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A night at the opera: That Bastard Puccini! (Park Theatre)

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It’s hard to imagine that it’s only been 130 years since Puccini first premiered La Boheme. Nowadays, it’s a revered classic, and guaranteed to be on any opera company's annual programme if it needs to stay afloat. It’s a crowd pleaser with its melodrama of poor, impoverished artists loving, starving and dying in Paris. But Puccini’s La Boheme had a less auspicious beginning, with one of his contemporaries accusing him of stealing his idea and being poorly received on its first outing. And that’s at the heart of That Bastard Puccini! Currently playing at Park Theatre , writer James Inverne uses the friendship and rivalry between the two composers, Puccini and Ruggero Leoncavallo, to weave a comic tale of creative frustration with an awful lot of facts and tidbits about the opera scene at the time. It’s part comedy, part music appreciation.  It opens with Leoncavallo (Alasdair Buchan) at home with his wife Berthe (Lisa-Anne Wood), cursing about Puccini’s latest work, which is drawn ...

One hundred people’s ninth favourite thing: [title of show] @swkplay


[title of show] takes you back to a time before the fast paced social media where word of mouth for a positive show came from chat boards, video diaries or (god forbid) blogs. A simple staging makes it an ideal (and economical piece to stage), but it’s sweet and earnest take on just putting on a show, and putting it out there and taking a chance gives this show its heart. With a strong and energetic cast and endless musical theatre references, it’s hard to resist and it’s currently playing at the Southwark Playhouse. 

It opens with Hunter (Jacob Fowler) and Jeff (Thomas Oxley) as struggling young writers in New York City. An upcoming New York Musical Theatre festival, inspires them to write an original musical within three weeks to make the deadline. As they discuss ideas, writers block, distractions and endless other good and bad musicals, an idea for a show emerges. Which is about writing a show for a musical theatre festival. 


Their friends Heidi (Abbie Budden) and Susan (Mary Moore) are enlisted to help with ideas, songs and struggles. Heidi is a broadway actress who missed out on an understudy role as she was too small for the lead’s costume. Susan has taken an office job as the opportunities in theatre were passing her by.

As the show makes it to the festival and goes on to off-Broadway and then Broadway the struggles for their creative team. What do they need to change, do they need to get a star to cast. It’s low stakes stuff and dramatically feels a bit lightweight. But the likability of the leads and the ingenious simplicity of the piece - with a little more than four chairs and a piano on stage - holds interest. And also because it charts the real-life struggles of the creative team behind the original idea. 

There’s a song about the team wanting to be nine people’s favourite thing rather than one hundred people’s ninth favourite thing. I’m probably with the hundred people but given there’s a lot of theatre out there to see... that’s not a bad feat either.

Directed by Christopher D Clegg and music direction on the piano  by Tom Chippendale, [title of show] is at the Southwark Playhouse until 30 November. 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Photos by Danny Kaan




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