Tag Archives: Michael Longhurst

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“Next to Normal” at the Donmar Warehouse

Fifteen years after success in New York, this hard-hitting musical from Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt has a London première to be proud of. Under the musical direction of Nick Barstow, the show sounds great while director Michael Longhurst excels in sensitivity. The performances are superb, among the best I’ve seen in a long time. In fact, the production is so strong that it might be better than the show itself.

Next to Normal’s subject matter is mental illness. The lead protagonist, Diana, suffers from bipolar disorder; we see her treatment with drugs, therapy and even ECT. As if that weren’t emotive enough, Diana’s problems are connected to the death of her baby son Gabe who, imagined grown, haunts her as a psychotic hallucination.

It’s an important topic, although obviously not one that is easy to watch, let alone perform – Caissie Levy, who takes this lead role, is a marvel and her voice is excellent. Of course, there’s plenty of angst in her songs, but the score also has variety and Levy manages to inject surprisingly light touches. This is a woman living with her illness, who – making sandwiches and looking after the family – has to carry on… somehow. The detail in the performance, as with the care in Yorkey’s book, feels authentic and engaging.

The show only gets more impressive because the focus is almost as much on Diana’s family as her. More detail – a lot of it distressing – comes with the always-excellent Jamie Parker, who plays the husband. And there’s Diana’s daughter, Natalie, who ironically feels like an “invisible girl” and has plenty of problems of her own.

Next-To-Normal-at-the-Donmar-Warehouse-Jack-Ofrecio-and-Eleanor-Worthington-Cox-photo-by-Marc-Brenner
Jack Ofrecio and Eleanor Worthington-Cox

Eleanor Worthington-Cox takes the role of Natalie and is joined by Jack Wolfe as her deceased brother. It is a huge testament to both, that, despite how fraught the piece is, they show their roles as, somehow, regular teenagers. Given that one isn’t real, that really is remarkable! Completing a trio of younger performers is Jack Ofrecio, who plays Natalie’s boyfriend and is also excellent. The level of sophistication in both music and lyrics is consistent for these roles and the performances just as good.

Next-To-Normal-at-the-Donmar-Warehouse-Jack-Wolfe-photo-by-Marc-Brenner
Jack Wolfe

Next to Normal is far from a teen drama, but the depictions of youth are extraordinary. The pressures on all three younger characters, particularly interesting when we consider one as a figment of an older person’s imagination (who even gets the best number), raise questions about nature and nurture. While showing the impact of long-term illness, Natalie and her beau have regular problems, too. It all adds up to great drama.

Up until the end, it is all pretty much faultless – if hard-going. And resolving a story like this is always going to be a problem, especially given how in-depth and intense the show is. Maybe we should be grateful the end isn’t tragic… but Diana’s decision to abandon treatment is a shock. While she considers giving up medication more than once, the final decision to reject help seems reckless to the point of being disturbing. Maybe it is best to point out that it doesn’t quite make sense dramatically. It’s an odd end to a fantastic show.

www.donmarwarehouse.com

Until 7 October 2023

Photos by Marc Brenner

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“Private Lives” at the Donmar Warehouse

For his last season in charge of the venue, director Michael Longhurst presents a radical revival of Noël Coward’s classic play. This Private Lives is exciting and troubled – fitting attributes for Longhurst’s superb time at The Donmar, which has struggled with the problems of Covid-19 and funding.

It is hard not to have expectations about a Noël Coward play – part of the playwright’s genius was to present the seemingly superficial. Longhurst understands this dynamic. His production shows divorcees Elyot and Amanda (reunited while on honeymoon with other people) as far more than frothy.

There are still plenty of laughs in the comedy. But a serious edge comes from Longhurst’s intolerance of Elyot’s domestic violence. The focus comes from the text – Coward is also appalled that Amanda is hit by Elyot – but the action is truly shocking (Kate Waters’ work as fight coordinator is some of the best I’ve seen). And the violence fits with an air of disconnection and desperation that could be described as existential: Amanda talks of her “jagged sophistication”, Elyot says that he is “lost” and troubled by modern life.

Two strong leads – Stephen Mangan and Rachael Stirling – play an important part in the success of the production. Neither is intimidated by the show’s history. Stirling’s Amanda can hold her own in any situation but is surprisingly vulnerable. Mangan’s performance is a revelation, his Elyot a nasty piece of work, however charming. You can tell how good both performers are when they aren’t speaking that sparkling dialogue. Full of passion and intimacy, this couple can communicate without the words an audience usually goes to a Coward play for.

Running away from their new marriages is surely unforgivable – no matter how dysfunctional and unhappy their rekindled love affair will be. Here, Laura Carmichael and Sargon Yelda, who take the parts of new spouses Sibyl and Victor, make their smaller roles a big part of the show. There are laughs from how out of their depth both characters are, but the slow realisation of what Elyot and Amanda are really like adds considerable tension.

Might you still feel sorry for Elyot and Amanda? They “pity the philosophers” who want to try and explain their passion. But is there a design for living here? Or are the couple just like children? There’s plenty to suggest infantilism, including temper tantrums that must be tactically controlled. But Longhurst is harsh and has no time for excuses. The violence in the show feeds on itself and brings further shocks with the finale. Complete with discordant strings, a sudden argument between Sibyl and Victor might even end in murder. Not what you expected – and all the better for seeing these lives out in the open.

Until 27 May 2023

www.donmarwarehouse.com

Photos by Marc Brenner

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“The Band’s Visit” at the Donmar Warehouse

A big production in a small space is one way to get a buzz. This Broadway hit, by David Yazbek and Itamar Moses, has a huge cast considering the venue: there are the titular musicians, on tour from Egypt, and those they unwittingly encounter, the locals of a nowhere-town in Israel. But it’s the committed low-key tone – the claim from the beginning that what we are about to see is not very important – that makes the show stand out.

The visiting musicians get involved in some heavy stuff, offering advice on life and love, with romances beginning, or not, and ending… maybe. And there’s a lot of consideration as to how important music can be – transforming lives and bringing people together. But Moses’ book has a consciously slow pace, which director Michael Longhurst embraces. The action is deliberately minimal: characters visit a park, go on a date, and wait for a phone. The show becomes a triumph of restraint and modesty.

The music and lyrics by Yazbek are often quiet too – there’s no search for a show-stopping number, although the songs are fantastic, and the score deserves its Tony Award (one of six!). A fascinating mix of the Middle Eastern with Western influences, it’s exciting to hear a musical that sounds so different. The sentimental songs are excellent – stand-alone hits – and Yazbek has a gift for comedy too.

Although a true ensemble piece, Miri Mesika shows she’s a star in the role of café owner Dina. With a great voice and sure command of the comedy in the piece, Mesika makes her character believable and admirable. The connection between Dina and the band’s conservative conductor proves fascinating through the chemistry between Mesika and Alon Moni Aboutboul. It is striking that the focus for the show is middle life, both characters have a history and share a sense of calm resignation.

There are also strong performances from a married couple in trouble, played by Marc Antolin and Michal Horowicz, with a role for Peter Polycarpou as her character’s father providing a perspective from later in life. And given two fantastic numbers, it’s impossible to ignore Harel Glazer and Ashley Margolis as younger men starting their romantic lives.

It is clear that Yazbek and Moses have more ambition for the piece than their tone suggests – the ages of characters show that much. There is a sanguine approach that gives the work a distinct flavour, with beauty in everyday things that has tremendous charm. Hope is the big theme in the end – past and future. The Band’s Visit searches out hope at all stages of life and turns out to be, well, important, after all.

Until 3 December 2022

www.donmarwarehouse.com

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“Constellations” at the Vaudeville Theatre

I’ve loved Nick Payne’s play for a long time – since its première upstairs at the Royal Court in 2012. This exceptional two-hander, using the idea of multiverses from theoretical physics, presents diverse possibilities within one relationship. Deservedly a huge hit, Constellations is a must-see that is getting better with age. I wonder in what universe we can start calling it a modern masterpiece?

With this revival of Michael Longhurst’s production, also seen in the West End and on tour, the headline news is that four groups of performers will tackle the fantastic roles. Take your pick from Sheila Atim and Ivanno Jeremiah, Peter Capaldi and Zoë Wanamaker, or Anna Maxwell Martin and Chris O’Dowd. The exciting possibilities reflect the different outcomes within the text – a very smart idea.

A fourth option intrigued me more than the other talented combinations – Omari Douglas and Russell Tovey. Constellations wasn’t written with a gay couple in mind. Would the play or text change? As it happens, tweaks are minimal and the play isn’t altered a jot: it’s just as funny and moving as before. And both performers have taken every advantage of the opportunities within Payne’s script.

It’s not quite fair to say that Tovey supplies the laughs and Omari the tears. The roles point towards this, but both performers embrace the short scenes with different outcomes and swiftly altering emotions that the play features. But Tovey’s comedy skills really are excellent – there are proper belly laughs in the play. And Omari is heart-breaking as Payne develops his theme of mortality with fantastic skill.

The text isn’t just rewarding for performers. If you’re new to it Constellationswill stay with you a long time. Pulling out universals from the multiverses we encounter makes for powerful stuff. Or, appropriately enough, if you have seen the play before, your reactions might change. For me, Longhurst brings home how clear Payne’s text is: for complex ideas about science and free will the exposition is excellent. And maybe it’s my own age, but the play is much more moving than I recall. 

While I remember being moved to tears all those years ago, I cried even more this time around. And I wasn’t alone. A sell-out show with no social distancing, the production received a fantastic reception from the audience. A keenness to talk as soon as the lights come up is, like the show itself, a thrill to experience. Nearly ten years on, there’s still a fantastic buzz about – in my universe anyway – this modern masterpiece.

Until 12 September 2021

www.nimaxtheatres.com

Photo by Marc Brenner

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“Blindness” at the Donmar Warehouse

All hail Michael Longhurst and his Covent Garden venue for staging a show during the lockdown. Not a performance exactly – the description is a ‘sound installation’ – as it is a recording of Juliet Stevenson that the audience listens to through those fancy headsets. It’s still a chance to get back into a theatre. That, alone, is worth applauding.

Simon Stephens’ adaptation of José Saramago’s novel is close to home – it’s about an epidemic, albeit one where the population suddenly goes blind. But there’s still escapism and entertainment in the far-fetched story. It’s exciting at first – a tale of the unexpected with creepy touches that Stevenson narrates exquisitely.

Close your eyes…

…for a bit of plot spoiler. As the disease becomes rife, Stevenson moves from being the storyteller to a doctor’s wife, who joins him in suitably gothic quarantine, pretending to be afflicted herself. Too quickly, Blindness becomes too generic. The script is well constructed and full of strong imagery. As with the last motif of the play, Saramago’s writing has a certain grace. And it is always impeccably directed by Walter Meierjohann. But it is not original. This is a very standard sci-fi societal breakdown: surely such views convince less and less? The only surprises come from not encountering familiar tropes; why isn’t the one woman immune investigated and what about those who are already blind?

You can open them again…

Few would be thrilled to go to the theatre for a radio play. OK, maybe I am desperate enough. But, with sound design from Ben and Max Ringham and the sculptural work from lighting designer Jessica Hung Han Yun, this piece comes closer to immersive than many that aim for that label. 

Along with a sense of excitement from the solicitous staff, there’s also the irreplaceable connection of watching as part of an audience. With the hope that none of this talented team is offended, my highlight came at the end, catching the eye of another theatregoer who, like me, wondered if we should clap. Yes, we can, and yes, we did – deservedly so.

Until 22 August 2020

www.donmarwarehouse.com

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“Amadeus” from NTLive

Although mediocrity is mentioned many times in Peter Schaffer’s play, it is not a word to describe the playwright’s masterpiece. The battle between the average composer Antonio Salieri and the divinely gifted Mozart makes for a great combination of drama and history with big ideas around posterity and religion.

This production, energetically directed by Michael Longhurst, dates from 2017. It is notable for the inclusion of the Southbank Sinfonia (which you can also donate to). The musicians move around the stage and interact with the cast as a sense of theatrical complicity – an intelligent response to the text – is carefully nurtured. 

There’s a superb leading performance from Lucian Msamati as Salieri, who conveys the character’s sense of arrogance and pain, always keeping the audience on side. Msamati makes the play’s theoretical (and theological) questions emotive. And he has an easy comic touch. There are also strong turns from his ‘Venticelli’ – servants who bring him gossip – played by Sarah Amankwah and Hammed Animashaun. As an aside, the latter has been a lockdown revelation for me, having revisited, or caught up with, shows he has consistently excelled in.

Amadeus at the National Theatre by Marc Brenner
Amadeus at the National Theatre by Marc Brenner

That Longhurst’s achievements aren’t fully conveyed on the screen is something we should be getting used too. It is hard to appreciate just how well he uses the Olivier stage. Close-up filming has a tendency to make the show look chaotic rather than choreographed. And it is a disappointment that Adam Gillen’s performance as Mozart comes across as shrill and oddly accented: I remember being impressed when I saw him on stage. Again, he is playing for an auditorium and not a camera. 

Any quibbles reinforce what theatregoers love and miss about a life experience. With Amadeus being the final show in the season offered by the National Theatre because of Covid-19 shutting its doors, all those involved can be proud. Seeing a body of work, as the whole world has been able to do, of such diversity and quality has been awe-inspiring. NTLive has been more than welcome – it has been a real light during lockdown.

Until 22 July 2020

To support, visit nationaltheatre.org.uk

Photos by Marc Brenner

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“Midnight Your Time” from the Donmar Warehouse

Ensuring we don’t forget one of the West End’s smallest – and enormously prestigious – venues during dangerous times for all theatres, director Michael Longhurst presents a specially commissioned film. Written by Adam Brace, and originally penned for High Tide, it’s very good indeed. And, of course, deserving of donations.

There are many monologues about at the moment and the idea of one based on Skype calls, when a lot of work has gone online, might be the last thing most of us want. But it’s a clever idea, appropriate to the times, and the one-way messages between Judy and her daughter Helen prove engrossing, moving and entertaining.

Set in 2010, as if to remind us that isolation of one kind or another is nothing new, Brace has created an easily recognisable lead that Diana Quick performs with ease. There’s a gentle humour around this upper-middle-class well-meaning Islingtonite that makes the character a touch too naïve. But it’s fun to watch as she is “gazumped” over dinner with an Afghan refugee and makes gaffs, despite her good intentions.

Produced under lockdown conditions, which only increases my admiration, Longhurst and Quick are clearly a great team. The scenes have a nice variety, not just of costumes and times of day, but also of distinct atmospheres. Quick shows her character’s moods marvellously, from being “lighter than air” to angry and upset. There are also nice touches over her hesitancy with the technology – especially when she deletes messages that have gone too far.

Judy’s relationship with her daughter is a fraught one, and Brace and Quick unveil this with great skill. How serious an argument over Christmas was becomes clear slowly and is increasing moving. Although we never get her daughter’s side of the story, Judy’s interference in the young woman’s life would surely be a problem. But, combined with Judy’s loneliness and worries for the future, this is a neat study that raises surprising sympathy and is a great half-hour watch.

Available until the 20 May 2020

www.donmarwarehouse.com

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"Teenage Dick" at the Donmar Warehouse

Joining a slew of strong American plays to reach London this year, the work of Mike Lew receives a British premiere under the energetic direction of Michael Longhurst. Along with its provoking title, this reimagining of Shakespeare’s Richard III as a high-school drama ends up somewhat burdened by its concept. But it is more than just a smart exercise: insisting a disabled actor plays theatre’s most famous disabled character provides a superb vehicle for Daniel Monks, who takes the title role, and brings issues surrounding disability powerfully to the fore.

So, at Rosewood High the war that student Richard Gloucester starts is one for class presidency. He’s unwittingly aided by his friend ‘Buck’ and his teacher Mrs York (great performances from Ruth Madeley and Susan Wokoma) while his rivals are football star Eddie and over-achiever Clarissa (less satisfactory roles that Callum Adams and Alice Hewkin still do well with).

Daniel Monks, Ruth Madeley, Callum Adams and Alice Hewkin in 'Teenage Dick' at the Donmar Warehouse
Daniel Monks, Ruth Madeley, Callum Adams and Alice Hewkin

Such moves are not unfamiliar (Lucy Monroe will tell you about them in the programme) and Lew manages well enough. There are some amusing references to the play, and the meta-textuality (which even the worst of this genre shows) is plentiful. Openly acknowledging Richard’s arcane language (in itself interesting and impeccably delivered) – and how it contrasts with the other characters’ speech – is fun. Trouble is, this game can get tiring quickly.

Siena Kelly and Daniel Monks in 'Teenage Dick' at the Donmar Warehouse
Siena Kelly and Daniel Monks

Thankfully, Lew knows he has to be more than just playful. Both Richard and his love interest, Anne Margaret – who it’s acknowledged deserves a play of her own – provide emotional weight as the play grows. Focusing on Anne Margaret (played brilliantly by Siena Kelly) shows Lew’s strong writing – including a particularly harrowing scene that needs a warning – and the role goes some way to grounding the play.

That Monks is hemiplegic undoubtedly makes a difference to the story we know and leads to powerful scenes of Richard dancing and debating. Disability is stated as the reason for the character’s unpopularity – a stark suggestion – and from this comes his platform to change the “order of things” in school society. Unfortunately, whether his pledge is for the better or just for power gets a little lost.

Throughout, Lew plays with our expectations of Richard the character and of people with a disability. The layering effect seems less interesting than the mix of pity, hate and fear that the contemporary teen experiences. That’s the bit we’ve not seen before, while the Shakespeare seems a distraction. Lew’s exploration is seldom subtle – but it’s frequently effective. The challenge, that the audience assumes Richard can’t be the hero – and so must be the villain – raises problems too frequently ignored.

Until 1 February 2020

www.donmarwarehouse.com

Photos by Marc Brenner

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"The Son" at the Duke of York’s Theatre

Playwright Florian Zeller has had phenomenal success bringing his brand of smart French panache to the British stage. But this new work, another hit and this time a transfer from the Kiln Theatre, is different. With plays like The Father, Zeller experimented with perceptions of reality, while his comedy about adultery, The Truth, used twisting perspectives and audience expectations to get grown-up laughs. For The Son, Zeller abandons any tricksy touches: he presents a stripped back, almost simple, play that is a harrowing story of mental health.

The acting is irreproachable. Taking the title role, Laurie Kynaston gives a career defining portrayal as troubled teen Nicholas. Like the text, and Michael Longhurst’s direction, Kynaston shows great control. There are outbursts of anger but bad behaviour is in the background. Nicholas’ problem is an inexplicable unhappiness he simply can’t articulate and that makes it all the more frustrating and moving.

Laurie Kinston in 'The Son'
Laurie Kynaston

The adults dealing with his illness suffer too. If Zeller hadn’t already used the title previously, this piece could easily be named after Nicholas’ father, a major role that John Light excels with. As with the mother, played by Amanda Abbington, there’s a sense of panic and fear that adds tension to the play. Both parental roles, complicated by their recent divorce, are depicted with care and attention. 

Arguably the pivotal character, who has, like the audience, a little more distance from Nicholas, is his step-mother Sofia. It’s a fantastic part for Amaka Okafor who shows a woman trying to warm to the youngster, who unexpectedly ends up living with her, but who is also scared of him. The awful moment when Nicholas overhears what she thinks of him is balanced by her steely resolve not to let him babysit his new born step-brother. 

Sofia shows how Zeller has mined the psychological complexity in his scenario. The characters’ reactions aid an uncanny ability to make the most mundane questions fraught. Longhurst’s direction compliments the technique and the tension is frequently uncomfortable. If ever a play needed a trigger warning this is it, and I suppose a plot spoiling alert is needed too…

John Light, Amanda Abbington and Laurie Kynaston
John Light, Amanda Abbington and Laurie Kynaston

This is a tale of teenage suicide and in the play the outcome comes as no surprise. Given that Zeller can cover the tracks in a plot better than most this must be deliberate. That the play is so predictable adds a sense of doom from very early on. But while it seems a trivial point in this context, that doesn’t help the play dramatically. The outcome is particularly grim and some key decisions made by the adults in Nicholas’ life are, let us hope, unrealistic. Nicholas only becomes increasingly inexplicable – a fair point but one that is truly dismal. Of course Zeller doesn’t have to sugar any pill, but he also raises hope to dash it in a final scene which comes across as cruel. There’s no doubting the power of Zeller’s writing here – all the five star reviews have recognised it – but in abandoning his usual brilliance for the sake of a brutal power, a warning about the play does need to be issued.

Until 2 November 2019

www.thesonwestend.com

Photos by  Marc Brenner

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"Appropriate" at the Donmar Warehouse

Newly appointed artistic director Michael Longhurst has his first big find for the Donmar with this excellent play by American writer Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. The production is impeccably directed by Ola Ince with a precise hand which complements the depth of the script. Set over a fraught weekend, as the Lafayette siblings fight over the sale of their family home, the play looks at legacy – historical, financial and emotional – hitting on important themes. But Jacobs-Jenkins has a steely eye on the present and his touch is comic. Appropriate is a smart satire, all about behaviour far from befitting. But first of all this is a play with real belly laughs – a super strong comedy not to be missed.

The former plantation house, containing some trigger warning trash, serves as an appropriate location to consider ghosts from the past. Ince provides the spookiness suggested in the text superbly. A hint of horror amongst the comedy adds fun but is also a warning note: no matter how bad things get, a house with its own slave graveyard has seen worse. In the present, and without catastrophising – there’s plenty of that from the privileged characters – the Layfayette’s make a sorry lot. When they see a chance to profit they rush to take it. With questions of appropriation left aside. Meanwhile, the hang-ups and addictions of three generations crowd the stage. It’s quite the crisis for what used to be the elite; as we move from family drama to state of the nation play, dysfunctional is the word.

Monica Dolan, Steven Mackintosh and Edward Hogg in Appropriate
Monica Dolan, Steven Mackintosh and Edward Hogg

These “misfit disaster people” are awful enough to get a lot of laughs; prepare to gasp at what they say when their blood is up. But Jacobs-Jenkins makes sure none of them are irredeemable. There’s a reason for older brother Bo’s greed and Steven Mackintosh’s performance in the part carefully shows us a man under pressure. Meanwhile Edward Hogg, as prodigal son Frank, is appealingly offbeat – until how much of a delinquent he really was is revealed. As their partners, Jaimi Barbakoff and Tafline Steen both excel with themes of nurture and motherhood, flipping from sensible concerns to exaggerated fads. Both characters are sources of fun – sensitive, privileged and modish, they’re easy to mock – but the women can hold their own. No matter how silly or objectionable the opinions shouted by all, it’s not easy to dismiss these people

Ahead of them all is big sister Toni, both formidable and fragile. It’s the role of a lifetime for Monica Dolan who impresses with every line. Toni is “disgusting” plenty of times – rude, racist, overbearing and oversensitive. But there’s no doubt that she has borne the brunt of looking after the family and her father. Sharp as a knife and nearly always funny, with her common sense up against political correctness (always popular), Toni has the play’s most moving moments too.

Plenty of theories and trends meet the messiness of real life here, which proves emotional as well as entertaining. The characters’ pain always convinces and causes us to pause. Since everyone is selfish, it’s harder to take sides than you might think. Jacobs-Jenkins makes us laugh and leaves us thinking, as you try to work out if anyone is ever acting appropriately. And what your proper response to what you’re watching should be.

Until 5 October 2019

www.donmarwarehouse.com

Photos by Marc Brenner