Tag Archives: Laurence O’Keefe

“Heathers – The Musical” at the Theatre Royal Haymarket

Like the 1989 film on which it is based, Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe’s musical aims for cult status. Given a brief West End run that is well worth catching, the show can make a claim for that status: the production, directed by Andy Fickman, keeps popping up and fans are as enthusiastic as the energetic performances on offer. 

Heathers has its quirks – not all of them work – but there’s a striving for originality that is admirable. The show enjoys a twisted sensibility that, in truth, has limited shock value. And you can question how the topics of teenage suicide and mass killing are handled. What, no trigger warning? Nonetheless, the show is well above average.

Twists on high-school dramas are as predictable as high-school dramas themselves. But the titular characters here, popular girls who share the same first name, are impressively repulsive. Led by Jodie Steele, who makes her role fool-proof with its brashness, the trio are fun. Our actual heroes are the real psychopaths, with roles that aren’t much more convincing, even if Christina Bennington and Jordan Luke Gage give their very best.

The music is good. This is a fine collection of rock/pop songs on the right side of late 1980s pastiche. If there aren’t enough stand-out numbers, collectively the score and lyrics are impressive. And all the numbers demand powerful vocals provided by everyone on stage. It’s rousing stuff, often funny and occasionally original. The choreography, from Gary Lloyd (also associate director), with mirroring moves to show the Heathers’ influence on others, is also strong. The production is almost entertaining enough to ignore what is actually going on.

Lauren Ward Heathers The Musical credit Pamela Raith
Lauren Ward

In common with lots of teen dramas, the adults in the piece are awful (even with the excellent Lauren Ward putting in a star turn as a hippy teacher). It might be better to excise them altogether. And while strong female characters are welcome, might balance help? I think every named male character is either a potential rapist, a closeted homosexual or a serial killer!

Following the movie closely makes the plot cumbersome on stage. Murphy and O’Keefe’s tweaks are good – especially having victims appear as ghosts, not least because we get to see more of Steele – but they only add to a plot that starts to become unwieldy. And we do have to address the very serious subject matter. Not because musicals can’t tackle such subjects, or that humour shouldn’t be used to examine them, but because Heathers doesn’t deal with violence well. In a long show, questions of motive and morality are shoehorned in or glossed over. A too speedy resolution and homespun wisdom tacked on don’t do the subject – or the show – justice.

Until 11 September 2021

www.heathermusical.com

Photos by Pamela Raith

“Bat Boy” at the Southwark Playhouse

This cultish musical, which ran for a few months at the Shaftesbury Theatre back in 2004, has been revived by Morphic Graffiti’s director Luke Fredericks and designer Stewart Charlesworth. Its camp, fringe feel has an appeal, taking a tabloid fantasy of a boy who is partly a bat and having fun trying to make such an outlandish premise fly.

Bat Boy is really a standard misunderstood monster story. Our sympathies lie with the young orphan, renamed Edgar and taught to speak RP, while fun is made of the small town hicks our vampiric hero seeks approval from. It’s a strong role for the titular character, played with athleticism by Rob Compton, who earns the distinction of sounding good with fangs.

Matthew White and the excellent Lauren Ward perform well as the local vet and his wife, the Parkers, who give Bat Boy a home. It gives away too much plot to detail their relationships but a lot goes on and it’s interesting enough. Touches of schlock horror and tastelessness abound and the show revels in these, injecting enough comic book touches to get away with being so crass.

But the show isn’t as funny as it could be. There’s a brilliant use of stuffed toys, but overall Charlesworth’s B-movie aesthetic relies too heavily on impressive projections, which becomes tiresome. Some performances are the wrong side of overblown, with the notable exception of Georgina Hagen, who excels as the young Shelley Parker, the show’s most sympathetic character.

The book by Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming is bravely outspoken in its contempt of ‘Christian charity’. The show is full of the cynicism so popular in musicals right now (think Book of Morman and Urinetown) and not much to my taste. Still, though religion and prejudice make easy targets, the aim here is sure and the bull’s-eye hit.

The music is pure pastiche, but damn clever. Composer and lyricist Laurence O’Keefe knows how a musical works, with particularly rousing numbers around the interval. The lyrics are impressive too – fast, funny and polemical. The sheer cheek of the plot carries Bat Boy a long way, to a positively Jacobean finale, so it is easy to imagine many will, you’ve guess it, be batty for this show.

Until 31 January 2015

www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk

“Legally Blonde” at the Savoy Theatre

The London Magazine offices are right next to the Savoy Theatre and over recent months we have seen the preparations for London’s latest big musical Legally Blonde. The most exciting thing has been the dogs in the cast, six in all who take turns performing, accompanied by trainers and carers and looking every bit the celebrity, as Chihuahua’s tend to do.

The concern was that they might be the best things about the show.

The thought of yet another musical based on a movie may fill you with trepidation.  For all the success of Billy Elliott anyone who sat through Footloose will sense a certain dread.  Legally Blonde, a film with no musical connection, seems an odd choice.

But silly plots and simple morality tales have potential.  It seems Sonia Friedman has chosen wisely in bringing this Broadway production to London.

Elle Woods appears to have everything – youth and beauty with a privileged upbringing. Her confident plans for continued perfection however, go awry when her intended fiancé snobbishly reveals she is not good enough for him. Elle turns out to possess more than we suspected though, with plenty of determination and brains, as well as heart, she follows her love to Harvard to become a lawyer.  So begins her real journey of self-discovery.

Naturally most of the audience already know the story and simple as it is the action can be swift with plenty of time for musical interludes. And the music from Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin really isn’t bad. I heard several people humming the main theme in the interval alone. There are saccharine ballads should that be your thing, performed with confidence by ‘Duncan from Blue’ – they left me cold but I suspect I wasn’t the target audience. To compensate, Elle’s main refrain has more emotional depth than might be expected.

The music’s strength is its comedy.  Peter Davison plays Elle’s tutor, a charismatic villain with a great introductory number.  Amy Lennox plays Margot, a video fitness guru, who is to be defended by Elle’s legal team.  She opens the second act with a workout inspired routine set in a prison that has fantastic energy and wakes up the fathers in the audience.  There’s even a potential showstopper in the number ‘European or Gay?’  The title says it all.  The ensemble knows they have a winner and thoroughly enjoy themselves.

Further praise goes to Alex Gaumond who plays Emmett. As the man we want Elle to end up with he reinforces the central theme of being honest to yourself. He also gets a makeover as Elle takes control of his wardrobe and ticks a lot of musical theatre boxes.

The undoubted success of the evening lies in the casting of Elle, she must hold the show together and bring things into a coherent whole. Sheridan Smith shines in this role. Along with a great voice, her presence on stage is always appealing and she possesses an effortless comic talent that makes some frankly feeble jokes go a long way. You will laugh – I promise you.

Legally Blonde is silly stuff but it knows that and it enjoys it. It genuinely contains something for everyone.  Director Jerry Mitchell and writer Heather Hach have cleverly constructed a musical that will please its natural audience but also entertain others. A lot of people will be surprised at how much fun they have and that is not to say that they dogs aren’t great.

Until 20 February 2011

Photo by Ellie Kurttz

Written 14 January 2010 for The London Magazine