London With a Teenager

This is an odd one to review because, for once, I’m getting in early on a play that pretty much no one else has seen yet. I always try to avoid reading reviews before I write mine but with things like “Les Misérables” it’s pretty easy to be influenced by what everyone else has ever said about it. So this is a rare opportunity to write something almost completely unbiased.

Except it’s not unbiased, is it? Cause I love Ewan McGregor and everyone knows it. When Nathan got pouty about me declaring my love for him publicly (Ewan that is, not Nathan) I pointed out that he’s brought it on himself by booking tickets to “Life Less Ordinary” on our very first date back in 1997. Ewan has been part of our relationship from the start and latterly, the kids have grown to love him too, through the Star Wars films and “Moulin Rouge”. So it would have to be a complete car crash of a show for me to say anything remotely negative about the divine Mr McG.

(If you’re getting a sense of deja-vu then yes, you’re right. I did write similar about our visit to see David Tennant’s “Macbeth” in October. I have a bit of a tasty for the scruffy Scottish types, OK? And Nathan can’t complain cause he got to see Sigourney Weaver in return.)

Luckily, this show was not at all a car crash. It’s the second night of previews so I sensed there were some times when the rhythm of the lines still needed to settle down but overall it was a tightly plotted, well-acted and intense piece of theatre. Not a musical, much to Eva’s disappointment, but we coped.

I will say off the bat that it was more adult than I expected and we were the only ones to have brought kids with us. The age recommendation is 12+ and I’ll take this opportunity to re-iterate that this is no longer a toddler-focused blog. There’s a fair bit of swearing, including some C-bombs, and some quite explicit scenes. The content warning says “adult themes” but that might be understating it. Having said that, my kids were fine with it all and it’s probably nothing worse than they hear on YouTube all the time but they are nearly 13 and nearly 16 so if you’re tempted to try it with a kid that’s scraping in under the 12-year-old age then I would urge some caution. It’s definitely more of a secondary school production than anything that primary school kids could handle. However much they love Obi Wan Kenobi.

That over, let’s get to the actual play. As you’d expect for a play about architecture, the set is sleekly built and stylish. The main room set has a brick floor which surely couldn’t have been made with real brick but certainly looked convincing. The “cathedral” set that is on stage before the opening is a “lopsided pyramid” of aggressive modernity. Obviously I don’t have any pictures of the production itself but I can share the pre-show set with you:

And then there’s the cast – an interwoven ensemble of five main characters, with some extras for the party scene. Ewan McGregor was the eponymous Master Builder – Henry Solness – and Kate Fleetwood was his wife Elena Solness. Elizabeth Debicki was Mathilde, David Ajala as Ragnar and Mirren Mack as Kaia. They all had a lot of stage time and a lot of emotional moments so it must be exhausting going through this every night. They were all excellent though.

David Ajala threatened to steal the show several times as the “influencer architect” – Henry’s protégé, who was now starting to outshine him. Although the play was largely dark and intense, Ragnar was a beam of sunshine for most of it, dazzling in a small pair of speedos or his party slacks. He certainly provided some lighter moments to break up the drama and delivered his witty dialogue brilliantly.

His comedy foil for most of these scenes was Elena, who Eva described as “iconic”. She was certainly a flawed character with a twisted take on feminism but she was both sympathetic and chilling…you felt for her but also felt sure you wouldn’t want to cross her. Kate Fleetwood balances all these things as well as looking stunning in every stylish outfit (and she has the most amazing cheekbones). Her despair, taut politeness and raw vulnerability all make for a complex female character, the likes of which we don’t see enough of. She loves Henry but she can’t forgive him and it’s this depth which really gives the play its heart. Yet she also has the deft comedy touch to pull off her scenes with Ragnar that break through some of that tension. Masterful.

Elizabeth Debicki as Mathilde was another complex character. She appears to be very vulnerable at first but it soon emerges that she wields far more power than she lets on. Her relationship with Kaia is complicated by a revelation late on in the play and you’re left with the impression that this is a soul alone in the world with no real idea of what she wants. It would be easy to make Mathilde a bland kind of “Mia from Love Actually” temptress but in Debicki’s hands, she is sympathetic while also being very flawed.

While we mention Kaia, JUSTICE FOR KAIA. She’s the only character in this play who did nothing wrong but she seems to get dumped on from all sides and is the undeserved target of Elena’s wrath, which really should have been pointed towards her husband. Mirren Mack plays Kaia with a youthful innocence which turns to weariness as she realises that these “grown ups” she’s been looking to as role models have royally messed their own lives up. She’s the most clearcut of the characters yet the one who gets treated the worst. I say again, JUSTICE FOR KAIA.

(And potentially a new job….I’m not sure she has a future working for Elena after all of this tbh)

All of which brings us to the central performance by Ewan McGregor. I wanted to dislike his character and thought from the synopsis that I would but it’s so very hard to dislike a character played by Ewan McGregor. He makes a multitude of bad decisions, both during the play, and in his backstory but he’s still so sympathetic and you kinda want things to work out for him, even as it becomes very clear that they will not. He plays the role with his natural Scottish accent, which definitely helps the character to feel more likeable – I imagined he would do an American accent for the role but I’m so glad he didn’t. His interactions with Mathilde are genuinely tender and even though you know it’s a problematic power dynamic, you still almost root for them as a couple. But then you see what he has with Elena and feel like you should root for them instead. At times, he reminded me of his “Moulin Rouge” character – choking back tears as he tries to figure out the nature of love – but this is a more mature character than Christian ever got to be and with maturity comes baggage. To mix my metaphors slightly, he wears his heart on his sleeve but it’s weighed down by all that emotional baggage. It’s another complex performance and it blends so well with the others.

Just a quick word on the visuals – the sets, as I mentioned earlier, as impressively detailed and I loved the seascape in the background. The costumes are gorgeous, especially the dresses in the second half, and there are some great visual effects when the fireworks are going off. For a play about rich people, there really is a feeling of understated wealth in the set dressing. At one point, a glass is thrown and the sound it makes is quite obviously not that of glass breaking but I guess that’s done for health and safety issues. Health and safety gets heavily promoted as a concern in the play (exposed wiring in a wooden building, anyone?) so no wonder the production team are hot on it.

So visually pleasing, great performances and a twisty plot that keeps you on edge. What’s not to like? It’s a thought-provoking piece, heavy in places and comedic in others, but well worth watching. The runtime is 2 hours 20 mins including an interval but it went by really quickly. We did, of course, get the usual interval ice cream and we’re developing quite a connoisseur’s knowledge of the Delfont Mackintosh ice cream range, which includes at least two dairy free options. It was warm in there (not quite as warm as “The Tempest” but almost) so I would highly recommend getting a cup of water from the dispenser at the bar before it starts.

I would also recommend trying for the stage door. Reuben was at the end of the row and very close to exit so he shot off the minute the curtain call was done (and we have told the kids never to go before the bows as that’s poor etiquette). He got a prime spot on the barrier and was rewarded by signatures from Kate Fleetwood, Elizabeth Debicki and Obi Wan himself. Honestly, I’ve never seen this boy happier:

All three were super nice – we were warned that they would only sign play merchandise, which is fair enough, and would not be posing for selfies. Roo got to exchange a few words with Ewan and it made him even happier than it made me. Of course, Kate Fleetwood and Elizabeth Debicki have their own geek credentials as they’ve appeared in the “Harry Potter” ‘verse and the MCU respectively. This wasn’t lost on Roo. In fact, he watched “Guardians of the Galaxy 2” a few days ago in preparation for potentially meeting the golden-faced star. When she came out to the crowd of people though, she gave a startled look which looked less Ayesha and more like her Princess Di character from “The Crown”

And Eva was so pleased that she got to tell Kate Fleetwood how brilliant she’d been:

Happy, happy stagey kids.

We didn’t dress on theme for this one (tho Nathan had Darth Maul socks on) but I was quite pleased I’d worn my Bowie t-shirt as there’s a Bowie reference and a snippet of music right at the start of the show:

I realise I haven’t said too much about the plot and the dialogue or any of the technical bits apart from the performances but that’s because I’m aware it’s brand new and I don’t do spoilers. It’s OK to tell you that Éponine dies but I wouldn’t be OK with the same level of detail about something that only a handful of people have seen so far. I will say though, if intense family drama is your thing, then you should give this a try. And if you’re just a Ewan McGregor fangirl, then you should also give this a try. Tho to answer a question raised in a Facebook post – no, he does not get his kit off.

But don’t let that put you off. Click here for tickets and more info.

No disclaimer needed as I paid for this one but all opinions remain honest and my own.

How to review “Les Mis”? Surely it’s such a classic that everyone who might want to see it has already seen it so what could I possibly say? Well, I’ll do my best and start off by wishing the original Les Mis – the novel – a very happy 163rd birthday for last Monday (31st March). Eva naturally made the book a tiny party hat to celebrate:

So that gives you an idea of the kind of obsessiveness we’re dealing with here. She’s been planning this outing for a long time and I put off booking for almost as long because I’d read reviews that said that some of the cheapest seats had very restricted views. Eventually I stopped dithering – with some help from seatplan.com – and booked £40 tickets in the Grand Circle. Not super cheap it could have been a lot worse. The view was fine, as it turned out, but first we had to find the theatre. It’s on what I like to call “Orphan’s Row”, right next to “Oliver!”:

It sparked quite some discussion as to which one came first as there are a few similarities. If you’re ever wondered the same, I can confirm that “Oliver Twist” was published in 1838 and, if you paid attention to the first paragraph, you’ll know that “Les Misérables” was published in 1862, three years after Dickens had published his own French revolutionary novel, “A Tale of Two Cities”. The two authors met in 1846 and around 130 years later Alain Boublil would be watching a production of “Oliver!” when the inspiration for the musical version of Les Mis hit. I’ve learnt most of this in the last 24 hours since seeing the show (with research credits to Eva) and only mention it because it seems very fitting that these two productions have run parallel courses to each other and are now neighbours. Also because Victorian novelists really liked writing about urchins and dead prostitutes.

If all that is too cerebral for a blog post, please enjoy my sloppily painted, French flag-coloured nails which happily matched the tube lines we took to get to the theatre (Weaver, Victoria, Piccadilly). Eva’s nails were red and black, for what will be obvious reasons to some.

If you’re wondering what the rest of her outfit was like, wonder no more. I might have mentioned before that she often dresses like an extra from Les Mis, so I assume this is just what she might have been wearing on a Saturday anyway:

All of which gets us to our seats in the Grand Circle. And look, the view was just fine:

So, on with the show! While I knew some of the songs very well, there were huge chunks of the show I only vaguely knew from having watched the film or heard the soundtrack blaring out of Eva’s room. The whole thing is sung-through, which makes for an interesting mix of songs that are actual songs (with a beginning, middle and end) and other bits which are more like conversational interludes. The latter is where most of the exposition tends to happen, so some of it is skipped out which leaves a lot of questions. Mainly around Valjean’s ability to escape Javert by just putting a suit on and moving to the other side of France. I think it’s probably explained a bit more in the book but there are certainly times when you can tell that a sprawling, epic novel has been condensed to a play that lasts just under three hours.

I’ve mentioned Valjean and Javert already and it would be remiss of me not to tell you what absolute powerhouse vocalists these two actors (Ian McIntosh and Stewart Clarke) are. It’s a lazy comparison to point out that one particular Javert was not such a powerhouse but comparisons are a bit pointless when you’re watching the kind of vocalists that can hold on a notes for seemingly hours or can sing a song almost entirely in falsetto. These are superb singers in their own right. It’s a very male dominated show, character-wise but really makes use of all the possible notes in the male voice, from the bass notes in the opening song to the high notes of “Bring Him Home”. The women are all amazing singers too, but it’s notable that there are some real vocal challenges for the male roles and they are managed amazingly. Maybe it’s just because I’m still learning about men – in a choir sense – so I was intrigued by the range on show.

But yes, let’s talk about the women because they were some of my favourite characters. Fantine (Katie Hall) is something of an angel character in the second half, all blond hair and white flowing dress, and she sings likes an angel too. Of course, in the first half, she’s very much a fallen angel as she has to sell herself and everything she owns in order to send money to her daughter. But then she dies of mother’s disease and thereafter only appears as a hallucination, where she takes on a heavenly glow. I wish the show gave her time to have more character development as she goes from respectable factory worker to dead prostitute over the course of around five songs. Eva often points out how there’s a very jarring contrast between “I Dreamed a Dream” and “Lovely Ladies” and she is not wrong. I guess it’s meant to be a bit of light relief after the epic drama of “Dream” but it does seem like a bit of a leap. “Dream” is rightly one of the most famous songs of the show and Katie Hall does an amazing job of bringing it to life. Again, I’m going to lazily compare it to the film but Anne Hathaway’s tearing of her vocal chords to try and add pathos just doesn’t hit in the same way that this ever-so-pure stage version does. If only we’d had more time to applaud before the sailors rocked up. No disrespect to the actors playing the sailors – it’s just an odd piece of direction.

Talking of odd, something happened just after Fantine died and Valjean and Javert had one of their rumbles. That might be why I couldn’t quite fathom how Valjean got out of the whole turning up at court and declaring his true identity thing…..I missed a bit of the show as there was a commotion towards the front of the circle. I have no idea what it was but I’m assuming it was either a medical emergency or someone filming the show. Lots of people were standing up and pointing and eventually it all settled down but it meant that Valjean escaping and the iconic moment of Cosette appearing were both somewhat overriden by what was going on. The staff seemed to handle it efficiently though, and all was calm by halfway through “Castle on a Cloud”. I’m not entirely sure which Little Cosette we saw but she was very good and her voice carried all the way back to us in the cheap seats.

Then another abrupt change of mood as it shifted again from pathos to comedy with the appearance of the Thénardiers. I didn’t realise it at the time but Madame Thénardier was played by Claire Machin, who I met when she played Cora in The Girls. I cried a LOT at that show and – spoiler alert – I cried at this show too. I won’t blame Claire Machin for either of those as she’s a great comedy actress, ably matched by Luke Kempner as her husband. I hadn’t realised quite how much comedy there was in this show as I’d assumed it was all quite dark and dramatic. I know I watched the film but that was a decade ago and I can’t remember what the balance was like then. I also didn’t realise how many saucy gags there were but that’s not a problem with these worldly adolescents. The age rating is 8 plus so just be aware that some of the humour gets a bit bawdy…but it might well go over their heads anyway. The show is also nearly three hours in total (including interval) so it might be a bit long for the younger ones.

It’s also worth everyone familiarising themselves with the plot before you go as well. There are two time jumps in the first half and it’s not immediately obvious if you don’t know what to look out for (though the programme has a handy guide, which helps). Valjean’s life as a prisoner takes place in 1815, his life as Mayor in 1823 and then the main bulk of the action – around the revolution – takes place in 1832. I won’t say which member of the family was confused by this last jump but it wasn’t Eva. Éponine appears briefly as a child in 1823 and it’s her appearance as a grown woman (played by Amena El-kindy) that signals that we have definitely moved on. I’m skipping forward a little to the second half but I must say that Éponine is probably my favourite character of all. I mortally offended Eva later by saying that I thought Marius should have ended up with her instead of Cosette but yknow, there was chemistry there. Plus I’ve been using a line from “On My Own” as a warm up for choir for a few weeks now because I just love the drama of “I have ne-ver knooooowwwwwwwnnnnnnnnn”. Wanna see how long I can make the choir hold that note on for? How long dya have?

So with the time jump, we’re into full-on revolutionary mode and my top tip would be to not get too attached to any of those idealistic young students. I hope that’s not a spoiler, given that this show has been running for almost as long as I’ve been alive. Eva gripped my hand ever so tightly in excitement as they sang “Red and Black” and “Do You Hear the People Sing” back-to-back and in the interval made sure to pull the red and black theme through to her ice cream:

But I’m once again getting ahead of myself because what comes before the storm – I mean interval? That’s right, the epic pulling together of all these threads in the form of “One Day More”. Now I’ve seen the show, I can really appreciate how all the different musical themes are previewed through the first half and then they all fit together so beautifully. It was the first time I had a little cry because it is so stirring…but it would not be the last. I’m glad Eva had the interval to calm down afterwards because she was almost bouncing out of her seat by this point. After all, this is the girl who set a “One Day More” calendar reminder for bedtime the day before the show….and yes, we did sing the whole thing through. It gets tricky with two people when it gets into five parts.

Anyway, it did not disappoint. I think the live version is a little different to the recorded version as the different themes are sung at different times to really bring each theme out. It was, as I say, beautiful.

I took some time to look through the programme during the interval as I was thinking that – just like “The Sound of Music” the first half was a bit heavily loaded with all the best songs. I stand by that opinion but the second half makes up for the lack of big hitters with the sheer amount of drama and excitement as the students take to the barricade. No more spoilers here but keep those tissues close by.

And the aforementioned “On My Own” is in the second half so it’s not entirely devoid of mega-bangers. Again, it was wonderfully sung and the audience hung on her every note. You might think I’m being harsh by not including “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” or “Bring Him Home” as mega-bangers but you know what I mean…they’re both lovely and poignant songs but not as stirring as something like “Do You Hear the People Sing?”. I did have a few more nitpicks here about what exactly the students’ plan was as it seemed to have a few pitfalls and Marius changes his mind about the whole thing after spending literally five minutes with Cosette. But that’s young people for you, hey?

I haven’t mentioned Marius and Cosette’s actors yet (Jacob Dachtler and Annabelle Aquino) yet but they were compelling as the young lovers and Cosette’s high notes were incredible. Neither of them get much in the way of character development before the action moves on to the barricade but they’re sweet together and when they’re harmonising, it’s one of the highlights, especially when Éponine and Valjean are also singing in “In My Life”. It’s nothing against Cosette when I said he should choose Éponine, honestly. It’s just that their relationship is a bit rushed. As I said earlier, you can sometimes tell that it’s an epic tale condensed down to the length of a show.

Robson Broad as Enjolras was another highlight. Although his time on the stage is relatively short (darn, am I spoilering again??) he has a great energy and you can see why his followers were prepared to die for their cause (still no spoilers, I promise). Lack of planning aside, who wouldn’t want to join this revolution? Eva certainly did.

There is a certain amount of being overdramatic in this story – Valjean, planning to flee the country because he thought someone knew something that they didn’t know, Enjolras risking his life just to showily fly a flag and as for Javert….well, that’s quite an overreaction. Maybe he was jealous of Valjean’s disguise skills, given he got outed as a spy almost instantly. Takes more than a hat to fool those students. But accusing Les Mis of being overdramatic is the very definition of futile – of course it’s overdramatic. Being overdramatic is its very raison d’être. And that’s probably why my very dramatic child loves it so much.

If you’re wondering what the slightly-less dramatic kid thought – well, he enjoyed it too. He said it was “amazing” and has been humming the songs ever since. I think we may have spawned not one but two theatre kids. I would say it’s my fault but Nathan’s a bit flamboyant too so I think they were always doomed.

The crying-at-the-theatre gene is also strong in Eva as well, which I might well have mentioned before. So I wasn’t surprised to see that both of us were sniffling together during the final reprise. Oh and during “Empty Chairs” a bit as well. And probably when Fantine died and kinda during “Bring Him Home” as well. Did I mention you should bring tissues?

A third strong gene is the ability to lose our possessions everywhere we go. So after we’d stood and cheered the performers and headed down the stairs, wiping the tears away, I went back up all those stairs to find Eva’s jacket. It was a red velvet jacket on red velvet seats so the ushers hadn’t picked it up and I managed to retrieve it. It was also my red velvet jacket from the 90s so I was pretty determined to get it back.

I’d left the family hanging out conveniently next to the stage door and by the time I got back to the street, Katie Hall and Amena El-kindy were out signing. We weren’t super prepared but Roo found a pen and we got to say hello to them both and thank them for being so amazing. It was a lovely way to end the day and they were both super sweet. Then we headed home via the chip shop. This is pretty much Eva’s perfect day. Now to manage her expectations for the rest of the Easter holidays….

No disclaimer needed as I paid for this one but opinions remain honest and my own. If you want to go and see it yourself, I’m sure there are plenty of ways to book the most famous musical in the country but still…handy link here

It’s going to be tricky to write an entirely original review for this show as I’ve done reviews for both “Much Ado About Nothing” and a Jamie Lloyd production at the Theatre Royal in the past year. So anything I say about either the venue or the plot is going to be largely repeating myself. Which is why I sent a screenshot of my last review to the family during the interval when Nathan was questioning the logic of this plot. I maintain it makes no sense, even by Shakespeare’s standards. 

But you know what makes sense? Casting Tom Hiddleston as Benedick. He is perfect in the role…sarcastic but tender and delivering the lines in a way that feels entirely natural to him. Hayley Atwell more than matches him when it comes to their battles of wit and the supporting cast are superb too. But let’s zoom out a bit first.

I had a few criticisms of “The Tempest” and I don’t think I was alone in that. The set was dreary, the pace was slow and there was a strange droning music throughout the whole thing. The shining light of that production was Mason Alexander Park as Ariel and again, I don’t think I’m alone in thinking that.

Happily, Much Ado was almost the polar opposite of the grey Tempest set. The set was filled with pink petals, the dialogue was sharp and quick and the music….well, the music was a collection of 90s party tunes and power ballads. You can decide for yourself whether that’s something you like in your Shakespeare or not.

And Jamie Lloyd had obviously picked up on the “Mason-is-a-star” thing because the production both started and ended with them in a spotlight belting out one of the aforementioned tunes. I was reminded of Hedwig (and her Angry Inch) but only realised afterwards that Mason had indeed played that part before. I am not even a little surprised. Blonde hair, golden mic and diva moves…Hedwig could have walked straight out of that production into this.

Mason will indeed be a star and deserves all the recognition they get. I wonder if they are leant on a bit too heavily in this show, which already has star power in both its leads. Mason redeemed “The Tempest” but did this show need redeeming? 

Because, quite honestly, that audience would have paid to see Tom Hiddleston just wandering around the stage winking at people for two hours. We were in the palm of his hand. He’s obviously most famous for his MCU role and Loki is a very Shakespearean kind of villain. So he slides naturally into this role, dispelling with one carefully placed hand all the mutterings around “stunt casting”. He deserves to be a West End leading man.

And Hayley Atwell fully deserves her place too. Beatrice must be a fun role to play, with all the snappy banter at the start and she punches every line out in a way that had Eva doing the theatre-appropriate version of “you go girl!”. The audience were an appreciative one, cheering every quip and laughing heartily. She makes the shift into lovelorn heroine well too and there’s real chemistry between the two leads.

The best bit of Much Ado is always the hiding sequence, where Benedict and then Beatrice “accidentally” overhear their friends talking about them. Both proved to be excellent at physical comedy in this sequence, with Tom rolling in the petals from the front of the stage to the back. There was much LOLing from Reuben and possibly even some thigh slapping from Eva.

There was also some great delivery of the lines in an unexpected way. Eva’s doing Much Ado at her Shakespeare class this term so she knows it well and her favourite bit was when he rephrased “love me! Why, it must be requited” to “love me! Why?” followed by a long pause before the next phrase. It was this kind of nimble handling of the text that made it just bounce along playfully and and engage even those who struggle with Shakespeare’s language.

So some of the changes were for pace and comedy. Others were for economy of casting, like the character of Ursula being absorbed into Mason’s character Margaret. There was no nightwatch or Dogberry, which some might miss, and one of the very last lines was given to Beatrice instead of Benedick so it is she who advises the Prince to “get a wife”. Mainly tho, it’s a fairly faithful rendering of the original.

The supporting cast all seemed very familiar from “The Tempest”, not just facially but also in terms of their characters. James Phoon and Mara Huf reprise their “young lovers making impulse decisions” roles, transposing from Miranda and Ferdinand to Hero and Claudio. Tim Steed is equally villainous here as “Bastard John” as he was as Antonio. However Forbes Masson is almost recognisable as Leonato, having been Caliban in the last production. He looks different with all his clothes on.

So far, so positive. Now for a few moans on the direction and staging. We were in balcony seats and had a great view of the stage, except the very front but that’s where some of the pivotal moments took place. You could tell that no one around us could see any of it because they were all leaning forward and stretching to try and see. On such a massive stage, I’m not sure why the action moved to the front edge so often. I don’t know whether the tier below us could see any better but literally hundreds of us couldn’t. Conversely, there were also moments when the lights illuminated the very back of the stage so you could see the fuse boxes and things like that, which took you out of the mood. I think this might have been a deliberate comment on the artifice of it all but it was a bit jarring.

There were also some odd shifts in mood in the sound and lighting, with the horns blaring to signify when lovers were reunited or other moments we were obviously meant to clap at. It was presumably to tie in with the 90s rave feel but felt like a heavy-handed cue for audiences to keep up with the plot. I also didn’t love the way that actors stood or sat silently when not in use, as if they were puppets waiting to re-enter the action. Again, there is probably something hugely symbolic in it but the use of school chairs made them look like they were just waiting in a corridor at parents’ evening.

On the whole though, this was hugely enjoyable and both the Marvel fanboy and the Shakespeare fangirl had a great time. We loitered around the stage door afterwards and caught a few glimpses of the stars but didn’t get to talk to them. Having been on the balcony, we were pretty much last out so joined a futile queue that security warned us would never get us in front of the Hidd’. So we made do with taking photos from across the road. Look, here’s Reuben and Tom pretty much together:

We weren’t expecting anything different, with movie-famous stars in the cast. So we were more than happy with just glimpses here and there of not only Tom but also Hayley Attwell, Mason Alexander Park and Tim Steed. I also explained to the kids the differences between this socially acceptable form of stalking celebrities and….other forms. So we’re all clear.

Nitpicks aside, this was a great night out for nerdy teens and their parents. It’s on till 5th April so get thee a ticket!

I may have mentioned before that Eva is a bit obsessed with musicals at the moment and “Hadestown” is one of her particular faves. So when we were on the bus to school, she looked at my phone over my shoulder and noticed an extremely well-targeted Facebook ad that told me I could not miss Melanie La Barrie’s last performance as Hermes.

Eva concurred. We could not. So right there, on the top deck of the bus, I went on to the Lyric Theatre website and managed to nab the last two £25 tickets in the whole theatre. They weren’t in the same row but one was just in front of the other. They were sold as restricted view but Eva assured me that they were the same ones she’d sat in before and the view was just fine. This was not her first “Hadestown” experience, you see, but it would be mine. I had seen the snippets at Musical Con but this would be the first time I watched the show all the way through.

She also insisted that she would be dressing as Hermes for the occasion. It took a little bit of charity shopping and eBaying but we got something together that I think looked pretty authentic:

I didn’t know that much about the show, compared to Eva, but I looked at some pictures on Sunday morning and thought I could cobble together a reasonable approximation of a Fates costume:

We were heading to the show from church – in fact, I was really meant to be at a partners’ meeting instead of at the theatre but I passed it off as spending the afternoon ruminating on the nature of Hell and the afterlife. We so rarely discuss that in partners’ meetings.

We spent a long time on the 38 but it did go pretty much door to door and dropped us right outside the theatre with an hour to go before curtain up. There was a queue formed already and a number of people who’d joined Eva in cosplaying, which she was very excited about. We needed food before we went in so we nipped to the Trocadero branch of That Fries Emporium to carb up for a lengthy show.

Still, we had plenty of time to climb up those hundreds of stairs before the show started and time to buy a programme as well. Our seats were steeply banked and my plan of climbing from Eva’s row to mine almost cost me a thigh muscle but I made it. Just. The view was indeed a little restricted but we could see nearly everything that we needed to.

I’m aware that this performance was a bit of a superfan event so I was probably a bit out of place as a first-timer. I was wrangling a legitimate La Barrie fangirl though and she was dressed to prove it. So I feel like we justified our seats on this most special afternoon.

And it was indeed special. As soon as the cast walked out, the applause was so thunderous that I thought the whole thing might never get started. Everyone – on stage and off – was emotional already and it hadn’t even kicked off yet. It was going to be totes emosh. Sorry, I did promise Eva I’d never use that phrase again but hey, she’s at Shakespeare while I’m writing this so she will never know.

If you don’t live with a “Hadestown” fangirl, you might not be familiar with the plot but I’ll explain it. It’s basically a Deep South jazz setting of two Greek myths – Orpheus and Eurydice mixed with Hades and Persephone. There are a few Greek myth shows on the “to-see” list at the moment so this could be a bit of a theme for 2025. And for those of you not familiar with Greek myths, heed my warning….they don’t often have a happy ending.

There isn’t a huge amount of plot, especially over a 2.5 hour show. Orpheus sees Eurydice and falls in love with her, only to lose her while he’s busy writing a song. Anyone who’s ever dated a musician will understand how that happens. Then he needs to go to the underworld to bring her back only to be offered a very specific deal by Hades – he can lead her out of Hell as long as he never looks backwards to check that she’s following him. You know, that ropey kind of deal that Greek gods are always trying to make with mortals. Hades’ wife is Persephone, who is trapped in an equally ropey deal – she has to spend half the year in the underworld in order to be free to enjoy the sunshine in the other six months of the year. When we meet Persephone in the show, she’s not enjoying the arrangement and Hades, quite frankly, does not seem like a good husband.

Hermes, messenger to the gods, acts as narrator to the whole tale and the Fates intervene to bend the characters to their own will. Just for transparency, Eva has now returned from Shakespeare and is reading this over my shoulder so she knows about the totes emosh thing. Totes awks.

The show is almost pretty much sung through, with dialogue usually mid-song rather than between songs. The style is quite jazzy but some of the slower songs have a different feel. “Wait for Me” sounds like a Celtic ballad – possibly because the last two Orpheuses (Orpheusi?) have been Scottish and Irish respectively. My favourite songs were all from the Fates. I’m an absolute sucker for three-part harmony, which I blame on being brought up listening to the Supremes. I even had a plan to go and live on ZingZilla Island as a Beach Byrd one day when the London winter was a bit too much. So I loved the way they sang together and songs like “When the Chips are Down” had a different feel to the full-on ensemble numbers. I have heard reviews of the show that complain about the band being too loud for the vocals but I can’t say we had that issue – we could hear everything that was sung or said. It might be different closer to the stage but up in the extreme gods (not Hades) we could hear just fine.

We’d had a preview of Dylan Wood (Orpheus) and Madeline Charlemagne (Eurydice) singing their duet at MusicalCon but it was lovely to see them a few months on, being so much more confident in their roles. Dylan will be returning as Orpheus after the OBC have their stint and I think Madeline is currently reprising her old role as a Fate but it was the last time they were going to be singing together in this way and so it did feel extra special, like Eva and I had been there at the start and end of their journey. Similarly, Rachel Tucker (Persephone) and Trevor Dion Nicholas (Hades) were playing out their toxic but passionate relationship for the last time and that too we’d seen the start of back in October. When “Wicked” came out and my entire social media feed was nothing but Oz-related content, Rachel Tucker was often cited as one of the great Elphabas. So it’s been a real privilege seeing her sing live not once but twice now.

But the undoubted star of Sunday’s show was Melanie La Barrie. That was what many people were there for, after all. She’s widely regarded as one of the great Hermeses (Hermesii?) and even André de Shields himself said as much at Musical Con. She has such a calm assurance to her performance and is a fabulous storyteller, which is what the role needs. At the curtain call, everyone was crying and saying what a matriarch she was to the cast and I can well believe that.

I’m getting ahead of myself, though. There was much more to talk about before we get to the curtain call. Like the remarkable staging that allowed actors to literally descend into the underworld. I was slightly perturbed by the way the giant hole in the stage remained after the actors had descended – maybe it’s just because of how clumsy I am but I was so sure someone was about to fall into it. Also, a more obsessive person than me would have been irritated by the way the revolving stage meant that the lines of the floorboards almost never lined up. But I’m not obsessive in that way, thankfully. Given how simple the set was initially though, it was remarkable how much they did with it.

The band onstage were also remarkable – so in synch and full of energy through a lengthy show. It does make a difference having the band integrated into the action and I might be wrong but I believe Orpheus is actually playing the guitar onstage as well, rather than just miming like some other shows would have him do. I wish he’d invest in a guitar case though – if the road to hell is a hard road then he shouldn’t just sling his “lyre” over his shoulder like that. If he breaks a tuning peg, he’ll have to replace the whole machine head. I know he’s a poor boy but if he can afford a nice guitar, he can afford a case too.

Health and Safety and instrument care aside, I have no real criticisms of this show. The runtime goes quickly considering it’s full length and doesn’t have much of a plot. Persephone is a delightful drunk, skipping around in her green in the world above and sulking in black down below. Hades is suitably menacing and, as Eva tells me, the only Bass in the whole of musical theatre. I’m not sure she’s correct on that but he certain had some impressively low notes. As does Eurydice, which is interesting considering that Orpehus sings in falsetto a lot of the time. So when they’re duetting they’re tonally a lot closer together than you’d normally hear in a male-female duet. If I was going to nitpick the plot, I’d say that they make some very rash decisions based on only knowing each other for a few minutes but aren’t young people just impulsive like that? And characters in Greek myths rarely make good decisions.

The ensemble also worked together well, especially in the underworld where they moved in perfect unison as Hades’ maltreated employees. It’s not a massive cast but the stage feels full most of the time and there always seems to be something to look at. I loved the variety of actors in the cast…it really felt diverse and inclusive, both in terms of age and race. The setting is Deep South but the exact setting and era are kept deliberately vague in order to make this a story that could happen to anyone, anywhere. I mean it couldn’t literally happen but the themes of love and hopefulness and wanting a see a better world than the one you see are pretty universal.

It’s also worth saying that they have character-themed cocktails and mocktails in the bar at the interval. We stuck to the traditional ice cream (mango sorbet for her, vegan salted caramel for me) and I managed to just about get to the toilets and back to my seat in time tho it was tight. There are only two ladies’ cubicles at the balcony level, which is better than Macbeth but worse than The Tempest. Some thoughtful ushers escorted a few ladies at the back of the queue to the gents’ just to ensure we all got a chance to go before the second half….I know these details are important to my fellow middle aged women so note well…go early or use the gents’ when invited to.

I’ve skipped all over the show, chronology-wise so I might as well go straight from interval to ending and it was notable that, although everyone in the auditorium had probably seen the show before, they was still a gasp when Eurydice had to descend for the final time. I could hear Eva sobbing in front of me and she was too far away to hug so I just kind of patted her shoulder with the tips of my fingers. “We Raise Our Cups” is always an emotional song, I feel, but probably more so tonight as some of the cast were openly crying through it.

Then there were speeches to each of the departing cast members which I can’t possibly do justice to here but you should look them up on Instagram because they were absolutely beautiful. And together we chorused “story end” to wish Mel La Barrie on her way to her next stop (which was an awards ceremony where she won an award so clearly our good wishes worked). Then I lost Eva briefly.

It’s fine – I knew I could find her at the stage door and so I headed that way and found her in the rain, both sad and elated at the same time. It was always going to be a scrum at the stage door but one we were up for joining so we stood in the cold rain for a while and eventually, out popped…a hand. From these windows up here:

It was hard to tell who the hand belonged to but it was later followed by a face and then another at a different window. We had stumbled upon the West End’s most exciting Advent calendar.

I had guessed we wouldn’t be seeing any cast for a while as they were probably saying their own private goodbyes as well as the public ones. But soon enough. the charming Simon Oskarsson came out to brave the rain and sign our programme. He was followed by a few more hardy souls, including Dylan Wood. It was hard to match faces to names as Eva had the paper copy of the programme and my phone wasn’t loving the rain but I think we met Tiago Dhondt Bamberger, Christopher Short and Winny Herbert. If I’ve got anyone’s names wrong, I sincerely apologise but dang, it was extreme conditions for stage dooring. Anyway, there were all totally lovely and were very complimentary about Eva’s outfit, which made her little theatre kid heart full to bursting.

I had heard on MickeyJo Theatre that Mel herself didn’t do stage door anymore, after an unpleasant encounter with some overly physical fans. But we still glimpsed her and Madeline as they left, which is the point that Eva finally agreed to let me stop standing in the rain and go warm up in the tube. I’m glad we went round to the stage door though, as the actors we met were really very sweet and the fans were all friendly as well. From the looks of the OBC opening night stage door, I think we were lucky and it could have been a lot rowdier than it was. But no, just stagey good vibes and a lot of cold rain.

Of course, now Eva wants to go back and see the new cast when they start. So it’s a sad tale but I might well sing it again and again…..