The combination of Shakespeare and jazz is not new. Four years ago, the Royal Shakespeare Company livestreamed Swingin’ The Dream. Play On! combines the basic plot of Twelfth Night with tunes taken from the Duke Ellington songbook.
Other musicals using jazz composers of the era include Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Fats Waller) and Five Guys Named Moe (Louis Jordan). Nearly seven decades ago, Duke Ellington wrote a 12-part suite, Such Sweet Thunder, based around various characters created by the Bard. It seems fitting to marry the two together.
Young Viola (an excellent Tsemaye Bob-Egbe) heads to Harlem to seek her fortune as a songwriter. It’s a man’s world at The Cotton Club, so she dons a suit and pulls back her hair to become ‘Vyman’, a young blade out to conquer the world.
As she starts to work with The Duke (Earl Gregory) she starts to become involved in his unrequired love for the top jazz diva, Lady Liv (Koko Alexandra, who displays a stunning voice and a strong comic reaction). So, at this point, we have Viola, Orsino, and Olivia from the original play and the same basic conflict.
With a lively and clever book by Cheryl L West, and conceived by Sheldon Epps, Play On! succeeds both as a Shakespeare adaptation and as a jukebox musical (although the fact that the songs are by Ellington lifts it above that description).
The minor characters that are left have a lot of fun. Rev (Cameron Bernard Jones) is the Malvolio figure, whose knock-out moment singing “I’m Beginning To See The Light” to an aghast Lady Liv while dressed head to toe in yellow is both hysterical and uncomfortable.
Toby becomes Sweets (Lifford Shillingford), Feste is Jester (the joker in the pack, a brisk and brash Llewellyn Jamal), with Maria becoming Miss Mary (Tanya Edwards). They all work in the club, with Mary as Lady Liv’s downtrodden dresser.
Shillingford and Jamal have a duet with “Rocks in My Head” that almost brought the house down, with the former’s vocals in particular being a pleasant surprise for a character who doesn’t have much to do in the plot.
Due to an unusual ending and resolution, an additional character of Ceecee (Gleanne Purcell-Brown) has been included, and she’s sparky and fun. This Twelfth Night is certainly one for the gals.
The hits come thick and fast in this show, with Liam Godwin’s new arrangements. “It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” sounds as fresh and passionate today as it did on its 1932 debut.
“Mood Indigo”, recorded by many including Sinatra and Simone, retains its smoky closeness, and “I Ain’t Got Nothin’ But The Blues” is a showcase for the range and verve of Alexandra’s Lady Liv.
It’s impossible not to tap toes and give in to the confection before us. Talawa’s artistic director, Michael Buffong, has assembled a show that captures the playful romance and the gender issues from the original, with an on-stage band that feels straight out of a smoky New York basement.
Play On! has bags of charm and does not hold back on nods to both sexism and racism. Ultimately it celebrates how music can really be “the food of love” and with songs of the calibre of “Hit Me With A Hot Note And Watch Me Bounce”, “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” and “Take the A-Train”, that music doesn’t disappoint.
5 stars.
Play On! continues at Lyric Hammersmith Theatre until 22 Feb. It’s a warm hug for the cold winter nights and sets a high bar for this year’s new musicals. Tickets here.
Image credit: Ciara Hillyer Productions