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Lichtenberg: a treat from Berlin
CALL ME MADAM
Upstairs at the Gatehouse
BRAVO, bravo to everyone involved in this spectacular production.
Irving Berlin’s Call Me Madam is emphatically not the “serious drama” one of the characters (tongue, admittedly, in cheek) introduces it as at the off.
Rather, it is a brassy, exuberant romp with a large, energetic cast who give it their all.
In other words, this show makes no apologies for being no more or less than rollicking family entertainment.
The description of Upstairs at the Gatehouse as “fringe” seems unfair; the singing and dancing here is as good as in the West End and all the better for taking place in such an intimate space.
Also, it is great to be able to actually see the jazz ensemble responsible for delivering such a confident performance of Berlin’s knee-slapping, toe-tapping numbers – something you can’t say of West End theatres, where the orchestras are hidden.
The story – never more than a structural necessity in a play like this – is set in the quaint, fictional European country of Lichtenburg.
Sally “Call Me Madam” Adams (played with effortless competence by Beverley Klein) is the American ambassador to this puny, chocolate box duchy with its silly costumes and famous cheese.
In between trying to get Lichtenburg’s government to accept an American loan, this good time gal throws parties and falls in love with Lichtenburg’s foreign minister, Cosmo Constantine (Gido Schimanski), who quickly becomes president (due, through no fault of his own, to some dodgy backroom deals).
By way of subplots, there is another love story.
Kenneth Gibson (Chris Love), press attaché at the US embassy, is enamoured with Lichtenburg royalty.
Fair Princess Maria (Kate Nelson) visits him in secret, fearful of her parents’ wrath.
The gags are essentially all born out of conflicts between American and Lichtenburgian culture, particularly the culture surrounding money. The American showy, profligate nature is lost in translation in Lichtenburg; Lichtenburgers – or at least those of them in government – are reluctant to accept US aid, focused as they are on “higher things”.
Sally Adams, meanwhile, informs us that “an ounce of wisdom and a pound of gold” is all you need in the US “if you’re feeling presidential”
What really matters, however, are the songs and the dancing, which, as already stated, are marvelous.
This show is a hoot – colourful escapism, pure and simple.
All but the most determined misery-guts will leave the auditorium smiling.
Until August 16
020 8340 3488 |
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