think at first that Caroline and Noah might have a sweet relationship, bonding in the basement after school as Caroline does her work, but she’s pretty mean to him all the time. Their one thing, like I said above, is that she lets Noah light her cigarette and he’s like ‘oh boy oh boy!’ and she’s like ‘hurry up I need a smoke then get out of my face’ and we’re like this is neither cute nor sweet nor appropriate for this kid, also his mother died from smoking. The stepmother, Rose, is upset with Noah because he always leaves his money in his pockets, which Caroline finds every day as she does the laundry, and she fills the bleach cup with it and returns it to the Gellmans, every penny of it. Rose tells Caroline, you know what, to teach Noah to value his money, let’s say that everything he leaves in his pockets, everything in the bleach cup at the end of the week, is yours to keep. This is difficult for Caroline to accept because it makes her seem like a beggar, scrounging for pennies, while Rose doesn’t see the problem with it. The extra money would help Caroline so much, but taking it is a huge blow to her pride. And so the ‘change’ of the title is both the change in the times and the literal change in the bleach cup. It’s kind of trite. Caroline has it hard, with four kids, one at war, and an ex-husband who was abusive. She’s understandably mean to everyone – her employers, Noah, the other maids in the neighborhood – but just because it’s understandable doesn’t mean it’s forgivable. She kind of sucks, and then at the end, as she gets meaner and meaner and for some reason unleashes her rage on Noah, she’s reprehensible.
Tony Kushner also wrote the lyrics, and they had me cringing in my seat. There were so many clunkers. I remember in the opening one of the grandfather’s sings about his deceased daughter’s smoking: “It killed her. She died. It killed her. She’s dead.” JESUS. Every other song mentioned how in Louisiana, the dead – and Caroline as she’s always in the basement – aren’t underground, but underwater. It’s kind of poetic and sets a certain mood, right? Yeah, the first 4 times. When you’re getting to the 20th, 30th mention of how we aren’t underground but underwater, it’s no longer profound or elegant or anything other than repetitive and annoying. We also hear a lot about how Noah’s mother played the bassoon. That’s an interesting fact, I guess. They talk about it a lot. Like a lot a lot. It does not seem that important the 15th time.
I wish that I could say Jeanine Tesori’s score was great despite Tony Kushner’s abysmal lyrics, but it wasn’t. Everything sounded the same and that same was pretty dull. It’s a real shame because I love Tesori’s other works – ‘Fun Home’ is a masterpiece, a true masterpiece, but I guess partnering with Lisa Kron was required for that one to shine. She wrote the great ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’, with lyricist Dick Scanlon. And she wrote ‘Violet’, which I adore, with Brian Crawley, and ‘Shrek’, which is surprisingly magical, with David Lindsay-Abaire. Suffice it to say, she doesn’t have a steady writing partner, and she needed one for ‘Caroline’. She’s such a legendary, wonderful musician and I just don’t get what she was doing here. The only song that I remembered when I left was the one when Noah sings, revolving round and round the stage, ‘On the first day day day Caroline stayed away way way and she didn’t come back back back and she didn’t come back back back.’ Repeat 5 times. And yes the melody is just as you think, like just a childhood rhyme. Omg it was painful. Now it’s in my head again dammit.
When I first realized I was trying incredibly hard, too hard, to enjoy this show, I figured it’s because the book and score, the bones of the show, are weak and inadequate. I assumed this production did the best it could with what meager bones it was working with, but I don’t think that’s entirely true. Directing this show is a huge challenge, and as I’ve only seen it once I can’t say what is this production’s doing differently. But I can say that the tone was all over the place, impossible to pin down. We have all the troubled relationships, all the misery and despair of the south, and then we have the bubbly singing washing machine, the terrifying singing dryer, the singing trio of girls (with ever-changing matching outfits that were impressive) representing the radio. At first I thought that was cute, and I assumed that the show would be the sort that could handle such bizarre portrayals of home goods, but it isn’t. Things only fell apart more when the moon arrived – the actress sits in a moon-shaped seat and floats through the rafters for a good chunk of the show – and still refuses to make any sense when paired with the dismal realism of the rest of the show. Nothing ever really gels, and yes a huge reason for that is because of the material, but the direction doesn’t help at all, nor do the performances, and I really hate saying that because this show has a great cast. But while Abiona Omonua’s Emmie was winning and adorable, Anika Noni Rose has that incredible voice that could really rip into her songs and make more out of them. I didn’t even realize until I looked at the programme after the fact that Rose was played by Lauren Ward, as in Miss Honey from the original West End and Broadway “Matilda” cast. Just had no idea. It’s hard to shine in that role. The Noah we saw was Aaron Gelkoff, a really talented kid who successfully made us feel for Noah even though he’s super annoying. And I always like Ako Mitchell but playing the dryer is just weird; there’s not much he can do with it even though it’s somehow one of the biggest parts.
But the biggest issue is with Caroline. She’s played by one of the few West End actors I actually really like, Sharon D. Clarke, who has been exceptional in everything I’ve seen her in. I thought she was fine here, making do with an unrewarding role, playing a woman who hates everyone and so we hate her back. But since seeing it, I’ve fallen down the youtube rabbit hole (fun fact: ‘Rabbit Hole’ was written by Tesori’s ‘Shrek’ writing partner Lindsay-Abaire) to watch videos of the original Caroline, Tonya Pinkins. Sharon was very one-note the entire time, but Pinkins adds layers that made it just a little easier to not hate her the entire time. Pinkins’s rendition of the one big song, “Lot’s Wife”, the 11 o’clock number, shows so much more emotion. Instead of just seething with anger and resentment, Pinkins’s performance shows anguish and hope and regret and a wish with her entire being that she could be better. Sharon’s Caroline was just stone-cold anger and hate; I got nothing else from her, and I think that’s a huge reason why it didn’t work for me.
Of course, Caroline isn’t a likable character, as written, and so there’s not much the actress can do with her anyway. She has no positive attributes to make an audience root for her. And instead of coming around at the end, maybe giving Noah a hug or even an encouraging word to show that their relationship is warmer than it seems, she unleashes all her venom onto him, all the hate that bubbles within her, and tells him that “Hell is where Jews go when they die.” I choked a little bit on the pure hatred that fills this statement — and the rest of the audience laughed. And I don’t mean nervous, tense laughter; I mean they belly laughed like this was a funny joke. I ran this by my Broadway people to see if it happens usually in other productions and, except for one person who said that a few people laughed when she saw it but it was really disturbing and most people gasped, everyone was like, ‘what, no that’s not a laugh line, that is so fucked up.’ It really is. Is Europe so awash in anti-Semitism again that London audiences are laughing at stuff like this? I’m horrified, as a NORMAL person would be, FFS. Anyway, after Caroline says a line that that to a little child, you lose whatever care you had for her and since she never makes amends for it or any of her bad behavior, it just loses you completely.
Even though this is all prettayyy prettayyy negative, it’s not entirely painful to watch. The cast is good, the vocals are all good. The story, or hodgepodge of potential stories, just really didn’t work for me, no matter how badly I wanted it to. I wonder if it will change at all before the West End transfer, but I don’t know how much of what’s problematic they actually could improve.
AUDIENCE
Clearly fucked up and terrifying.
HAMPSTEAD THEATRE
Whoever designed the Hampstead Theatre is batshit crazy. The only bathrooms are by the entrance, behind the box office. That’s REAL DUMB. God people are paid to do jobs like this, I can’t even believe it.
The bathrooms are cool though, with each stall featuring a full-length portrait of a famous actress from a role played at this theatre. Well, all famous actresses save for Simon Russell Beale, who is pictured from a show where he played a woman. Fun times.
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Show Boat on the West End: Top-Notch Production of a Classic Show
Lol I used the phrase ‘top-notch’ that proves that this is a) a really old show I’m gonna talk about and b) in England.
Here’s a confession for you. I didn’t really know “Show Boat” before I saw this production in London. Of course I knew it was an old classic show; this is my jam after all. And of course I knew the song “Bill” was from it, because I have everything Audra McDonald ever sang in my DNA (it’s on her album How Glory Goes). And of course I knew it was about an acting troupe on a boat and they put on shows because I read the title. But really, I never saw it before, and never listened to non-Audra recordings of the music. I’m sure I knew at one point that both “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” and “Old Man River”, super famous songs that I’m sure all of you are familiar with, are also in this show; I guess I just forgot. What an idiot! Such great songs!
Here’s a confession for you. I didn’t really know “Show Boat” before I saw this production in London. Of course I knew it was an old classic show; this is my jam after all. And of course I knew the song “Bill” was from it, because I have everything Audra McDonald ever sang in my DNA (it’s on her album How Glory Goes). And of course I knew it was about an acting troupe on a boat and they put on shows because I read the title. But really, I never saw it before, and never listened to non-Audra recordings of the music. I’m sure I knew at one point that both “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” and “Old Man River”, super famous songs that I’m sure all of you are familiar with, are also in this show; I guess I just forgot. What an idiot! Such great songs!
“Show Boat” is a very good show, a fantastic show if you account for the fact that it first opened on Broadway in 1927 and still plays well. NOT A TYPO. 1927. That is insanely long ago, so the fact that this show keeps playing today and drawing loving audiences is a huge achievement and testament to its quality. However, yeah, it is 90 years old and so I have some big issues with the book, mostly because women are painted as just needing a man. But like that’s still common in art today, like 90% of it is about that, so really, I guess “Show Boat” was 90 years ahead of its time.
So it tells the story of a troupe of performers on a riverboat down south called the Cotton Blossom, which is an absolutely smashing name for a boat down south. The captain of the boat, the jovial Santa of a man Captain Andy (Malcolm Sinclair, great), runs everything – the boat, the show, the troupe – with his domineering stern wife Parthy Ann (oof with that name) (oy with the poodles). Actually I think it has to be Cap’n Andy. Their daughter Magnolia (Gina Beck) yearns to be an actress but is not allowed because she is too innocent and lovely and young to be in acting, said while fanning themselves. Her best friend in the whole world is Julie La Verne (Rebecca Trehearn), the leading lady in the troupe, whose husband is the leading man. You know that Julie has a past and a disreputable character because Magnolia’s parents don’t like her spending time with Julie, scared she’ll become ruined or get her clothes dirty or something. The rest of the acting troupe is solid, with the cheeky blonde comedienne (I hate that gendered word but it is appropriate here because she was totally old-fashioned ‘20s-style ‘comedienne’, and she’s told many, many times that that is what she was) Ellie May and her nimble suitor Frank (Danny Collins, a dead ringer for Ethan Embry in that graduation party movie) making me like them more than I expected. Alex Young’s Ellie seemed over the top at first but she quickly grew on me and like, that’s how the character is. While the troupe troupes it up onboard, the black dock workers do literally backbreaking work, never resting, getting underpaid to say the least. With Queenie, the cook, and Joe, her husband and one of the workers, the cast is pretty large and full of interesting characters who could each have a show about them. We don’t know much about Joe, but he is the one who sings “Old Man River”, which was a truly magical moment, hearing that in the theatre. I was really eager to see Emmanuel Kojo as Joe, but he was out (as was Sandra Marvin as Queenie), so I was disappointed at first. But both of those understudies were fabulous, and I really can’t imagine Old Man River being more moving. Pretty great actors all around, which you know I rarely say.
While docked in Southern Town, a mysterious stranger approaches the deck while Magnolia is like standing around or something in the moonlight. Naturally they fall in love because Magnolia is like ‘oh boy there’s a boy on my deck!’ and this super shadowy but intriguing figure is like ‘oh my there’s a girl who is young and pretty’ and they sing lovely soaring songs about how much they love each other before he has to go. I am pretty sure they don’t say his name yet? That’s love. Magnolia goes into the kitchen to hang with her friends, Julie and the black servants, and they have a gay old time singing “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” and it was swonderful. Truly.
Then, in the middle of a rehearsal, the sheriff or some other fake drunk-with-power armed law enforcement comes into the room and shouts about how there’s rumors of illegal miscegenation floating around and hoo boy we can’t have that. The alleged criminal is Julie La Verne herself, the leading lady and ostensibly white lady married to a white man. It’s a pretty brutal scene with everyone crying as Julie admits that she is actually mixed, but then her husband says that he is too, so it’s fine. He’s obviously not, but everyone in the company lies for him/them and the sheriff lets them go if they leave town, which sucks but beats being shot. The scene is distressing for everyone, especially America, and especially for Julie and Magnolia, whose sisterly bond was one of the few things the other had to count on. Luckily for Magnolia, mysterious stranger shows up to be the new leading man! and Magnolia is going to take Julie’s place since she already knows all the lines, so it’s like a tragedy became a fairy tale for her! No more tears because the handsome stranger you have a crush on is here, so who cares about your old friend and institutionalized racism! I mean she is a teenager, Magnolia, so you expect flightiness but freal, there are 5 seconds between her crying and her flirting. Oh child.
So Julie’s gone pretty early, and then we see her for ONE SONG in the second act. Granted, it’s the best song, but – I’m gonna state it – Julie la Verne is the most wasted great character in musical theatre. She has the two best songs in the show, she has such an interesting backstory and regular story, and yet those two songs are pretty much all she does. We don’t see her in Act II except for “Bill”. Don’t get me wrong, her “Bill” is a reason to see this show, most critics say the main reason because it is that good. But without a story to go with her current situation, I wasn’t all the way involved. Granted, I always thought this song was sung about a person named Bill in the show that the character was actually in love with, and not a forced ‘rehearsal for the cabaret tonight’ shoehorning into the plot. But still, it’s clear enough that the song is applicable to her current situation, we just don’t see any of it and it’s a shame because she’s so darn interesting. Did anyone write a spinoff show about her? Because I would see that.
Anyway, back in main plotland, the two lovebirds learn each other’s names and unfortunately his happens to be Gaylord Ravenal. I know. They wisely mainly refer to him as just Ravenal. They fall in love and get married like the next day or some such, and then they move to Chicago and have a baby. Sounds like a smart plan that you fully thought through.
So Gaylord turns out to be a gambler, Magnolia quickly learns, soon after she learns his name and that oh he’s her husband. He disappears a great deal, losing their money so frequently that they have to rent their rooms out. Kim, their daughter, grows up with hero worship on her father even though she saw him maybe 5 times during her childhood in convent school (sounds fun). Gaylord finally disappears for good, leaving Magnolia via a LETTER that she gets while ELLIE MAY AND FRANK are WITH HER and they have become super successful Hollywood stars and it’s SO EMBARRASSING for poor Magnolia and hot damn, did she get the shit end of the stick. Ellie helps her get a job at a cabaret singing, which is where Julie is, but while Julie sees Magnolia, Julie doesn’t let Magnolia see her. It’s all very sad and, again, worthy of MORE ATTENTION. Anyway. No use in trying to change a book that is 90 years old. Stuck in its ways and all that.
I don’t usually talk in detail about endings (or do I) because I don’t want to spoil things but the ending of this was done so well that I have to. Also its spoiler warning period expired 85 years ago. Things happen because like, 20 or 30 years pass or some such craziness? and Magnolia and a now grown-up Kim are on the Cotton Blossom because Kim is performing. She’s a performer now too. As Magnolia stands atop the boat, looking down, Gaylord appears. Because he’s a man and it was (and is) allowed for men to be total shits, everyone is ecstatic welcoming him back. Magnolia is the only one who is reserved, silent, while Kim runs to her father with open arms. Everyone else is totally fine with him. I would have said fuck you and the horse you rode in on. And that would probably be the only time I ever said that when the person really likely would have actually been on a horse. I mean, okay, so it’s 90 years old but even so, a story where a man abandons his wife and daughter because he’s a gambler and a shit and then comes back to open arms after 30 years is bullshit. Ugh I was like TURN HIM AWAY, QUEENIE.
Gaylord Ravenal I believe was the inspiration for naming Ben Stiller’s character in the “Meet the Parents” movies because man alive was he a focker. I did not see it coming that he was gonna be such a gaylord focker, either, so I was like dayummm she shoulda never met this focker. Ravenal was excellently played by Chris Peluso, who the programme tells me just graduated from U Michigan…so he is an American (USA! USA!) but also a child. Oh and he’s from Pennsylvania so at least there’s one more person in London who knows what Groundhog Day is. More importantly, he was really quite good. He looked strikingly like the Stark boy from Game of Sexist Violence, what’s his name? Rob! He looks like Rob Stark, so much that I just kind of accepted that it was him, actually. I should have known then that things wouldn’t go well. I mean, not that they don’t go well for him, he’s the man causing all the trouble so he’s fine, happy ever after as per uzh, but he’s just a dick for everyone else’s lives. Mostly women’s, so who cares!
I’m not sure if we are supposed to revile him along with Magnolia or feel pity for her or agree with Kim and rejoice at his return for her sake. Luckily, Gina Beck is so flinging flanging incredible as Magnolia that she makes everything okay: Magnolia stands atop the scene the whole time, and when she makes eye contact with Gaylord, she tells him that she’s fine, that she doesn’t despise him any more, that it’s okay that he’s back but just for Kim’s sake. But she doesn’t say any of that with words. All she does is make a little nod of reluctant acceptance, standing at top of boat watching over them, the slightest movement. It was right before blackout and reminded me of Eliza’s gasp that ends “Hamilton” (sorry spoiler!) and was so powerful that I gasp-cried at how perfect it was. Gina Beck was f-ing phenomenal. It was the best leading lady performance I’ve seen in London in a really long time, and I was shocked. I’ve seen her quite a few times in other shows, but this was beyond anything I could have expected of her. Just absolutely the role she was born to play. Her voice was perfect on this score, and p.s., it was a weekday matinee. Sometimes people hold back a little on those to save their voice and energy for the big shows. Nopers. She gave it everything.
Damn I’m still feeling that ending. So good but so devastating. At least no one gets killed. I was mixing up the plot of Carousel and other southerny shows in my head so I kept waiting for someone nice to get killed, Julie or Joe or someone tragic. Yay it didn’t happen! Just abandonment of a family and institutional racism! Even with all that, “Show Boat” is one of the classics and it’s such a special experience to see live in a big production, with such a stellar cast. Everything was done well in this production.
Oh I learned afterwards that the song “I Have the Room Above Her”, which I know and love because of Mandy Patinkin’s album Oscar & Steve, wasn’t included in this revival. It’s not actually part of the original score, as it was written for the 1936 movie and not the 1927 theatre production, but come on it was still written by Kern & Hammerstein AND included in the last Broadway revival AND Mandy Patinkin sang it. I guess really I would have been disappointed that Mandy wasn’t singing it if they did include it here but still, such a lovely song.
The show is closing by the end of the month because people are stupid so SEE IT GODAMMIT SEE IT NOW.
AUDIENCE
The audience was fine from my vantage point, which is astounding considering it was 99% white hair, which usually means phones that don’t get turned off. Aside from awful perfume, it was actually a really good audience. One thing that bothered me though, about the New London theatre, is that the programmes were $6 instead of the usual $4. I’m already paying for my programme and now you’re gonna charge extra? BUH-LERGH.
STAGEDOOR
I didn’t! But people seemed to be coming out to meet their friends as I was walking home.
So it tells the story of a troupe of performers on a riverboat down south called the Cotton Blossom, which is an absolutely smashing name for a boat down south. The captain of the boat, the jovial Santa of a man Captain Andy (Malcolm Sinclair, great), runs everything – the boat, the show, the troupe – with his domineering stern wife Parthy Ann (oof with that name) (oy with the poodles). Actually I think it has to be Cap’n Andy. Their daughter Magnolia (Gina Beck) yearns to be an actress but is not allowed because she is too innocent and lovely and young to be in acting, said while fanning themselves. Her best friend in the whole world is Julie La Verne (Rebecca Trehearn), the leading lady in the troupe, whose husband is the leading man. You know that Julie has a past and a disreputable character because Magnolia’s parents don’t like her spending time with Julie, scared she’ll become ruined or get her clothes dirty or something. The rest of the acting troupe is solid, with the cheeky blonde comedienne (I hate that gendered word but it is appropriate here because she was totally old-fashioned ‘20s-style ‘comedienne’, and she’s told many, many times that that is what she was) Ellie May and her nimble suitor Frank (Danny Collins, a dead ringer for Ethan Embry in that graduation party movie) making me like them more than I expected. Alex Young’s Ellie seemed over the top at first but she quickly grew on me and like, that’s how the character is. While the troupe troupes it up onboard, the black dock workers do literally backbreaking work, never resting, getting underpaid to say the least. With Queenie, the cook, and Joe, her husband and one of the workers, the cast is pretty large and full of interesting characters who could each have a show about them. We don’t know much about Joe, but he is the one who sings “Old Man River”, which was a truly magical moment, hearing that in the theatre. I was really eager to see Emmanuel Kojo as Joe, but he was out (as was Sandra Marvin as Queenie), so I was disappointed at first. But both of those understudies were fabulous, and I really can’t imagine Old Man River being more moving. Pretty great actors all around, which you know I rarely say.
While docked in Southern Town, a mysterious stranger approaches the deck while Magnolia is like standing around or something in the moonlight. Naturally they fall in love because Magnolia is like ‘oh boy there’s a boy on my deck!’ and this super shadowy but intriguing figure is like ‘oh my there’s a girl who is young and pretty’ and they sing lovely soaring songs about how much they love each other before he has to go. I am pretty sure they don’t say his name yet? That’s love. Magnolia goes into the kitchen to hang with her friends, Julie and the black servants, and they have a gay old time singing “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” and it was swonderful. Truly.
Then, in the middle of a rehearsal, the sheriff or some other fake drunk-with-power armed law enforcement comes into the room and shouts about how there’s rumors of illegal miscegenation floating around and hoo boy we can’t have that. The alleged criminal is Julie La Verne herself, the leading lady and ostensibly white lady married to a white man. It’s a pretty brutal scene with everyone crying as Julie admits that she is actually mixed, but then her husband says that he is too, so it’s fine. He’s obviously not, but everyone in the company lies for him/them and the sheriff lets them go if they leave town, which sucks but beats being shot. The scene is distressing for everyone, especially America, and especially for Julie and Magnolia, whose sisterly bond was one of the few things the other had to count on. Luckily for Magnolia, mysterious stranger shows up to be the new leading man! and Magnolia is going to take Julie’s place since she already knows all the lines, so it’s like a tragedy became a fairy tale for her! No more tears because the handsome stranger you have a crush on is here, so who cares about your old friend and institutionalized racism! I mean she is a teenager, Magnolia, so you expect flightiness but freal, there are 5 seconds between her crying and her flirting. Oh child.
So Julie’s gone pretty early, and then we see her for ONE SONG in the second act. Granted, it’s the best song, but – I’m gonna state it – Julie la Verne is the most wasted great character in musical theatre. She has the two best songs in the show, she has such an interesting backstory and regular story, and yet those two songs are pretty much all she does. We don’t see her in Act II except for “Bill”. Don’t get me wrong, her “Bill” is a reason to see this show, most critics say the main reason because it is that good. But without a story to go with her current situation, I wasn’t all the way involved. Granted, I always thought this song was sung about a person named Bill in the show that the character was actually in love with, and not a forced ‘rehearsal for the cabaret tonight’ shoehorning into the plot. But still, it’s clear enough that the song is applicable to her current situation, we just don’t see any of it and it’s a shame because she’s so darn interesting. Did anyone write a spinoff show about her? Because I would see that.
Anyway, back in main plotland, the two lovebirds learn each other’s names and unfortunately his happens to be Gaylord Ravenal. I know. They wisely mainly refer to him as just Ravenal. They fall in love and get married like the next day or some such, and then they move to Chicago and have a baby. Sounds like a smart plan that you fully thought through.
So Gaylord turns out to be a gambler, Magnolia quickly learns, soon after she learns his name and that oh he’s her husband. He disappears a great deal, losing their money so frequently that they have to rent their rooms out. Kim, their daughter, grows up with hero worship on her father even though she saw him maybe 5 times during her childhood in convent school (sounds fun). Gaylord finally disappears for good, leaving Magnolia via a LETTER that she gets while ELLIE MAY AND FRANK are WITH HER and they have become super successful Hollywood stars and it’s SO EMBARRASSING for poor Magnolia and hot damn, did she get the shit end of the stick. Ellie helps her get a job at a cabaret singing, which is where Julie is, but while Julie sees Magnolia, Julie doesn’t let Magnolia see her. It’s all very sad and, again, worthy of MORE ATTENTION. Anyway. No use in trying to change a book that is 90 years old. Stuck in its ways and all that.
I don’t usually talk in detail about endings (or do I) because I don’t want to spoil things but the ending of this was done so well that I have to. Also its spoiler warning period expired 85 years ago. Things happen because like, 20 or 30 years pass or some such craziness? and Magnolia and a now grown-up Kim are on the Cotton Blossom because Kim is performing. She’s a performer now too. As Magnolia stands atop the boat, looking down, Gaylord appears. Because he’s a man and it was (and is) allowed for men to be total shits, everyone is ecstatic welcoming him back. Magnolia is the only one who is reserved, silent, while Kim runs to her father with open arms. Everyone else is totally fine with him. I would have said fuck you and the horse you rode in on. And that would probably be the only time I ever said that when the person really likely would have actually been on a horse. I mean, okay, so it’s 90 years old but even so, a story where a man abandons his wife and daughter because he’s a gambler and a shit and then comes back to open arms after 30 years is bullshit. Ugh I was like TURN HIM AWAY, QUEENIE.
Gaylord Ravenal I believe was the inspiration for naming Ben Stiller’s character in the “Meet the Parents” movies because man alive was he a focker. I did not see it coming that he was gonna be such a gaylord focker, either, so I was like dayummm she shoulda never met this focker. Ravenal was excellently played by Chris Peluso, who the programme tells me just graduated from U Michigan…so he is an American (USA! USA!) but also a child. Oh and he’s from Pennsylvania so at least there’s one more person in London who knows what Groundhog Day is. More importantly, he was really quite good. He looked strikingly like the Stark boy from Game of Sexist Violence, what’s his name? Rob! He looks like Rob Stark, so much that I just kind of accepted that it was him, actually. I should have known then that things wouldn’t go well. I mean, not that they don’t go well for him, he’s the man causing all the trouble so he’s fine, happy ever after as per uzh, but he’s just a dick for everyone else’s lives. Mostly women’s, so who cares!
I’m not sure if we are supposed to revile him along with Magnolia or feel pity for her or agree with Kim and rejoice at his return for her sake. Luckily, Gina Beck is so flinging flanging incredible as Magnolia that she makes everything okay: Magnolia stands atop the scene the whole time, and when she makes eye contact with Gaylord, she tells him that she’s fine, that she doesn’t despise him any more, that it’s okay that he’s back but just for Kim’s sake. But she doesn’t say any of that with words. All she does is make a little nod of reluctant acceptance, standing at top of boat watching over them, the slightest movement. It was right before blackout and reminded me of Eliza’s gasp that ends “Hamilton” (sorry spoiler!) and was so powerful that I gasp-cried at how perfect it was. Gina Beck was f-ing phenomenal. It was the best leading lady performance I’ve seen in London in a really long time, and I was shocked. I’ve seen her quite a few times in other shows, but this was beyond anything I could have expected of her. Just absolutely the role she was born to play. Her voice was perfect on this score, and p.s., it was a weekday matinee. Sometimes people hold back a little on those to save their voice and energy for the big shows. Nopers. She gave it everything.
Damn I’m still feeling that ending. So good but so devastating. At least no one gets killed. I was mixing up the plot of Carousel and other southerny shows in my head so I kept waiting for someone nice to get killed, Julie or Joe or someone tragic. Yay it didn’t happen! Just abandonment of a family and institutional racism! Even with all that, “Show Boat” is one of the classics and it’s such a special experience to see live in a big production, with such a stellar cast. Everything was done well in this production.
Oh I learned afterwards that the song “I Have the Room Above Her”, which I know and love because of Mandy Patinkin’s album Oscar & Steve, wasn’t included in this revival. It’s not actually part of the original score, as it was written for the 1936 movie and not the 1927 theatre production, but come on it was still written by Kern & Hammerstein AND included in the last Broadway revival AND Mandy Patinkin sang it. I guess really I would have been disappointed that Mandy wasn’t singing it if they did include it here but still, such a lovely song.
The show is closing by the end of the month because people are stupid so SEE IT GODAMMIT SEE IT NOW.
AUDIENCE
The audience was fine from my vantage point, which is astounding considering it was 99% white hair, which usually means phones that don’t get turned off. Aside from awful perfume, it was actually a really good audience. One thing that bothered me though, about the New London theatre, is that the programmes were $6 instead of the usual $4. I’m already paying for my programme and now you’re gonna charge extra? BUH-LERGH.
STAGEDOOR
I didn’t! But people seemed to be coming out to meet their friends as I was walking home.
Home, I’m Darling at the Duke of York: London’s Best New (ish) Play of 2019
It’s Theatre Thursday! Today we are talking about Home, I’m Darling, which is currently playing on theWest End at the Duke of York theatre.
If this picture looks familiar to you, it’s for a good reason: we looked at the new play Home, I’m Darling only five months ago, when it played London’s National Theatre. Further confusing the rules about what constitutes West End and what doesn’t (and more confusingly, since shows at the National are sometimes eligible for Olivier Awards, what the fork the Olivier eligibility is), this play that I absolutely adored last time around has transferred to the official West End. Funnily enough, I saw the very last performance of this show at the National, and I didn’t realize until the interval that I was at the very first preview performance of this West End run, so even though they were five months apart, I saw back-to-back performances. Usually I would frown upon any public critique of a first preview, since they are supposed to be used for making changes. But I have nothing but praise for this show, so I don’t think they’ll mind. Despite a few changes from the last go round, the show was just as I remembered, except tighter and maybe even more enjoyable.
Home, I’m Darling, the pitch perfect comedy from Laura Wade, is the story of Judy (Katherine Parkinson, perfect as ever) and Johnny (Richard Harrington), a married couple who decides to fully immerse themselves in the ‘50s lifestyle they admire by having Judy stop work to become a housewife. Judy is devoted to cleaning the house with era-appropriate methods, cooking era-appropriate meals, wearing era-appropriate clothes (the costumes are still amazing) and generally letting her husband lead the way. While the concept could easily become cartoony, or fail to connect if audiences (like me) think ‘that’s a bad move, Judy’, the play delves into all the issues around this kind of lifestyle and all the problems people would encounter whether they are fully on board or not, making the story much more thought-provoking and interesting than it’s (incredible) candy-colored set would have you initially guess. Doing this in such a masterful way means the whole ‘50s thing is kind of just a framing device for analyzing a typical marriage and the problems couples face after a certain amount of time. I can’t think of another modern play that explores the intricacies of the relationship between husband and wife in such a compelling way while remaining as entertaining and funny.
As ever, Katherine Parkinson gives a star performance, with every decision and movement the property of Judy, even, I believe, the intriguing tone of her voice and manner of delivery. But my real surprise here was Harrington, who didn’t strike me the last time through as Parkinson did. With the passage of time, he has really come to understand Johnny and make his decisions much more convincing and understandable. Together, the two are flawless.
Excitingly, the rest of the cast is mostly changed, and all the newcomers were giving spot-on performances at the first performance. Judy’s mother, now played by Susan Brown, continues to be the persuasive voice of reason, at least to me, in her quest to end this game of her daughter’s that is wasting her potential. It’s a small role, though the mother does get some great monologues, but Brown makes her presence felt so strongly and does so much with what she has that she seems a much bigger character.
I was upset at first to see that Judy’s friend Fran was recast, because at the National, Fran was played by the only actor of color in the whole cast (Kathryn Drysdale). Being a woman of color gave Fran’s interest in following Judy’s lead as a ‘50s-style housewife even more depth, and could have been enhanced to show her assessment of the role. But the new Fran, Siubhan Harrison, really is fantastic. I’ve only seen her in musicals before, so I was impressed by her performance in this straight play. My absolute favorite small moment of the whole show came from her: when Fran and her husband Marcus (still an entertaining scumbag!) are at Judy and Johnny’s house having tea, and Judy brings out her ridiculous achievement of a cake (which Marcus proclaims the best he has ever had), Judy cuts herself a piece and I noticed she shoved the rest of her slice of the ‘interesting’ cake that Fran brought back onto the serving tray. As everyone kept talking and the focus was elsewhere, Fran looked downward for a second and seemed embarrassed. I found this moment incredible, doing so much in literally one second when we’re not even supposed to be looking at Fran.
Yet everything in this play feels this detailed, from the delightful set (and that Act II change, wonderful) to the accurate costumes to the never-ending ballet of food. I mentioned last time that I’ve never seen so much food in a play before. I think we see Judy preparing all three of Johnny’s daily meals (plus snacks and drinks and dessert) for every day we see. I don’t know how they keep it all straight (and I really hope it doesn’t all go to waste). But every aspect of the play had to be this precise to keep up with the writing, which is engaging and unpredictably captivating. Home, I’m Darling is such an unexpected gem that I can’t help but love.
INFORMATION
Every single other piece about this show annoyingly repeats “for 11 weeks only” so I will give you the actual end date: April 13. Was that so hard, everyone else?
After the run on the West End, the show will be touring the UK, with dates in Bath, Salford, and back to its Welsh home of Theatre Clwyd which no I have no idea how to pronounce, it’s probably like Smith or something.
The show is 2 hours 30 minutes with one interval. Like all West End theatres, the Duke of York is in need of a refurb, especially when it comes to the bathrooms – if you sit in the front right stalls, the closest ladies room is up the stairs in the mezzanine, which is very, very stupid.
It’s Theatre Thursday! Today we are talking about Home, I’m Darling, which is currently playing on theWest End at the Duke of York theatre.
If this picture looks familiar to you, it’s for a good reason: we looked at the new play Home, I’m Darling only five months ago, when it played London’s National Theatre. Further confusing the rules about what constitutes West End and what doesn’t (and more confusingly, since shows at the National are sometimes eligible for Olivier Awards, what the fork the Olivier eligibility is), this play that I absolutely adored last time around has transferred to the official West End. Funnily enough, I saw the very last performance of this show at the National, and I didn’t realize until the interval that I was at the very first preview performance of this West End run, so even though they were five months apart, I saw back-to-back performances. Usually I would frown upon any public critique of a first preview, since they are supposed to be used for making changes. But I have nothing but praise for this show, so I don’t think they’ll mind. Despite a few changes from the last go round, the show was just as I remembered, except tighter and maybe even more enjoyable.
Home, I’m Darling, the pitch perfect comedy from Laura Wade, is the story of Judy (Katherine Parkinson, perfect as ever) and Johnny (Richard Harrington), a married couple who decides to fully immerse themselves in the ‘50s lifestyle they admire by having Judy stop work to become a housewife. Judy is devoted to cleaning the house with era-appropriate methods, cooking era-appropriate meals, wearing era-appropriate clothes (the costumes are still amazing) and generally letting her husband lead the way. While the concept could easily become cartoony, or fail to connect if audiences (like me) think ‘that’s a bad move, Judy’, the play delves into all the issues around this kind of lifestyle and all the problems people would encounter whether they are fully on board or not, making the story much more thought-provoking and interesting than it’s (incredible) candy-colored set would have you initially guess. Doing this in such a masterful way means the whole ‘50s thing is kind of just a framing device for analyzing a typical marriage and the problems couples face after a certain amount of time. I can’t think of another modern play that explores the intricacies of the relationship between husband and wife in such a compelling way while remaining as entertaining and funny.
As ever, Katherine Parkinson gives a star performance, with every decision and movement the property of Judy, even, I believe, the intriguing tone of her voice and manner of delivery. But my real surprise here was Harrington, who didn’t strike me the last time through as Parkinson did. With the passage of time, he has really come to understand Johnny and make his decisions much more convincing and understandable. Together, the two are flawless.
Excitingly, the rest of the cast is mostly changed, and all the newcomers were giving spot-on performances at the first performance. Judy’s mother, now played by Susan Brown, continues to be the persuasive voice of reason, at least to me, in her quest to end this game of her daughter’s that is wasting her potential. It’s a small role, though the mother does get some great monologues, but Brown makes her presence felt so strongly and does so much with what she has that she seems a much bigger character.
I was upset at first to see that Judy’s friend Fran was recast, because at the National, Fran was played by the only actor of color in the whole cast (Kathryn Drysdale). Being a woman of color gave Fran’s interest in following Judy’s lead as a ‘50s-style housewife even more depth, and could have been enhanced to show her assessment of the role. But the new Fran, Siubhan Harrison, really is fantastic. I’ve only seen her in musicals before, so I was impressed by her performance in this straight play. My absolute favorite small moment of the whole show came from her: when Fran and her husband Marcus (still an entertaining scumbag!) are at Judy and Johnny’s house having tea, and Judy brings out her ridiculous achievement of a cake (which Marcus proclaims the best he has ever had), Judy cuts herself a piece and I noticed she shoved the rest of her slice of the ‘interesting’ cake that Fran brought back onto the serving tray. As everyone kept talking and the focus was elsewhere, Fran looked downward for a second and seemed embarrassed. I found this moment incredible, doing so much in literally one second when we’re not even supposed to be looking at Fran.
Yet everything in this play feels this detailed, from the delightful set (and that Act II change, wonderful) to the accurate costumes to the never-ending ballet of food. I mentioned last time that I’ve never seen so much food in a play before. I think we see Judy preparing all three of Johnny’s daily meals (plus snacks and drinks and dessert) for every day we see. I don’t know how they keep it all straight (and I really hope it doesn’t all go to waste). But every aspect of the play had to be this precise to keep up with the writing, which is engaging and unpredictably captivating. Home, I’m Darling is such an unexpected gem that I can’t help but love.
INFORMATION
Every single other piece about this show annoyingly repeats “for 11 weeks only” so I will give you the actual end date: April 13. Was that so hard, everyone else?
After the run on the West End, the show will be touring the UK, with dates in Bath, Salford, and back to its Welsh home of Theatre Clwyd which no I have no idea how to pronounce, it’s probably like Smith or something.
The show is 2 hours 30 minutes with one interval. Like all West End theatres, the Duke of York is in need of a refurb, especially when it comes to the bathrooms – if you sit in the front right stalls, the closest ladies room is up the stairs in the mezzanine, which is very, very stupid.
