'I Had No Idea Musicals Could Be This Exhausting!'
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014review15MAR 19/3/07 16:38 Page 2 14 CITYA.M. THURSDAY 15 MARCH 2007 CITYA.M. THURSDAY 15 MARCH 2007 15 FILM REVIEWS ‘It was such CD REVIEWS a revelation SETTING THE to hear people say, OUT OF THE WOODS I want to see STAGE ALIGHT TO Tracey Thorn more of you VIRGIN ###$$ in this. IGNITE CHANGE The face of Everything But The Girl and the voice of Massive Attack’s anthem It sounds Protection, Tracey Thorn is back with a new album, having pro- fessed to not singing a note for five years. Thorn has a special and pathetic, but distinctive voice but it is lamentable in her half-decade hiatus that she didn’t break away from her trip-hop background. I feel more Out Of The Woods could have been an Alison Goldfrapp- inspired slice of nu-electro pop — especially with dance producer Sienna Miller as NYC socialite Edie Sedgwick in Factory Girl real now’ Ewan Pearson overseeing proceedings - but instead it harks back too much to the sounds of the mid-1990s. FACTORY GIRL AM Cert: 15 THE TEMPO OF BICYCLES ###$$ AND BOATS Guy Pearce’s Andy Warhol grooms Sienna How To Cure Dyslexia Miller’s factory girl in this superficial biopic about a troubled pop culture icon, Edie DYSLEXIC MUSIC ###$$ Sedgwick, a New York socialite who became part of Andy Warhol’s boho entourage and eventually suc- This folky oddball album was recorded in a King’s Cross art cumbed to a pharmaceutical frenzy. gallery last October under the watchful gaze of the public, who Structurally, the film is all over the place, and the bland script Alistair McGowan Carole Pluckrose aims to dramatise taboo issues such as domestic violence could come and go while the tracks were committed to tape. is full of inaccuracies. with his Little Shop of It sounds gimmicky, but the result is a soft, beguiling album However, it’s definitely worth catching for the two engaging Horrors co-star Audrey Pluckrose. “But I do think that the the- full of heartfelt lyrics about love and day-dreaming set over a central performances: Miller is eerily convincingly as the vulner- Theatre doesn’t atre can provide seminal experiences wide range of instruments including ukuleles, vibraphones and able Edie, while a disturbingly cold, but beguiling Pearce does jus- in our lives which can trigger the imag- melodicas. Little Else — a remorseful lament about not asking for tice to his complex character. Picture: Jason have to be passive, ination and give rise to new thought.” a girl’s hand in marriage — is a fantastic song, recalling the late Johanna Thomas-Corr Alden/CITYA.M. Pluckrose may not believe a piece of legend Elliot Smith. says Johanna drama can heal society’s woes, but she AM L is no doubt a theatre evangelical. FUR: AN IMAGINARY actors don’t get paid anywhere near the Thomas-Corr In 1984, she co-founded Arc Theatre Arts same amount.” with fellow actor Clifford Oliver (Olly), INTRODUCING JOSS STONE PORTRAIT OF DIANE ARBUS So, who was more intimidating, Dench with the aim of “dramatising taboo ‘I had no idea or the carnivorous plant? O ART and business mix? Carole issues”. The group has travelled the Joss Stone Cert: 15 T’S rather disconcerting to see a plain- “Oh, erm, the plant. Judi and I only had Pluckrose, the artistic director world performing pieces on issues clothed Alistair McGowan. He is suffer- one little dance together on stage.” Dof Arc Theatre certainly believes such as domestic violence, gun crime RELENTLESS ####$ ##$$$ Iing from a stinking cold and is sipping Coming from TV, doing two musicals so. She is on a mission to use and climate change, to the public and a cup of lemsip. back-to-back is punishing, but McGowan is actors to bring social issues to the fore. private sector, and for schools. After being booed at recent concerts, Nicole Kidman plays Diane Arbus, American It’s unfortunate as he’s about to start a tir- raring to go in his role as the dentist. It’s a brave move — after all most Arc takes a brief from each client ridiculed for speaking with an photographer and privileged daughter of a fur magnate in a ing round of rehearsals for a gruelling 10- people within big business may be and works out general scenarios for Americanised drawl at the Brits and making headlines with diva rather odd exploration of her life. Directed by Steven Shainberg musicals week run in the Little Shop Of Horrors, ECCENTRIC VEIN reluctant to have their opinions chal- the actors to explore. red hair, the Joss Stone backlash has commenced. But as this (responsible for the fabulous Secretary), the film tries to give us a which moved to the West End this week. He says: “I saw the film when it came out, lenged by a bunch of actors. The action is managed by a “facilita- album proves, her powerful sultry growl is stronger and more snapshot of Arbus’s psyche, probing what made this 35-year-old Matthew White’s production was a hit at and thought it was extraordinary, but I did At Islington Council, Arc is tackling tor” who may stop the scenes at any poignant than ever. woman suddenly cross the barriers of her own experience, photo- the Menier recently, with energetic per- also think it was quite weird. There’s this the subject of climate change. point to elicit suggestions from the Tell Me What We're Gonna Do Now has an easy, seductive graphing dwarfs, giants and transvestites, before killing herself formances from a cast which includes weird thing about the plant taking over the Clifford Oliver, Arc’s narrator, is audience as to how to reach a success- groove, while Put Your Hands On Me, with its funky beat and aged 48. comic Mike McShane (as the voice of plant, world in a Faustian way, and then the standing between an audience of busi- ful conclusion. swaying horns is sure to become a hit. Packed full of robust pop- It is compelling viewing, but you get the sense that what the Audrey II) and Sheridan Smith. whole rags-to-riches story. And then, ness people, councillors and school A theatre workshop may sound wise R&B and rich acoustic funk grooves, and with cameos from dreamy heroine depicts was nothing like the more forthright and could be this Now the same cast has taken the hit to beneath it all there’s a love story. Then I children, and four actors on stage, each cringeworthy to some, but Arc have Vinnie Jones and Lauryn Hill, Stone has too much talent to go the intimidating presence that those who knew her remember. the Duke of York’s Theatre with McGowan guess, it’s a parody of science fiction novels representing a different opinion on had a lot of take-up, devising pieces for way of Britney and Whitney quite yet. JTC playing a sadistic, motorcycling dentist, as and the parody of musicals as well.” environmental matters. clients like, McDonald's and Unilever. JTC well as several cameo roles with one in drag. I suspect Little Shop’s eccentric vein of “We’re going to ask you to work Many firms see this medium as a non- humour strikes a chord with McGowan, through the situation and try and find threatening tool for examining diffi- STOMP THE YARD PUNISHING MUSICALS whose own Big Impression television series a solution,” he said, before the actors cult issues. Cert: 12A As a TV impersonator, McGowan now relish- with Ronni Ancona was often a lot more ran off to ask the crowd for their input. Arc Theatre was instrumental in exhausting!’ es his serious roles. He recently starred in intelligent than was acknowledged. This is not the theatre you’ll see at bringing the issue of racism in football the BBC costume drama Bleak House as well “We used to get hammered for not being the RSC or the National, neither is this to the forefront of public awareness ##$$$ as detective series, Mayo. satirical!” exclaims McGowan. the audience participation that is through a trilogy of plays (Kicking Out, When we meet, he’s just emerged from a And he adds: “In television interviews, expected at pantomimes. This is forum Ooh Ah Showab Khan and My England) This teen musical drama directed by Sylvian 10-week run in the Royal Shakespeare every time I break out of an impression, you theatre, and with spectators expected which were commissioned by HSBC. White explores violence, love and envy with Company’s musical production of Merry can see people glaze over. They’re just wait- to get involved. Pluckrose insists forum theatre is fraternity stepping (competitive rhythmical Wives Of Windsor, playing Ford opposite ing for the next catchphrase. It was such a Arc is not interested in entertain- not about ramming political messages stomping) as the backdrop. Disgraced Los Angeles step dancer, DJ Dame Judi Dench’s Mistress Quickly. revelation for people to say ‘I want to see ment for entertainment’s sake — it is down the audience’s throats. tries to woo attractive co-ed April with his moves, provoking two Alistair McGowan has thrown himself into “It was exhausting. I had no idea. I am full more of you in this.’ It sounds pathetic, but here to ignite change. “Our work is about social justice, rival fraternities into war. The film’s dance and step sequences of admiration now for people who do musi- I feel more real now.” But can drama really change the way inequality, prejudice, and we have also are impressive, but they don’t compensate for a bloated and theatre and finds it’s nothing like imitating cals,” he says.