Brief Encounter
Empire Cinema Haymarket, London Until Sept 2, 1hr 25mins
Ten years on, this totally charming show from the Kneehigh theatre company shunts into the West End for a welcome return. It’s a bonkers musical version – staged in a period cinema – of the classic 1945 film based on a Noël Coward one-act play.
In the film, housewife Laura (Celia Johnson) gets grit in her eye and a chivalrous (also married) doctor called Alec (Trevor Howard) removes it.
They meet at the railway station again and again, they go to the pictures, to the boating lake, and soon are madly in love and unable to pretend they aren’t. Misery awaits.
It’s a bonkers musical version – staged in a period cinema – of the classic 1945 film based on a Noël Coward one-act play. Above: Katrina Kleve and Lucy Thackeray
The songs are from Coward’s back catalogue, perkily performed in the homemade style that is Kneehigh’s trademark. Above: Isabel Pollen as Laura and Jim Sturgeon as Alec
Nothing beats Victoria Wood’s TV spoof of the movie. This is also very funny but, crucially, it is utterly sincere in its depiction of two people surprised and horrified by the sudden depth of their love. Isabel Pollen – clipped and restrained – is extraordinary as Laura; Jim Sturgeon is the idealistic doctor.
In director Emma Rice’s reinvention, actors appear on stage and also in a specially made film version. There’s a model train and the film’s yearning Rachmaninoff piano soundtrack is used along with cheeky live ukulele music. On-screen waves crash symbolically and Laura is even seen swimming underwater, free as a mermaid. Her pipe-smoking hubbie waits patiently at home with two puppet children.
Coward invariably patronised his working-class characters. In this, the station staff get their revenge by having a lot more slap and tickle than the two middle-class commuters.
Coward invariably patronised his working-class characters. In this, the station staff get their revenge by having a lot more slap and tickle than the two middle-class commuters. Above: Jos Slovick and Beverly Rudd
In the film, housewife Laura (Celia Johnson) gets grit in her eye and a chivalrous (also married) doctor called Alec (Trevor Howard) removes it.
Beverly Rudd does great work as Beryl the galumphing waitress, and Dean Nolan is the red-blooded ticket inspector. As the lady who runs the caff, Lucy Thackeray is a riot of sniffiness. You should see her face when Alec asks if her Bath buns are fresh.
The songs, such as Mad About The Boy and A Room With A View, are from Coward’s back catalogue, perkily performed in the homemade style that is Kneehigh’s trademark. This really is a sure bet of a show, bound to delight indie theatre fans, old romantics and youngsters who’ve never seen the film.
Brighton Rock
York Theatre Royal On tour until May 26 2hrs 30mins
Rating: 
The very first stage version in 1943 of Graham Greene’s novel featured the 19-year-old Richard Attenborough (he also starred in the 1947 film) as the villain. Bryony Lavery’s dark new adaptation also rightly emphasises the youthfulness at its heart.
Razor-thin Jacob James Beswick (above) is suitably sadistic as Pinkie, Sarah Middleton is his pathetically devoted Rose (also above), and Gloria Onitiri is the warm-hearted, blowsy Ida
Pinkie in the book is a mere 17, yet he’s already a killer who bumps off witnesses. One of the witnesses – a smitten 16-year-old waitress called Rose – he marries so she can’t give evidence. The story’s detective is the barmaid Ida.
The book’s Catholic fearfulness and Pinkie’s sexual loathing certainly shine through in this Pilot Theatre production. Razor-thin Jacob James Beswick is suitably sadistic as Pinkie, Sarah Middleton is his pathetically devoted Rose, and Gloria Onitiri is the warm-hearted, blowsy Ida.
But somehow it doesn’t totally deliver. Annoyances include the mockery of the story’s Catholic dimension by using an actress to play a priest. Hannah Peel’s live score is a bit intrusive, and Greene’s shabby, rancid Brighton never fully emerges as a character in its own right.
Certainly worth seeing, but not overwhelming.
pilot-theatre.com
The Jungle Book
On tour until May 12 1hr 55mins
Rating: 
These days The Jungle Book is more associated with Disney than Rudyard Kipling, but this charming new production, based on two of the 1894 short stories, isn’t about the bare necessities and cute anthropomorphism.
Adapted by Jessica Swale – she wrote the Olivier award-winning Nell Gwynn – with songs by Joe Stilgoe, it’s a jolly affair with a modern, liberal tone. And man cub Mowgli is played by a young woman.
Adapted by Jessica Swale with songs by Joe Stilgoe, it’s a jolly affair with a modern, liberal tone. And man cub Mowgli is played by a young woman – Keziah Joseph
The predatory tiger Shere Khan (Lloyd Gorman) is a quiffed guy in a stripey, sparkly Elvis-style suit who sneers at vegans; there’s a bunch of streetwise funky monkeys and a slinky, powerful panther in Bagheera (a boiler-suited Deborah Oyelade); while the good-time bear Balloo is a lovable Welsh goofball played with winning charm by Dyfrig Morris.
On a set made of ladders suggesting jungle vines, Stilgoe’s bright and breezy score runs the gamut from calypso to pop and the blues (the bear sings the ‘Balloos’), and there’s a big ‘I Am What I Am Am’-style number from Keziah Joseph’s Mowgli, signalling his teen identity crisis of whether he belongs with humans or the pack of wolves that raised him.
Swales’s version is all about diversity and tolerance: Mowgli is told that ‘it’s OK to be a little bit different’.
A slightly earnest clunk in a fun production.
Mark Cook
junglebooklive.co.uk
Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em
Richmond Theatre, London On tour until Jul 28 2hrs
Rating:
You probably don’t need reminding, but never go to dinner at Frank Spencer’s house. Number 13 is a health-and-safety nightmare. The electrics fizz and crackle. The door chime won’t stop. The stereo is activated by a foot stamp. And as for the kitchen cooker… best call the bomb squad.
The good news about this nostalgic spin-off of the Seventies TV sitcom is that Joe Pasquale’s Frank – sporting the iconic beret and mac – rises above a mere ‘Ooh, Betty’ impression of Michael Crawford in the role
The good news about this nostalgic spin-off of the Seventies TV sitcom is that Joe Pasquale’s Frank – sporting the iconic beret and mac – rises above a mere ‘Ooh, Betty’ impression of Michael Crawford in the role. His bubble-and-squeak voice effortlessly suits the accident-prone man-child, here given an extra twist of pomposity and failure.
The plot involves a priest, a TV producer, a deadpan copper and a terrific Susie Blake as Frank’s sozzled mother-in-law. In the Michele Dotrice role as Betty, Sarah Earnshaw – excellent – is perpetually unreassured by Frank’s promise ‘When things go wrong, I’ll be there!’
Simon Higlett’s imploding set comes with a mind of its own. As for real, sustained belly laughs, this sweet show, written and directed by Guy Unsworth, most definitely does ’ave ’em.
somemothersdoaveem.com