REVIEW: Allelujah!, Bridge Theatre ✭✭✭✭
Paul T Davies reviews Alan Bennett’s new play Allelujah! now playing at the Bridge Theatre.
Paul T Davies reviews Alan Bennett’s new play Allelujah! now playing at the Bridge Theatre.
Paul T Davies reviews Laura Linney in My Name Is Lucy Barton now playing at the Bridge Theatre
Despite being in two parts over something like seven hours, Stephen Daldry’s tight direction of The Inheritance means it never drags, drawing you into these people’s lives and caring about their futures.
Full marks to the National for having a jolly good go with this attempt; it may yet be made to work as well as the show clearly intends to. But more work it will need before that happens.
I left the theatre, remembering just how much I loved The Glass Menagerie and thinking how lucky I was to have seen such an outstanding production of it. I’m sitting writing this review having already decided that a second and possibly a third visit is definitely in order.
It’s a fast paced, energetic and supremely satisfying night at the theatre, and I daresay one that people will want to return to such is the joy that it brings.
Christopher Wheeldon’s vision here, as director and choreographer, is remarkably detailed and endlessly lavish and ambitious. Without huge pre-built sets, Bob Crowley creates a never static vista of Parisian streets, monuments, parlours and performance venues. It all contributes to the cinematic feel of the dreamlike qualities which propel the production. Casting is faultless and this is probably the best looking, most innately stylish, cast of any Broadway show now playing. Robert Fairchild, in his Broadway debut, is revelatory as Jerry. Leanne Cope is a shimmering flower of elfin glory as Lise, and Max von Essen triumphs as Henri in a cleverly judged, gloriously sung, pitch perfect performance.
The Hard Problem is populated with unpleasant and unlikeable people spouting difficult scientific jargon in a sea of sentimental and predictable banality. There are a handful of good jokes but a handful is insufficient. The detailed notes in the programme provided more dramatic interest than about 100 minutes of stage time.
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