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The New Alexandra Theatre
*** AS breakfasts go this falls quite a few
beans short of a full English, or full American in this case, and a
reworking of the menu would not go amiss before a planned visit to the
West End. It stars Pixie Lott making her acting debut, a
young lady who it appears can turn her hand to anything and make a more
than decent fist of it. If you didn’t know you would think she was a
seasoned pro. The spectre of Audrey Hepburn hangs over anyone
taking on the role of Holly Golightly but Lott puts her own stamp on the
good time girl. She is capricious, seductive and oh-so sexy. She has all
the To be fair it starts
with one unusual disadvantage in that there has yet to be a stage
adaptation of Truman Capote’s novella which has set the world alight –
there has not even been a spark. This version adapted by Richard
Greenberg had its debut on Broadway with
Game of Thrones
star Emilia Clarke as Holly. It managed just 38 performances.
Even that was better
than the first attempt in 1966, a musical adaptation starring huge TV
stars of the time, Mary Tyler Moore from
The Dick Van Dyke Show
and Dr Kildare
himself, Richard Chamberlain. It closed after four previews without ever
having officially opened. Then a further difficulty which seemed to concern
many in the audience from comments I heard around me, was that this
version goes back to the original, darker 1958 novella with its desolate
ending, rather than the much loved romantic comedy film of 1961 starring
George Peppard and Hepburn, in her sunglasses and little black dress. That is a light, witty,
romantic comedy which ends all soft focus on an
everyone set to live happily ever after
romantic kiss. This ends . . . well that would
be telling. So anyone expecting to
see the film version with its Henri Mancini score is in for a culture
shock. There are only three songs, two nothing to do with the film,
and, of course, Moon River
which goes hand in hand with any version. They were all sung nicely by
Lott, highlights in fact, but they did seem to be sort of squeezed in
with no telling dramatic purpose. Not that a play based on the book is a bad idea.
It is set in 1944 and later in 1957 rather then the 1960s of the film
and Capote’s book is a modern classic, a study of a young woman, aged 19,
trying to find herself in a big city, flighty, naïve, out for a good
time and out of her depth madly treading water. Narrated by a struggling
writer it has wit as well as This Curve Leicester production is not a million miles away but perhaps Capote’s gem needs a good polish. Victor McGuire as Joe and Matt Barber as Fred Unless there
are rights issues some judicious pruning would go a long way – it is too
long and some passages are, quite frankly dull. People leaving at the
interval, as a number around me did, is not an ideal audience reaction. But there are times when the instant set changes
belie the speed of the action. There is nothing wrong with a gentle
pace, after all this is not a tense fast moving thriller, but at times
it lumbers along at the speed of a sluggish glacier; it’s too wordy, at
times confusing and, in truth, some scenes are just plain boring, while
the whole thing is not helped by too much dialogue vanishing in the New
York accents. There are positives
though. Director Nikolai Foster manages to fuse two scenes together
nicely several times, notably in the opening when the barman Joe Bell,
an excellent performance by Victor McGuire (Bread,
Goodnight Sweetheart) is explaining to
Fred, played in 1940’s Hollywood writer’s style by Matt Barber (Downton)
about a picture he has seen of a wood carving from Africa which looks
like the now departed Holly. The scene of Yunioshi, a photographer in Fred’s
building, played by Andrew Joshi, showing Joe the picture runs
alongside, opening up a sort of time warp with Joe seamlessly moving
between the two different events at different times at either end of his
bar. A clever touch.
Naomi Cranston does a good job as Mag, Holly’s
best friend and fellow socialite while Charlie de Melo has suitable
Latin charm as Jose, the would be Brazillian diplomat and companion of
first Mags and then Holly. Tim Francis is a fun loving Rusty Trawler whose
main appeal to women appears to be money and then we have Hollywood
agent O J Berman, played by Sevan Stephan, who has a soft spot for Holly
who he sees as a potential star and finally, Holly’s somewhat mature
husband, the horse vet from Texas, played by Robert Calvert. And deserving a mention too is Bob the cat from
A1 Animals. He seemed less then enamoured at his starring role as
Holly’s moggie but played his part with restraint – by Fred or Holly
usually. Hats off to A1 though. Anyone who can get a cat to do anything,
let alone on cue, has to be approaching Doctor Dolittle status. There is time to work things out with another
nine venues to visit before reaching the West End in June but in its
present form it is in danger of continuing the unenviable record of
stage adaptations of breakfasts that are over well before lunch. To
23-04-16 Roger Clarke 04-16
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makings and potential of a fine actress one day but she and the rest of a strong cast have
their work cut out to rescue what is a stodgy, dull breakfast.
its moments of despair. All the elements
are there for an interesting drama.