Tag Archives: Hemi Yeroham

“La Cage Aux Folles” at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

After so many fantastic musicals during his time as director at the venue, Tim Sheader’s final revival at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre deserves acclaim. The much-loved 1983 piece is produced with, well, lots of love. Clearly close to many hearts, the staging is carefully crafted, Sheader’s work impeccable and the audience reaction euphoric.

La Cage Aux Folles is undoubtedly effective – but it is simple. The book by Harvey Fierstein is a model of clarity. Yet the story of drag queen Albin and his partner Georges’ child getting married doesn’t take much time. And although each of Jerry Herman’s songs are hits (not just I Am What I Am), there really aren’t that many tunes.

So, the strength of the production comes with the performances at the eponymous cabaret. Stephen Mear’s choreography is fantastic, the performers acrobatic, and Ryan Dawson Laight’s costumes accomplished (with some lovely nods to the 1970s setting). It wouldn’t be surprising if members of this chorus – or ‘Cagelles’ – each had a show.

Carl-Mullaney-and-Billy-Carter-in-La-Cage-aux-Folles-credit-Johan-Persson
Carl Mullaney and Billy Carter

This is not to detract from the leads, from whom Sheader has secured strong comic performances. Billy Carter plays Georges and has the night club host patter down well. Carl Mullaney’s experience as a cabaret host also shows with his confident Albin. Whenever either has a microphone in hand (nice touch) there is fun. Mention should also be made of Ben Culleton, as their son Jean-Michel, who impresses with a fine voice and great dancing (with Sophie Pourret).

Behind-the-scenes action sometimes feels a little lost in the space. Seeing the Cagelles from the other side of the curtain is a nice idea (and it gives Hemi Yeroham a chance to shine as a stage manager), but you can’t help wondering if it’s all to help with costume changes. That said, the changes of outfits are worth it, and the stage needs to be big to accommodate dance scenes that release a real sense of euphoria.

Private moments suffer from a similar problem – it sometimes feels that the show might be better in a more intimate location. Georges and Albin’s romance convinces but seems small next to the big numbers. Maybe the change of scale is a sweet observation of its own? Along with their son, there is a palpable sense of care and closeness that is touching. La Cage Aux Folles has a simple message about family (hopefully one we’ve all now learned) and it makes it powerfully enough to get the audience up on its feet.

Until 23 September 2023

www.openairtheatre.com

Photos by Johan Persson

“Berberian Sound Studio” at the Donmar Warehouse

This must be the show of a lifetime for composers and sound designers Ben and Max Ringham. It follows a fictional sound engineer – the oddly named Gilderoy – who is working on an Italian horror film, and a claim might be made that sound is the subject matter for this whole show. Let’s be ringing, crystal clear that the Ringhams do a great job throughout. It is their night… but perhaps theirs alone.

A too thin plot fails to hold attention even at just over 90 minutes. As Gilderoy works behind the scenes to find a particularly horrible noise, and as his backstory is clumsily developed, there’s little tension and no surprises. Tom Brooke makes for a charismatic lead, doing well to restrain the hammy humour in the piece, but the character’s timid English manners are too caricatured, and contrasting his inhibitions with his continental colleagues becomes painful. As for the continually promised horror that’s played with, you’d have to be very timid to jump even once. While Gilderoy is searching for what frightens us most, his biggest fear is literally written above him in lights – no wonder the quest ends up dragging.

Weightier themes painfully forced into the play are the real terror here: Art and Ethics, screamed out loud. We get two sides of the debate, first from a voiceover actress offended by torture scenes. Eugenia Caruso does well and manages to craft a credible character here, but her points are pretty obvious. Then the auteur director himself comes in with a seductive defence. Credit to Luke Pasqualino, who has a good stab at making the part memorable, but the appearance is too brief and, by the time he arrives, it’s already obvious that the film being worked on is too awful to bother about.

Director Tom Scutt tries hard to raise the stakes. This show is clearly a pet project for him and writer Joel Horwood, who have brought Peter Strickland’s screenplay to the stage. As well as bells and whistles, Lee Curran’s lighting design includes complete blackouts (rarer than you’d think in the theatre). And there’s an effort at comedy with two assistants, both called Massimo (chortle), played by Tom Espiner and Hemi Yeroham, whose creation of the sound effects before our eyes proves a diversion. But restricting action to the booths that make up Scutt’s and Anna Yates’ design makes the show static, as surprisingly little of the stage is used. And placing the actresses’ booth in one corner of the stage is a big mistake – if you do bother to see the show, don’t sit stage right. Time and again it’s too clear that a film would be (and was) more effective. There’s a growing frustration that anyone bothered to stage the piece at all. Let’s hope that the Ringhams, at least, had fun.

Until 30 March 2019

www.donmarwarehouse.com

Photo by Marc Brenner