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Ray Caruana on double bass with Louisa Parry and Paul Roberts |
Get a kick out of these hits
THE GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK
New End Theatre
IF the mention of The Great American Songbook conjures up images of some vast enigmatic tome – a sort of Da Vinci Code where Cole Porter stands in for Jesus – then the New End’s charming musical revue will bring you gently down to earth, without disappointing.
But if, like most of the audience on the night this reviewer attended, you already know and love the subject matter, then Toby Cruse and Heather Simpkin’s whistle-stop tour through American popular music from 1920-60 will reaffirm what you already knew: that this era bred some of the most clever, inventive and emotive songs ever written. Expense might have been spared on the set, a jumbled collection of US signifiers including a plywood Empire State building and the last three characters of a HOLLYWOOD sign; but once the singing starts, it’s clear where the attention should be directed.
The knowing company opener, Porter’s Another Op’nin’, Another Show, sets the tone of the evening: slick but not afraid to poke fun at itself, the way Dean Martin used to feign drunkenness while performing. There’s more nudges and sly winks in the following number, I Get A Kick Out of You; those lyrics about the ennui of alcohol and cocaine sung by Paul Roberts, the former frontman of punk band The Stranglers. The presence of Roberts on the billing is noteworthy, even if his notes are occasionally a little raw. He remains a frontman – hyping the crowd and generally playing the entertainer – and he lends a confidence that is echoed in the swagger of the band.
Roberts’ companions are every bit as impressive. Louisa Parry is pitch-perfect throughout, excelling on the George and Ira Gershwin Someone to Watch Over Me. And what planet does Ray Caruana come from? He croons brilliantly in fluent Vegas lounge lizard then delivers his patter in the flat estuary vowels of an Essex boy; the programme notes, by way of clarification, say he was born in Malta.
The hits keep coming: Skylark, Night and Day, Ol’ Man River, Get Happy.
By now, silver heads are bobbing in appreciation, my father is lip-synching and shedding the occasional tear. All feels right with the world.
Recommended.
Until September 13
0870 033 2733 |
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