Edwardiana, Oliviers, Mean Girls and rock Mozart in China

But not The Great Gatsby, which I haven't seen

‘La Madrilena Waltz’ by John Neat

My wonderful neighbour Cleo sadly died last autumn and her family kindly left a few things outside while clearing her house. I picked up the this prettily illustrated frontispiece for a piece of sheet music (my brother is currently in Madrid but he’s running the half marathon and watching tennis and probably won’t be waltzing). It seems the composer John Neat (1876-1949) was known as an arranger and for composing waltzes and ragtime pieces at around the turn of the twentieth century. He also published under the name Lilian Ray and it’s been suggested that he adopted this female pseudonym at around the time of World War One to distinguish his romantic tunes from the patriotic and military songs he was producing. Ray/Neat’s most famous song ‘The Sunshine of Your Smile’ has been widely recorded, including by my favourite singer Gordon MacRae. Curiously, the song had a new lease of life in the 1980s when it was performed by Are You Being Served? actor Mike Berry, who died a few weeks ago. I also came across the fantastic YouTube channel The Edwardian Pianist, where you can hear recordings of several of Neat’s pieces. Perhaps there’s someone out there who has the music as well as the cover for ‘La Madrilena Waltz’. I think I’ll get a frame for this delightful bit of ephemera as something to remember Cleo by.

Olivier Awards

This was weeks ago but please indulge me. I much prefer it when the awards are evenly shared out, rather than one show dominating (and not just because I didn’t like Jamie Lloyd’s Sunset Boulevard last year and thought Guys & Dolls was shamefully robbed). There was no doubt that Imelda Staunton would win for Hello, Dolly!, and deservedly so. I was very pleased that Jordan Fein’s production of Fiddler on the Roof won Best Musical Revival as it was so moving and the musical values were superb. I’m glad it’s returning to London (this time to the Barbican) and going on tour, though the experience of seeing a show at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre is second to none and the setting was so special for ‘Sunrise, Sunset’.

I’m delighted that Best New Musical went to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a show that has had a special place in my heart since I saw its original incarnation in The Little at Southwark Playhouse Borough in 2019. Jethro Compton and Darren Clark have developed and nurtured this project so beautifully. I was also so glad that Clark and musical director Mark Aspinall received the award for Outstanding Musical Contribution. I have to say that Jamie Parker, who played the title role in the second Southwark Playhouse run, was ‘my’ Benjamin but it’s an entirely personal preference and John Dalgleish’s win was very well deserved.

I do hope Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 makes a return as I’m sorry I didn’t get to see it at the Donmar. My personal bugbear was that Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder! by Matthew Floyd Jones and Jon Brittain didn’t receive a nomination for Best New Musical (see Marianka Swain’s review here). It was so clever, warm and witty and I loved the depiction of the friendship between the two titular misfits. It was just a shame that the sound design was awful. I’ve listened to the four songs that they released so many times (Rebekah Hinds’s voice is to die for) and I wish we could have a full recording. It more than deserved a nod over Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’s Why Am I So Single?, which, if you ask me, was in need of a good dose of tough love from a no-nonsense dramaturg before it was anywhere near ready for the West End.

Mean Girls and Muriel’s Wedding

I wanted to see Mean Girls before it closes in June and nabbed a TodayTix rush ticket over the Easter weekend. I enjoyed myself and the show was… fine. As expected, it’s slick, commercial entertainment that more or less evaporates from memory once it’s over. My favourites were Grace Mouat’s Karen and Tom Xander’s Damian, and understudy Cliona Flynn did an excellent job as Regina. I can’t say it was robbed not getting a Best New Musical nod but I do think it achieves what it sets out to do more successfully than the aforementioned Why Am I So Single? I haven’t seen the stage versions of similar properties The Devil Wears Prada or Clueless – I don’t plan to see the former but I remain curious about the latter despite having heard less than favourable reports from people I trust. And apparently 10 Things I Hate About You is also on its way… I was recently a first-round judge for the Stiles + Drewe MTI Mentorship Award and, while I don’t see all of the projects being produced professionally, it was a pleasure to be exposed to so many original ideas (some pretty wacky).

I also watched Muriel’s Wedding for the first time ever, inspired by the fact that the UK premiere of the musical version is currently playing at the Leicester Curve. It’s outstanding, as the rest of the world probably already knows. I’m surprised that it’s often cited as a favourite ‘feel good’ film as so much of it is so bleak, like Mike Leigh in suburban Australia. There’s depression, cancer, self-delusion and an emotionally abusive father who’s like a Queensland small-fry Trump... I hope the musical retains the darkness and doesn’t glitz it up too much because that’s what makes the hopeful ending feel so earned. I see the musical has been updated to the social media age but will reserve judgement.

Rival Mozarts and Marilyns

My friend Shuye is back in London from Beijing to work on her PhD and she told me about the French rock musical Mozart, l’opera rock, which is a huge hit in China and tours the country extensively (performed in French). The fandom is incredibly active but apparently there’s been something of a schism because the original Mozart is now getting on a bit and the alternate is young and very beautiful. It sounds like it should be a TV show on the lines of Smash, which I recently binged even though it’s completely ridiculous and I hated Karen, Derek, Julia, Dev, Jimmy and Hit List (and Ellis and Leo, but that goes without saying). What I did like was Megan Hilty’s Ivy and the music for Bombshell. I’m not sure a stage version was ever going to succeed (Thom Geier doesn’t hold back in his review here). It would have made more sense to have created a full-length version of Bombshell but we never heard much of the book on the show (I certainly never believed that Julia’s original book was so brilliant it was too good for Broadway). I suppose we’ll never know. Maybe it would have been like The Great Gatsby with better music.