Play On! – Liverpool Playhouse

This musical show transfers Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night to the 1940’s New York jazz scene and is set in the infamous Cotton Club in 1940’s Harlem. Conceived by Sheldon Epps from a book by Cheryl L. West, the production started out on Broadway where it received three Tony nominations; it has been brought to the UK by the Talawa Theatre Company. Talawa is UK’s Black theatre company, promoting Black Joy 2024, a season of theatre and workshops celebrating Black stories and artists.

Directed by Talawa’s Artistic Director, Michael Buffong, the show incorporates music by legendary jazz singer, Duke Ellington and showcases classic and contemporary choreography from Kenrick H2O Sandy.

It is an all-singing, all-dancing production with a five-piece live band, comprising musicians, Shane Forbes, Chris Hyde, Kaz Hamilton, Alexander Polack and Josh Vadiveloo on piano, double bass, drums and assorted brass section performing on stage throughout.

The story centres on Viola (Tsemaye Bob-Egbe), a wannabe, talented songwriter who decides to travel to Harlem to find her uncle and meet ‘Duke’, the famous band leader at The Cotton Club; deep down in her heart she is set on breaking into the 1940’s Harlem music scene. When she arrives at the club, she discovers that things are not equal when it comes to women songwriters and realising it is very much a male-dominated music world and wanting her songwriting skills to be taken seriously she decides to disguise herself as a man, renaming herself Vyman, in order to prove her worth.

She introduces herself to the Duke (Earl Gregory), with the help of her uncle Jester (Llewellyn Jamal). The Duke has fallen out of favour with The Cotton Club’s star performer, Lady Liv (Koko Alexandra) as she has rejected his advances and as a result, he is suffering from a creative slowdown causing him the inability to create new material for her. The Duke realises Vyman has a talent for songwriting and sends Vyman to Lady Liv with her new songs in the hope this will rekindle her love for him, but this only back-fires and leads to a jazzy Bard-esque farce.

The show utilises the awesome music of famous jazz singer, Duke Ellington with numbers such as “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore,” “It Don’t Mean A Thing” and “Solitude” (musical arrangement by Liam Godwin) which help create the mood and background of the time, the songs being cleverly integrated into the production. Each talented performer sings with remarkable power and control, showing deep emotion and true expression, all are exceptional in their roles; Cameron Bernard Jones shines  as Club manager Rev, his singing (and dancing) is noteworthy and Llewellyn Jamal (Jester) and Tsemaye Bob-Egbe (Viola) bring comedy and spirit to their roles whilst Tanya Edwards (Miss Mary) and Earl Gregory (The Duke), provide skilful supporting roles.

The production has a strong emphasis on the music, lesser to the plot. The five-piece band’s performance is well-balanced, and a cast of sixteen actors and dancers perform energetically throughout displaying outstanding choreography on the forestage with versatility and originality; the dancers performances are packed with incredible ability and vigor and credit goes to ensembleactors, Alex Okoampa, Amber Cayasso, Andre Coulson, Dylan Blake-Colbet, Freya Karlettis, Jarneia Richard Noel, Natalia Brown, Tanaka Bingwa.

The minimal set designed by ULTZ, remains constant throughout, painted in red, blue and purple hues depicting to the left, a jazz bar and on the right, a dressing room with a make-up mirror surrounded by light bulbs; the band at the back of the stage on a raised dais are present throughout the production. Panelled walled lights (Lighting Designer, Johanna Town) and whiffs of smoke help to subtly establish a moody club-like atmosphere.

The first half drags its feet somewhat being rather laboured, a heavy amount of dialogue relies on the music to lift it at times but ends on an entertaining quartet rendition of “(Be My) Solitude”, sung by Vyman, Lady Liv, The Duke and Rev, which helps set up for a stronger entertaining second half. The cast is incredibly gifted, and their voices are superb.

The production runs until Saturday 19^th October. https://www.everymanplayhouse.com/whats-on/play-on

Reviewer: Anne Pritchard

Reviewed: 15th October 2024

North West End UK Rating: