PRIVATES ON PARADE
Simon Russell Beale is a man born to wear a dress. As Captain Terri Dennis, he is the camp jewel in Peter Nichols’s satirical musical revue, Privates On Parade. Originally written in 1977, around the same time as the TV hit, It Ain’t Half Hot Mum, it is a resolutely period piece with Michael Grandage’s revival making no concessions to the new politically correct culture – and it is all the more pleasurable for it. If an audience can cope with seeing Beale’s portly frame poured into a French basque and suspenders, they can certainly cope with some off-message phrasing.
The setting is 1948 Malaya during the Communist insurgency and the boys of the Song And Dance Unit South-East Asia SADUSEA are a riot of pancake and pathos. Beale’s performance is a sublime combination of Vera Lynn and Liberace, his yellow hair a bouffanted meringue. Joseph Timms’s Private Flowers is the embodiment of wetbehind- the-ears conscript who loses his heart and innocence to the beguiling Sylvia. Their relationship forms a backbone that stops the show descending into panto.
Angus Wright strides forth as the empirepropping Major Flick determined to upload the rights (and prejudices) of patriotic heterosexual Englishmen everywhere. At first it is hard to look at John Marquez’s Corporal Bonny and not think of the bumbling policeman in Doc Martin, but the image vanishes when he whips off his khaki shorts. The show has 13 numbers, all belted out with note-perfect delivery and supported by a small band deftly led by musical director, Jae Alexander, who also doubles as the pianist.
Privates heralds a new era in Grandage’s career after 10 years as artistic director at the Donmar Warehouse. This new residency at the Noël Coward, under the auspices of the Michael Grandage Company, fits him perfectly. It would have appealed to Coward, who toured the front lines of Ceylon and Burma in 1944 with his pianist, Norman Hackforth. Over the next 15 months, Grandage promises five productions, including one new play, some 20th-century dramas and a line-up to include Judi Dench, David Walliams and woman of the moment, Sheridan Smith.
Over the season, 100,000 tickets will be on sale for only £10, admittedly most in the balcony, but it is a declaration of his intent to get bums on seats. The show has just under a month to run but deserves to go on forever, a twinkly time capsule of oldfashioned entertainment.
Until 2 March, Noël Coward Theatre, London WC2: 0844-482 5141, www.delfontmackintosh.co.uk
The setting is 1948 Malaya during the Communist insurgency and the boys of the Song And Dance Unit South-East Asia SADUSEA are a riot of pancake and pathos. Beale’s performance is a sublime combination of Vera Lynn and Liberace, his yellow hair a bouffanted meringue. Joseph Timms’s Private Flowers is the embodiment of wetbehind- the-ears conscript who loses his heart and innocence to the beguiling Sylvia. Their relationship forms a backbone that stops the show descending into panto.
Angus Wright strides forth as the empirepropping Major Flick determined to upload the rights (and prejudices) of patriotic heterosexual Englishmen everywhere. At first it is hard to look at John Marquez’s Corporal Bonny and not think of the bumbling policeman in Doc Martin, but the image vanishes when he whips off his khaki shorts. The show has 13 numbers, all belted out with note-perfect delivery and supported by a small band deftly led by musical director, Jae Alexander, who also doubles as the pianist.
Privates heralds a new era in Grandage’s career after 10 years as artistic director at the Donmar Warehouse. This new residency at the Noël Coward, under the auspices of the Michael Grandage Company, fits him perfectly. It would have appealed to Coward, who toured the front lines of Ceylon and Burma in 1944 with his pianist, Norman Hackforth. Over the next 15 months, Grandage promises five productions, including one new play, some 20th-century dramas and a line-up to include Judi Dench, David Walliams and woman of the moment, Sheridan Smith.
Over the season, 100,000 tickets will be on sale for only £10, admittedly most in the balcony, but it is a declaration of his intent to get bums on seats. The show has just under a month to run but deserves to go on forever, a twinkly time capsule of oldfashioned entertainment.
Until 2 March, Noël Coward Theatre, London WC2: 0844-482 5141, www.delfontmackintosh.co.uk