Vanities at Trafalgar Studios

Of course Shenton didn't like it, what else is new.

I find Shenton to be rather unpredictable. But when he loves something he REALLY loves it! 

Bloody hell monkey, someone who says they are on the more mature side and remembers when you can purchase theatre tickets from your ration book, you certainly are virile to get from the Trafalgar to the Dorfman so quickly. Usain Bolt eat their heart out.

The use of microphones allowed the five piece band to play out and enhanced the songs considerably. I thought it was a good decision.

The West End premiere of new amplification-based musical "The Microphone Men" probably would

I think they benefit from using microphones, they're turned down very low and they give extra poignancy to big moments.

I've only seen her in two things (Xanadu and DRS) but neither really showed ff her voice properly, what's it like?
She was totally memorable in both though. A very Funny Girl

...and she was hilariously funny in Jest End.

Saw this tonight, and absolutely LOVED it! I agree with everything Mallardo said, although perhaps I don't rate the book quite as highly.

For me, it's a three star book, with 4 star music and lyrics, and an unmissable 5 star cast.

The book trades in archetypes rather than fully realised characters, and certainly isn't as nuanced in it's depiction of the friendship and journey of three women through life, as, say, "Di, Viv and Rose."

Nonetheless, I enjoyed this MUCH more than the aforementioned play, as the music and lyrics here are terrific, perfectly pitched between sincerity and camp, transparently aware of the limitations of the archetypes (reactionary, rebel, and control freak), exaggerating those archetypes for comic effect, yet completely sincere about the underlying sentiments of the characters. The reprised numbers, "Mystery" (sung 4 times with variations) and "An Organised Life" (sung three times, with variations) excellently sum up and structure the themes and progression of the characters over time.

It is the perfectly cast performers who make this unmissable, however:-

Lizzy Connolly has been amusing in her previous West End roles, but heretofore, only her fringe stints in "Jest End" and as the mischievous Calliope in "Xanadu" suggested how laugh-out-loud funny her comic timing and comic exaggerations can be. This is her breakout role, in which she takes an insufferable reactionary archetype of a lead character, Joanne, and alchemically turns her every smallminded utterance into hilarious oneliners. Her solo number, "The Same Old Music," in which she gets rolling drunk, uber judgmental, and heartbreakingly vulnerable, by subtlely incremental degrees, is an absolute tour de force, and had me belly laughing uncontrollably.

Ashleigh Gray is astonishing in a different way. Her voice is like a caress. Even singing toe-curlingly awful lyrics about "cute boys with short haircuts," in her own solo, which she is compelled to dumbly repeat one too many times, she broke my heart, with her slow build of passion, and ability to stretch and deepen every sentiment of the song. If a song makes you cry, Ashleigh Gray and her magic voice will make you cry harder.

Lauren Samuels was cleverly made the butt of a meta joke about her stint in the "Over the Rainbow" tv show, which flowed naturally from a reference in the musical's lyrics. But somehow, this joke felt unfair, given how far she has come since that tv show. Her ability to embody glacial bitterness, while simultaneously sympathetically suggesting how that ugliness stemmed from a tortured childhood, won me over completely. It's a seriously good dramatic performance, and her schizophrenic turns from ugliness to hope and back again, were beautifully embodied in her rendition of her solo, "Fly into the Future."

Overall, due to the limited scope of the book, this production was more simplistic and silly than it could have been, but thanks to some apropos songs, that play on multiple levels (comic, dramatic, meta) and thanks to the best casting of a musical all year, this is one musical that afficionados of musicals should NOT miss!

4 and a half stars.

People who have the cast recording, how are the performances on there compared to Trafalgar Studios? I'd like to hear some of the songs again but I'm not sure if I want to hear them sung by a different cast, especially as they might not be as good.

Me neither, too subtle for me. How did it reference the TV show?

Unfortunately that line has been removed from the show...  

Ashleigh Gray*  

Also, if you look really closely, Ashleigh wears a pink flower in her hair #Popular