Robert Tanitch reviews Closer Than Ever at Jermyn Street Theatre, London SW1
Alan Bennett, Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller and Dudley Moore premiered Beyond the Fringe at Edinburgh in 1960 and then came straight to the Fortune Theatre in London, killing intimate revue stone dead, in much the same way that John Osborne in 1957 with Look Back in Anger at the Royal Court had killed West End domestic middle-class plays with French wondows and introduced the Kitchen Sink drama.
This year there have already been two reviews: Putting It Together, a compilation of Stephen Sondheim songs in a Side by Side manner and a dance review by Andrew McOnie called Drunk. McOnie choreographs the highly successful musical, In the Heights, at Southwark Playhouse.
Now there is Richard Maltby Jr and David Shire’s Closer than Ever at Jermyn Street Theatre (a good place for a revue) and soon there will be a revival of Forgotten Broadway at The Menier Chocolate Factory.
Maltby and Shire describe their show as a collection of short stories. It was a big hit in New York in 1989 when it won the Outer Critics Circle Off-Broadway Award.
Maltby contributes cryptic crossword puzzles to Harper’s Magazine. As you might expect, his humour is sharp, intelligent and literate. The songs were mostly written in the late 1980s and based on people the authors actually knew. Shire’s music, witty, melodious and varied, is very tuneful.
The lyrics deal with the emotional problems, anxieties and relationships of urban professionals. There are solos and ensembles on the themes of unrequited love, middle-age, keeping fit, twin careers (who looks after the baby?), second marriages (“You’re the first to be my second” and the onslaught of the march of time (to a rousing Sousa march).
Closer Than Ever It is a revue for people who are prepared to listen. The cast includes Graham Bickley, Sophie-Louise Dann, Arvid Larsen and Issy Van Randwyck, singers all. Maltby directs.
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