‘The Lady and the Tiger’ by Jeremy Paul and Michael Richmond. Music by Nola York.
Theatre At The Tabard, Bath Road, London W4.
🍷🍷🍷 – 3 out of 5 glasses of Tiger Juice !
Image: Charles Flint.
‘The Lady and the Tiger’ is a very pleasant, ‘quirky’ show, with some great songs and a cleverly crafted book. But given that the piece is described as ‘a musical, absurdist comedy’ and screams out for a surreal, fantastic (as in the stuff of fantasy and whimsy) delivery and stylised characters and performances, this rendition was all a bit too tame and naturalistic.
I should state from the outset that the show had problems in production with one of the four actors having to be replaced with less than a week before the first night. So it was surprising to see that Wayne Smith, stepping in as The King, with only a few days rehearsal, showed a genuine grasp of the piece and delivered a brave and specific characterisation. He clearly made his performing decisions and ‘went for it’.
Georgie Rogers as The Princess, has an excellent singing voice, and delivered all of her numbers well. However, she seemed unsure of which of her several characters in which to perform them. We had a ‘spoilt brat/Blackadder-Queenie’type, a girl power/new woman fighting for recognition in a man’s world type, a juvenile female lead type and a sexually repressed, femme fatale….. among others.
Bob Karper as The Factotum, comes with an impressive comedy history. I felt that he had some excellent ideas, but seemed to lack confidence in them. That said, his multi rolling/ quick change set pieces were slick, precise and very funny, so he undoubtedly has the talent.
Juan Lobo as The Hero, really didn’t seem to be completely with it. There was quite a lot of striking Hero type poses and soulful looks to the ether, but not in a comedic, stereotypical/characature kind of way.
Given all of the above, I can only conclude that the Director Keith Strachan, who has a long history with this piece, must have been confused by his many memories of other performers and performances and what we were witness to, was a rather confusing mishmash of ideas and thoughts which left me a little disappointed with the whole affair, and the cast rather out on a limb. The individual performers are clearly actors and singers of some note though.
On a final positive note, the Lighting design of Sandra Szaron was slick and cleverly done and in spite of its failings, the audience seemed to have a great night.
Richard Woolnough.
Tickets and Info – https://tabard.org.uk/whats-on/the-lady-or-the-tiger/
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