On Saturday (9th April
2016) I had some well needed sibling time with my little sis Fern. For my
birthday (which was last month, thanks for the cards and pressies) she bought
me tickets to go and see Miss Atomic Bomb at the St James Theatre in London. We
had a lovely day out although I do think Fern preferred the Nando’s meal and
interval ice-cream as opposed to the show and time with her big bro. Full of
laughs, the two things that stick in my mind are Fern’s pronunciation of the
word ‘consumption’ while completing her practice driving theory questions (omg
these questions were hard, half of them about being a paramedic and I would certainly
fail if I had to take this again). The second being on the way home getting
confused about who our mother is; “Your mother? My mother? Our mother? Whose
mother” - little private joke but if anyone is that interested drop me a
message and I will give you the full version. One thing that pissed us both off
was the posh ‘see you next Tuesday’ sat next to us in the restaurant talking to
her children as if she was the queen, love get over it and take that blooming
plum out from the back of your annoying mouth. Anyhow away with the negativity
and back to Miss Atomic Bomb.
Most of my posts and reviews
include a paragraph about the history of the musical or play, previous
productions, who starred in them, the basis of the play/musical, the film or
stage adaptation or the book it came from. This is not the case with MissAtomic Bomb, it is a completely new musical comedy with an original score, no
basis really apart from the time period it was set, no previous productions or
stars or awards. Miss Atomic Bomb arrived at the St James Theatre in Victoria,
London and I first heard about it on the wonderful Elaine Paige on Sunday (BBC
Radio 2). A wonderful area of London for musicals which currently sees Wicked at
the Apollo Victoria and closing on Saturday night was Billy Elliott at the
Victoria Palace; so it is a musical theatre fan’s dream to live in Victoria
(apart from all the f*****g road and building works). St James Theatre is very
different to any other theatre in London I have visited. It is a considerably
small theatre seating just 312 audience members, we guessed 300 so pretty good
work sis! We also were permitted to move closer to the stage which was much
better, mainly as Fern had forgotten her glasses and also being closer to the
stage; the front row were practically sitting on the stage and I’m sure were
accidentally spat on. The theatre, built in 2012, after the fire that caused
the demolition of the Westminster Theatre in 2002. It is clearly a more modern
theatre than the others. The theatre is known for its short runs of shows, usually
running between 2 and 10 weeks (Miss Atomic Bomb running for five). I find this
very exciting as many of the productions that play at the St James I hope would
go on to be bigger and better than they are at the time of production.
Miss Atomic Bomb centres on a recently
promoted hotel manager who is “up shit creek” to put it in his bosses words to
make the hotel a success. Set in the 1950’s in the American city of Las Vegas,
Nevada, a time when atom bombs were tested, he comes up with an idea to link the
atom bomb with a beauty pageant. The musical also sees two friends who are
dying to leave the countryside and sheep farms of Nevada and move to California
where they can live their dreams (of course this doesn’t go quite to plan). Miss
Atomic Bomb tackles important issues that were definitely a problem in the
1950’s and still cause tensions today. Mainly beauty being in the eye of the
beholder, war deserters and sexuality and the importance of appearing “normal”
(:-S). I felt Miss Atomic Bomb was quite slow to start and doesn’t really heat
up and get my musical feet tapping and swinging until ‘That Girl (is Miss
Atomic Bomb)’ which is nearly half way into Act One. However, after this I was
really enjoying the show. I think it is great going to a musical with no
preconceptions or basis of what to expect. I think with a bigger budget and
bigger auditorium Miss Atomic Bomb could be a true success. What the future is
for Miss Atomic Bomb I have no idea; it doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page yet.
The beautifully hilarious Catherine
Tate leads the cast of Miss Atomic Bomb as Myrna Ranapapadophilou (try saying
and typing that after a couple of Pinot Grigios). I had heard on the radio that
a reviewer said that Tate doesn’t meet her comedic potential. Who this fool was
I cannot remember; I tend to ignore useless and false information. Tate was
fantastic; despite the accent that shifted deep-south USA to an Aussie cooking
her shrimps on the Bar-B, Tate was definitely funny and I can guarantee you the
audience were in total agreement with me. What I loved most was the fact she
sneakily brought some of her well known characters into some of her lines. This
was not obvious at all and maybe not even intentional however it worked a
treat. I even loved the fact that she mucked up a bit of her choreography,
dancing too early and dealt with it like a complete comedic professional that
she is, having a giggle on stage. Well done Tate and a full five stars for your
performance in Miss Atomic Bomb. Tate can also hold a tune, I think we always
think of her as Nan or Lauren and forget she is a well-crafted actress with a
good singing voice.
The other star of the show was
Simon Lipkin who has been on many a stage of musical and played some
significant characters in some of my favourites including Joseph and his
colourful coat, Footloose, Avenue Q and in lots of TV/film. I thought his
comedic role as Lou Lubowitz was comedy gold, making me laugh and smile
throughout. His on stage presence with the aforementioned Catherine Tate was funny
to watch. He sings, dances and acts well with a bullet-wounded foot (feet).
Dean John-Wilson, handsomely, plays Joey Lubowitz and Florence Andrews plays
Candy Johnson, her love of sheep is portrayed wonderfully and she has an
amazing voice too. Her masculine demeanour and tom-boy approach to life is
portrayed great especially when in her feathery corset –I mean that as a
complete compliment. We all know I love a man in a dress and Charles Brunton
provides me with this fix playing the quite rightly hideous Carol who sounds
like Marge Simpson; although you would if you smoked for the whole of Act Two. The
rest of the cast are great, although my sister was not a fan of Boo Boo or Mr
Rosenhut, they all put so much effort into the show.
Already mentioned is one song that
I really enjoyed ‘That Girl (is Miss Atomic Bomb)’. Looking back I was not
totally blown away with the original score, although a couple of songs do stick
in my mind, particularly ‘Myrna’s Song’, ‘Sheep Lament’ and ‘Sugar Daddy’; if I
recall rightly Tate features in all three of these songs. Also enjoyable were
both finales and the song ‘How Beautiful You Are’. Miss Atomic Bomb is written
by Adam Long and Gabriel Vick (extensive West End credits and appeared in the
Les Misėrables film adaptation). The lyrics are much better than the
compositions and being a comedy musical some of the songs do leave you
chuckling. Long and Olivier-Award winning (2013 Top Hat) Choreographer Bill
Deamer co-direct this musical comedy. Ti Green designed the set and costumes;
the glamourous and exotic costumes were great and I love a bit of sparkle and
white feather, who doesn’t. The set was basic and I am not sure if this was
constraints of the small theatre or whether it was due to budgeting or
intentionality however not mush was going on. There was an arched stair case
and I loved the Rocky Horror-esque curtain in Act 2. The use of videos as a
background to the staging was mediocre. I have to give it up for Gareth Owen
(Sound Designer) and Tim Deiling (Lighting Designer) as to make me jump out of
my skin in such a small theatre was a great success; Spoiler Alert there is a simulated atom bomb that goes off and gun
shots which scared the living day lights out of me.
I liked that Miss Atomic Bomb paid
accolades to some well-known musicals, the aforementioned Rocky Horror, Wicked
and I think Gypsy. I may have miss-interpreted this, either being unintentional
or I may have missed other tributes. I feel it celebrates the success of
previous amazing shows which is honorary. Miss Atomic Bomb has now finished its
run at St James Theatre and I am not sure where the musical goes from here. I
do hope there is another run of Miss Atomic Bomb. Although I sound harsh in
some of my comments above I really enjoyed the show and it deserved the
standing ovation it received. I would imagine tweaks would be made to the
original production (currently produced by Tanya Link Productions) but I see Miss
Atomic Bomb playing again soon somewhere. I leave you with a crazy face swap of
me and my sister as she discovered how to do this on our day out. Please get in
touch and share with me your experiences of Miss Atomic Bomb. Take care!
@AaronBurgess89
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