Tag Archives: Michael Conley

“The Sorrows of Satan”

Luke Bateman and Michael Conley’s musical reworking of the Faust story might not be worth selling your soul to Satan for… but it’s certainly a show to check out. It’s clever – witty and erudite – and, after a slow start, becomes devilishly good fun.

Bateman takes the role of Geoffrey Tempest, an “obscure and poor” composer looking for a serious hit show, and he does a fine job. Unlike Bateman himself, Tempest isn’t that good. As that fact dawns on him, temptations presented by the not-so-mysterious potential theatrical producer ‘Prince Lucio’ mount.

How much Tempest might sacrifice for musical theatre success is a sound joke, but it is overplayed. Similarly, the 1920s setting (the show, ably directed by Adam Lenson, is filmed in the gorgeous drawing room of Brocket Hall) and plenty of nods to melodrama, Oscar Wilde and Noel Coward become a touch laboured. It’s with the device of a show within a show – Tempest’s own “dreary little” version of Faust – that success lies.

Molly Lynch in The Sorrows of Satan
Molly Lynch

There’s an intelligent take on the role of women in musicals that backfires a little. Molly Lynch plays ‘The Woman’ well but for a good third of the show the role – deliberately stereotyped – is repetitive. The point is proved but, the humour doesn’t work. Thankfully, a nice surprising twist means Lynch shines later and might just get the best song in a score that has a good number of successes.

Luke Bateman and Michael Conley in The Sorrows of Satan
Luke Bateman and Michael Conley

We all know that the devil has the best tunes. And in The Sorrows of Satan he certainly writes the best songs! Bateman shows his skills and considerable knowledge with the help of musical director Stefan Bednarczyk, while Conley’s lyrics are often funny and always smart. Taking the role of the Prince himself, Conley gives a wicked performance that is thoroughly good value. Magnificently hammy, “foreign in a very English way” and accompanied by thunder, every moment of his performance is worth watching.

Conley’s role is so much stronger that it makes The Sorrows of Satan a little unbalanced. What price to pay for a performance so enjoyable? I’d love to see more of Bednarczyk’s character Amiel but then getting even one song from someone without a tongue is surely impressive. And it’s impossible not admire a show that can get in a mention of a lavalier and quote Mae West.

Until 9 May 2021

www.thesorrowsofsatan.com

Photos by Jane Hobson

“The Fabulist Fox Sister” from the Southwark Playhouse

The life of Kate Fox, the 19th-century “mother of all mediums”, makes a rich subject matter for this very funny monologue with music. Writer and performer Michael Conley imagines Fox’s final audience as she reveals her seances were really just theatre all along.

Always brash, Conley’s version of Fox as a straight-talking New Yorker is liberated by being at the end of her long career. It’s a simple device used effectively to give us a lot of history as well as an air of recklessness that adds a touch of the unexpected. When Kate proclaims,

“Fuck it, I’m retiring”

It means you’re never quite sure what will be revealed next.

Fox’s life, “famous before famous meant disposable”, was remarkable. And, along with playful period detail, the twisted justification for exploiting “rich guys with dead kids” provides some weight to the show that director Adam Lenson does well to highlight. Still, it’s really Conley’s depiction of Fox that adds the spirit to this spiritualist.

Conley’s script is full of good jokes. Fox’s mother being so stupid she couldn’t understand buttons really tickled me. Along with sibling rivalry (hence the title) and Kate’s love of one particular spirit – Jim Beam – word play, repetition and dead pan asides are all expertly delivered. Even Kate’s deliberately bad jokes get laughs: that’s when you know Conley has great comic skills.

The Fabulist Fox Sister is aided by jolly, very catchy tunes from Luke Bateman, who has a clever ear for using period touches. The songs are consistently strong, only once disappointing when a serious tone is attempted. In every other case the music adds considerably to amusement.

“believe in something”

Conley makes Fox funny but more than a figure of fun. An enormous ego, totally devoid of sensitivity toward others, which should make her revolting means her presence fills the stage. That Kate and her sisters sometimes believed their own lies adds a melancholy touch to the show. But there’s a whimsy to both script and music that works superbly. Conley makes you believe that Fox could have pulled off her incredible career. If nothing else, you end up believing in her. And having a lot of fun along the way.

Until 6 December 2020

www.ffsmusical.com

Photos by Jane Hobson