Twist of Lemmon is a one man show by Jack Lemmon’s only son, Chris. In this relaxed review we are offered a glimpse at what it’s like to grow up in close proximity to an internationally beloved celebrity, and how that impacts on a normal father-son relationship. Chris Lemmon is witty, warm, and not Jack Lemmon, which gives him the distance and clarity of vision to fully assess his father’s faults and foibles. It is a heart-warming night, Chris bluffs and stutters, clearly enjoying impersonating his father through his famous lines, but personally I preferred it when he spoke plainly as himself.
From the off, the tone of the evening was that of the glamourous Golden age of Hollywood. Flanked by beaming photos of movie starlets, we enter the intimate studio in the St James’s Theatre. Soaring strings over a crackling sound system greet us as we nestle down around tables topped with flickering lights to await our star. The atmosphere is much the same as a rainy Sunday, snuggling down to watch an obscure black and white film on the television; comforting, familiar, yet exciting.
As the reels turn and we enjoy a montage of Jack Lemmon’s greatest moments, Chris waits in the audience, laughing along and affirming that in many ways he is more one of us than his stellar Pa. Lemmon Jr brims with a boundless energy, his story telling and comic timing are on point. He beautifully plays Jack as he realises the joy of performing and making people laugh. Yet his observations from the eye of the storm are just as astute. He candidly asks us, “How do you follow in the footsteps of a giant?”, evidently still uncertain and seeking the answer himself. The weight of his father’s Oscar-winning heritage weighs heavily on the boy who, as often happens, finds that he possesses artistic aspirations of his own. Mercifully Chris pursued another route and distinguished himself as a musician before eventually being drawn to acting. The stories and anecdotes are punctuated by jazz standards in his own arrangement and compositions played with gusto and panache.
Jack’s pet name for his son was “hotshot,” a dig at his boy’s golfing prowess and in another universe this multi-talented man would have been the beneficiary of the “dumb luck” of the fickle movie industry. Yet despite the natural jostling and competition of father and son, theirs seems a relationship of deep affection and love. In some of the more honest and raw moments, Chris confronts his father’s alcoholism with dignity and kindness. Whatever he may have felt as a child or adolescent is now considered and generous, and he never judges or condemns the man he eventually grows to appreciate and love as a fallible human being.
They say that to mature we must find a way to smash our idols. We must walk out from our parents’ shadows and break free from their jurisdiction; but this is clearly made more difficult, as Chris quite rightly opines, when you are entirely defined by your relationship to someone else, when you are simply an object, “that’s Jack Lemmon’s boy.” As astonishing as the catalogue of A-list names that Chris reels off is, the name-dropping can sometimes feel a little forced and can make us lowly plebs feel very alien to the megastars he talks about so nonchalantly. A Twist of Lemmon is schmaltzy yet earnest in the way only Americans can be, but nevertheless, is a wonderfully moving night at the theatre.
Twist Of Lemmon plats at the St James Theatre Studio until 18 June 2016.
