However you may feel about stage adaptations of films dominating the West End no one can deny that this one is first class entertainment. It’s funny, romantic and thrilling, dripping with beautiful costumes adorning a huge cast on a simple but stylish set that can be manipulated and lit to create plenty of breathtaking moments.Of course it began life on the big screen where Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow sparred and then fell in love, advancing theatre in the process by getting women accepted on to the Elizabethan stage and providing inspiration for the young bard’s most romantic tragedies and comedies. Dame Judy Dench had a brief, very brief, appearance in it as the ageing monarch but made such an impression in 8 minutes that she won an Oscar for her few lines. It was all very fanciful but also absolutely irresistible. Fiennes cut a heart-stopping dash as the perfect romantic hero; handsome, haunted and clever and the screenplay was peppered with delicious in-jokes about acting and the Shakespeare repertoire.
The stage adaptation replicates it all in spades but also allows more space for the secondary characters to expand. The plot is that a theatre manager, feuding with a rival company, is in financial difficulty and Shakespeare cannot deliver the play, which will become Romeo and Juliet, because of writers block. Rival playwright Christopher Marlowe, who many, including myself, believe actually wrote Will’s plays, inspires him, as well as his romance with the beautiful Viola de Lesseps. Unbeknownst to our hero she’s already hanging out at the playhouse disguised as a boy.
It’s a silly story but in the exact same way that Shakespeare’s plot’s are silly, in fact if you know your Complete Works you’ll already notice a number of similarities between this outline and a some of the famous plays.
It’s funny, romantic and thrilling, dripping with beautiful costumes adorning a huge cast on a simple but stylish set that can be manipulated and lit to create plenty of breathtaking moments.
Tom Bateman appears as Will Shakespeare and what he lacks in celebrity he makes up for in hunkiness; but he can also deliver, playing the comedy and the romance very skilfully and believably. There’s a tremendous sexual chemistry between him and Lucy Briggs-Owen who never loses our emotional engagement no matter how silly her story gets. They lead a terrific 28 strong cast which includes musicians, singers, national treasure Anna Carteret as the queen and a beautiful Irish Wolfhound called Spot, allowing someone to yell at him “Out, damn spot” and pre-empting the same famous line in Macbeth.
Director Declan Donnellan and designer Nick Ormerod seemed an odd choice to lead this production. They are geniuses in bringing ancient texts to life and rightly critically acclaimed but their past attempts to deliver commercial theatre have been spectacular failures, most notably Hay Fever in the West End and their production of Cameron Macintosh’s block buster musical, Martin Guerre. They just don’t deal in the splash and dash needed for a crowd pleaser - until now. In this case they’ve obviously carefully considered their approach and although the set retains there trademark stark simplicity it’s on a large enough scale and with enough moving elements that it sits happily around the corner from the spectacle of Miss Saigon and is just as lovely.
Quite a hefty chunk, maybe even all of, Juliet’s death from Romeo and Juliet is incorporated into the climax of this show. As the rest of the evening has been conceived to satisfy modern tastes for a fast moving narrative it does seem odd when the whole production slows right down for this wordy interlude. However it is some of the most beautiful poetry ever written and expertly performed and directed so it’s well worth trying to tune in to the archaic language, especially since the story so far has equipped you with all the information you need to appreciate it.
I imagine they’ll love this production in New York, it chimes perfectly with the American view of "Heritage Britain". In fact this could be the new One Man Two Guvnors and War Horse, achieving success across the globe. Luckily for us – we get to see it first!
A cast change in the relatively long running West End comedy JEEVES AND WOOSTER in PERFECT NONSENSE allowed me to finally see what all the fuss is about. I’m happy to confirm that it’s as laugh out loud funny as everyone says and you should take anybody you know who could benefit from two hours of undemanding, hilarious fun.