TIL Summer 2018

32
Photos: Specular.
Christina Bennington as Raven and Andrew Polec as Strat in Bat Out of Hell.
SPECTACULAR BAT OUT OF HELL
BACK IN THE WEST END
Just when you thought a new musical
couldn’t get any better, Bat Out of Hell
stormed back into London this spring,
to the Dominion Theatre, returning after
a much acclaimed visit to the London
Coliseum last summer. The production
has been toned to great effect, with the
central roles played by Andrew Polec,
who gives an astonishing performance
as Strat, belting out Jim Steinman’s
superb anthems with Christina
Bennington (Raven) – Dead Ringer For
Love, I’d Do Anything for Love (But I
Won’t Do That), All Revved Up With No
Place to Go and Two Out of Three Ain’t
Bad – the list goes on.
After the spectacular Bat Out Of Hell
title song, a standing ovation at the
interval gives evidence to every cast
member being at the top of their game,
notably Rob Fowler and Sharon Sexton
as Falco and Sloane, Wayne Robinson
(Jagwire), Alex Thomas-Smith (Tink),
and Giovanni Spano (Ledoux).
The show works brilliantly well in the
Dominion. The set literally explodes into
the auditorium in a cacophony of sound
and theatrical effects. Every generation is
here – seasoned lovers of Meat Loaf in
the ‘70s, those who grew up with the
re-renderings over time and people who
simply come to enjoy all the favourites.
Jemma Court
BRITISH YOUTH OPERA SUMMER
SEASON AT THE PEACOCK THEATRE
British Youth Opera, the only
company to provide training to emerging
professionals in all areas of opera
production, is returning to the Peacock
Theatre for their 2018 summer season.
Noted for their creative programming,
the summer season is no exception with
the UK premiere of Jeremy Sams’ The
Enchanted Island and a new production
of one of the 20th century’s greatest
operas, Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress.
The Enchanted Island will be receiving its
first production since its premiere and
revival at New York’s Metropolitan Opera.
Patrick Sullivan as Blake, Andrew Polec
as Strat & Giovanni Spano as Ledoux in
Bat Out of Hell.
THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE
Donmar
For many of a certain age, Maggie
Smith is Jean Brodie, the unconventional,
unmarried teacher in the 1969 film
adaptation of Muriel Spark’s 1961 novel,
who romanticised Mussolini and
favoured telling her pupils about art and
her Italian holidays to sticking to the
curriculum. But all thoughts of Dame
Maggie are swiftly swept aside when Lia
Williams makes her entrance in a
dramatic scarlet dress and high heels –
no wonder the impressionable preteens
at Marcia Blaine’s School for Girls in
1930’s Edinburgh are only too flattered
to be included in her special set.
In David Harrower’s new adaptationwhich
begins years later when a
journalist comes to interview former
favourite Sandy (Rona Morison), now
a successful author, on the eve of her
taking the veil, it is immediately clear
that the impact she had on them did not
prove altogether positive.
As her story unfolds in flashback, it
shows Brodie using her influence to
push her girls – the ‘crème de la
crème’ – along the paths she thought
most suited to them, even as (as they
grow older) they start to distance
themselves from her.
Angus Wright gives a sympathetic
performance as the staid music teacher
with whom Brodie embarks on an affair
whilst lusting after Edward MacLiam’s
equally besotted, but married Teddy
Lloyd, the war-wounded, Catholic art
teacher. Sylvestra Le Touzel brings a
frosty disapproval to headmistress
Miss Mackay, the ‘granite’ to Brodie’s
‘cashmere’ who is well aware of the
potential danger that her unorthodox
member of staff poses to her charges.
And Nicola Coughlan is a touching
Joyce Emily, an unhappy outsider
whose desperation to fit in leads to
tragic consequences in Polly Findlay’s
entertaining, well-acted production,
played out on Lizzie Clachan’s suitably
grey set and accompanied by ringing
bells.
Louise Kingsley
t h i s i s l o n d o n m a g a z i n e • t h i s i s l o n d o n o n l i n e