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Many Happy Returns
Return to the Forbidden Planet
The New Alexandra Theatre
***** IT IS easy to
imagine how the original Return to the
Forbidden Planet production must have
been when it first took to the stage back in the 80s. The writer and director
Bob Carlton took the premise of the film
Forbidden Planet,
which was loosely based on Shakespeare’s
The Tempest,
fuelled i From its small beginnings the production went on to run in the West End for four years, picking up a series of coveted awards and the praise of audiences and critics across the world. With this 2015, 25th Anniversary tour, directed by Carlton himself, you get to withness why it has been such a success as the production creates its own unique gravity field from the very first moment. Jonathan Markwood as Prospero. Pictures: Nobby Clark At first you might dismiss the tongue in cheek
beginnings on what appears to be a Blue Peter made set, but gradually
and by the end, you cannot help being pulled into the core of the
production and on to your feet. This is achieved mainly by the sheer brilliance
of each of the multi-talented cast and the precision of their
interaction with so many elements of the technical staging The casting for the show must have been a
nightmare. You may be able to find those that can, sing, or act, or play
several instruments to a professional standard, or professionally work a
stage in complex touring production, or the ability to deliver
Shakespeare with any confidence or just be good with any degree of comic
timing. However to find people that can do it all at the
same time, as this cast can, is the key to what impresses you most about
this show. Instruments are continually being swapped over
from cast members, hand held mics being moved or delivered to each cast
member and never missing a cue. All this is happens while deliv Amongst the retro mayhem Jonathan Markwood as
Prospero injects the full weight of an RSC production with his great
voice and statesman like performance. The interplay between Prosepro, his former wife,
the spaceship’s science officer played Christine Holman, together with
her sax, and their young teen daughter Miranda Sarah Scowen, who only
manages to play Trumpet, Percussion and sing, conjure some of the best
Shakespearean moments. At the top of the multi talent list is Mark
Newnham who plays Cookie a character who begins seemingly in a support
role vying Miranda’s love.
Over the course of the show though and literally
through his musicianship and a series of blistering rock guitar solos
and great voice he moves more into a central role. Ably matched is Steve Simmonds as Bosun on Bass
Electric Guitar. Drums and trumpet, effortlessly flowing between each
whilst delivering his lines. Sean Needham as the Captain also has similar
multi-tasking abilities and even Joseph Mann as the Robot Ariel, trapped
in his suit for the entire show, managed to pick up a guitar and rock
out with the crew in the finale. Return to Forbidden may not be the best musical
ever written but it wears you down into thinking it is by the sheer
talent of the combined cast. To 31-01-15 Jeff Grant
26-01-15
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with a load of popular songs and dialled in a whole lot more of
Shakespeare’s orginal text.
ering
the musical score live and telling the story of an intergalactic flight
doomed to fight giant monsters created by the scientist Prospero.