If you ask most people who work in the theatre they’ll tell you they hate the system whereby shows are allocated a quality rating of 1 – 5 stars. It means audiences make a snap judgement based on the scoring and don’t take time to consider the content of the review and decide for themselves whether they’ll enjoy a production or not.
(Of course if you ask someone who works in the arts who’s just got a five star review they’ll tell you it’s a marvellous system! That’s theatre folk for you!)
I think potential audiences quite like being able to tell at a glance whether it’s worth spending money to see a show, I know I do, and a hefty star rating also encourages people to consider a show they may not otherwise have been interested in.
If you’re already interested in a production a three star review probably won’t put you off but it might deter you from thinking about going to see a show if you’re not already keen. And that’s a shame because, although it might lack that certain something to excite jaded critics it might still provide you with a great nights entertainment.
Last week two shows opened in the West End which predominately only managed to attract three star critiques, celebrity packed productions of comedies, The Miser and Stepping Out.
I missed the press nights so I can’t recommend them personally but from what I’ve read you should give both serious consideration.
The reviews for The Miser at the Garrick Theatre were particularly odd. The main issue amongst critics seems to be that it’s too relentlessly funny without enough grit and substance. Well, that sounds like a great night out to me! I don’t know about you but there are times when that’s just what I fancy after a hard day’s work.
Griff Rhys Jones plays the Miser of the title intent on spending as little as possible, much to the consternation of his marriageable children played by Ryan Gage and Katy Wix and the despair of his servants played by TV comedians Mathew Horne and Lee Mack. The original nineteenth Century French comedy by Molière has been freely adapted by comedy genius Sean Foley who has an excellent track record in staging laugh out loud theatre. There’s topical gags, audience participation and non-stop mayhem to blow your troubles away.
There’s gentler comedy in Stepping Out over at the Vaudeville Theatre. This is a much loved, much revived comedy from the 1980s by Richard Harris.
I directed the premiere of Harris’s most recent play and learnt so much from him. He really knows how to engage an audience with warmth and humour and he’s particularly good at writing female characters. Both of the these skills are to the fore in Stepping Out in which an odd assortment of women are taking tap dancing lessons at the village hall. Their classes and the show culminate in a hilarious dance finale.
A top notch cast includes favourite West End leading lady, Anna-Jane Casey (replacing Tamzin Outhwaite, who withdrew with a broken ankle) as the teacher and Amanda Holden, Tracy-Ann Oberman as two of the pupils relying on the tap sessions to escape the challenges of real life.
It’s old fashioned stuff, expect 1980’s dance fashions and a pleasingly predictable plot, but there’s plenty to feel good about in this celebration of friendship.
Tonight it was my privilege to watch the great actors Imelda Staunton and Conleth Hill take their first stab at performing Edward Albee's masterpiece of marital disfunction , WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF in front of a London audience.