DanceFeaturedLondonMusicalReview

Play On! – Lyric Hammersmith, London

Reviewer: Jane Darcy

Conceived by Sheldon Epps

Music: Duke Ellington

Book: Cheryl L. West

Director: Michael Buffong

Play On! is everything you’d want from a musical – irresistible songs, exuberant dancing, colourful characters and a great story. It’s a brilliant adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, focusing on the difficulties of making it as a woman in a man’s world. For Viola, a young ambitious singer-songwriter from the South, has come to Harlem’s Cotton Club to spread her wings. But it’s the 1940s, and Viola is told in no uncertain terms that she hasn’t a hope – only men have the capability of writing truly great songs. Undaunted, Viola becomes Vyman, is kitted out in a natty suit, learns a bit of masculine swagger, and presents herself to the legendary Duke. It’s another brilliant idea to make Shakespeare’s lovelorn Count Orsino into a fictional version of the real-life Duke Ellington. The Cotton Club’s superstar has lost his mojo. Lady Liv, his fabulous lead singer, is refusing to sing his increasingly melancholy songs.

Viola/Vyman effortlessly charms her way into the Duke’s heart. Earl Gregory is persuasive as the sophisticated but downbeat musician and, in a pitch-perfect performance by Tsemaye Bob-Egbe, Vy reveals that her sweetly demure exterior hides a soul of fire. She’s a force of nature, her joy-filled song and dance routines convincing the Duke to send her to Lady Liv with his latest song. And it’s no wonder that sultry diva, Lady Liv, played by silky-voiced KoKo Alexandra, starts to cast smokey looks on this fresh newcomer.

Meanwhile, Olivia’s household is remodelled as a tight-knit group of club members. Middle-aged Sir Toby Belch and Maria become Sweets and Miss Mary. Sweets takes his on-off lover for granted. She, as Lady Liv’s put-upon dresser, longs for a home of her own. Malvolio is winningly reimagined as stiff, black-suited Rev. He cherishes a secret love for Miss Liv, overlooked by her even as he tenderly attends to her every need. When the others mischievously persuade him to plead his case and he starts performing what he imagines to be cool moves in a huge yellow suit, we feel sorry for him even as we laugh. It’s a lovely performance by Cameron Bernard Jones, his rich voice giving him a warmth Malvolio never had.

Just as Tom Littler’s Twelfth Night at the Orange Tree put Feste centre stage as a musical master of revels, so in Play On! Jester is the dazzling, dizzy fixer, Llewellyn Jamal’s compelling performance often threatening to steal the show. He loves dancer Ceecee, but just can’t be faithful.

The show, conceived by Sheldon Epps from the book by Cheryl L. West, thus neatly strips out some of the original play’s characters and subplot, but is finely attentive to the themes of love, loss and loneliness. And it’s neatly done in terms of staging.

An ensemble of eight perform a succession of impeccable show-stoppers to Ellington’s jazz hits, including Take the A Train and It Don’t Mean a Thing (If it Ain’t Got That Swing). The live band is fantastic, with drummer Shane Forbes, double-bassist, Chris Hyde-Harrison, sax clarinettist, Kaz Hamilton and trumpeter, Alexander Polack. Musical arrangers Liam Godwin and Benjamin Kwasi Burrell skilfully mould each song to suit the mood. Particularly notable is the reworking of Solitude to a moving, almost Mozartian quartet.

Michael Buffong directs with pace and wit, using the modest stage space to maximum effect – we feel we’re right inside a small, packed club, the music reverberating off the walls. It’s a heart-warming, thrilling production.

Runs until 22 February 2025

Heart-warming, thrilling production

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The Reviews Hub - London

The Reviews Hub London is under the editorship of Richard Maguire. The Reviews Hub was set up in 2007. Our mission is to provide the most in-depth, nationwide arts coverage online.

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