The Simon & Garfunkel Through the Years show by Dan Haynes (guitar and vocals) and Pete Richards (vocals) has over the years become a staple fixture of the Edinburgh Fringe @theSpaceUK, and the reason for that is simple for anyone that has seen this show over the years.
If you are perhaps a little bit put off at the thought of seeing “another tribute act”, then put that idea to one side as the one thing they are definitely not is a tribute act in the more commonly used sense of the words. In fact, by their own admission, they look nothing like Simon & Garfunkel and wish to make no pretence whatsoever to do such a thing. What this show is a tribute to is the timeless music of Simon & Garfunkel and Dan Haynes and Pete Richards are simply two of the best interpreters of these classic songs out there performing them today. This show is not only from two people with a mutual love of these songs, but two people with the ability to actually do them justice, and they do it so effortlessly that it is all too easy to forget just how complex the musical structure and the harmonies and phrasing of these songs actually are. If you have seen the show before, then come and see it again as due to the performance time for a Fringe show against the amount of classic songs in the Simon & Garfunkel back catalogue, this is a changing set every year…although a few classics simply have to be there. This year we start all the way back at Simon & Garfunkel when they were then known as Tom & Jerry and trying their best to emulate their idols like The Everly Brothers. It is fair to say that this early start was to give little clue as to what was to follow later and just what a major songwriter Paul Simon would become. I never give set lists away, but a few songs do need a mention. Perhaps more powerful, and more important than ever that it be heard is the almost prophetic “The Sound Of Silence” with its warning of what happens if we remain silent on the wrongs and injustices in this world, and that one line “Silence like a cancer grows” says everything. This year, the performance space for this show is a large marquee with plenty of open air, and something about the outdoor rather than indoor space seemed to make this interpretation of “Scarborough Fair” and its series of impossible tasks to be performed even more hauntingly timeless. One very stripped down song that is a favourite of mine from this set was Pete on vocals (with keyboard accompaniment from Jonny Knight) on Bridge Over Troubled Water. I always find the studio album version of this overproduced and this song is so beautifully written that it suits a stripped down arrangement better, and Pete gets this one just right. This year we have an extra layering of sound and depth to the music with Jonny Knight on guitar and keyboards. If you like this show, then put a date in your diary for next year when the extended show and expanded sounds come to The Festival Theatre on 9th January 2022. Review by Tom King (c) 2021 ARTS REVIEWS EDINBURGH “Looks Like We Made It” by ChasingRainbows is an ambitious attempt to fuse the music of Barry Manilow into the drama of a couple who have been attending marriage guidance counselling sessions for more than a few years. Does it all work though, that is the question? The answer is yes and no for me, and part of that has to be the very structure of the show and the always difficult job of using the lyrics of songs to tell the background to a story that they were never meant to tell in the first place, and the result is always a compromise, a fudge of ideas somewhere along the line.
The other big problem is that, despite Barry Manilow being a very gifted songwriter and one of the most successful musicians of his era, these songs are so closely identified with not only him, but also his whole stage show persona that it is hard to imagine them anywhere else but there. When you choose to do a show with this concept, you have to find the “big” songs that many people in the audience will know and also do everything within the very limited time allowed for a Fringe Show (50 minutes). The result is that despite big hits like Mandy, Looks Like We Made It, Could It Be Magic, Copacabana, and a few more, there are many lesser known songs out there in the back catalogue that perhaps could have been better suited to this story. One odd contrast is that there is a huge popularity of Barry Manilow songs with a younger generation at the moment (Take That having introduced many to his songs with their cover of Could It Be Magic). However, to really understand our main dramatic theme and empathise a little with the two people in this story, you really have to be of a certain age and to have had certain life experiences, and that only time allows. This clash of songs and story line is never resolved fully. We start at the end with this story and go backwards to then move forward again with our couple and their therapist, and the only real clue to this is the year on a piece of paper in “the office”. It is easily missed, and crucial to not only the story, but the accompanying music and that one little element needs fixed quickly. As an audience we have to know instantly where we are in the life of this relationship. Throughout this show I was trying to match the emotions of the main story with the sound-track of the life of our couple in a more defined way and that was not always possible. Also, I really wanted to understand why the music of Barry Manilow is so important in the life of at least one person in this failing marriage. That was never explained to me other than at a very superficial “fan-girl” level, and there has to be more, some reason for words and music to resonate at a very personal level here. Looks Like We Made It is a production that obviously has had a lot of thought, time, pre-production and effort put into it, but it still has a lot of tightening up to do both on the musical and dramatic fronts. There are too many important elements introduced to the drama that just vanish completely unresolved and some songs need to fit the vocal ranges of the singers better. This show is a work in progress that I am sure with more work can reach its possible full potential as a work of musical theatre. Review by Tom King (c) 2021 ARTS REVIEWS EDINBURGH The multi-talented Elsa McTaggart has made a welcome return to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe accompanied by her husband Gary Lister, with two new shows for 2021.
“Eva Cassidy and Me” is the sequel to Elsa’s popular and successful “The Eva Cassidy Story” and tells, in words and song, excerpts from the life stories of both Eva and Elsa. It was a rather wet and dreich early evening in the Garden Theatre at Hill Square but, as always, Elsa’s warm personality shone through as she formed an almost instant connection with her audience from the moment that she stepped onto the stage to perform some of Eva’s best-loved songs such as “Fields of Gold” and “Wonderful World”, with a few surprises thrown into the mix as well. One of the songs performed was “Ain’t No Sunshine”, which was appropriate for the weather, but Elsa McTaggart definitely brought her own brand of sunshine with her beautiful voice and guitar and fiddle playing, with the audience enjoying every moment of her performance. Review by Lisa Sibbald (c) 2021 ARTS REVIEWS EDINBURGH Jane Eyre Blue Orange Arts theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall Review Aug 9th 2021
Jane Eyre is showing her age since the story was written by Charlotte Bronte in 1847 and the world has seen social attitudes change so much that it in parts seems like a romantic fantasy. It is, however, considered a classic story by many, and the film, television and theatre adaptations of it seem as endless as its oddly enduring popularity. I was, however, curious to see how Blue Orange Arts would adapt this work to not only the stage, but to the incredibly limited time frame available to tell the story (50 minutes). To do this, the company are relying on many theatrical “fall-backs”, and the first person narration style of the book suits the narrator style of this stage production well. Time is the issue here of course and although all the main points of the story are covered, much of the depth of the characters in the story has to be left out. We do get to meet the main characters through our cast playing multiple roles, and the unusual way to cast one of the main characters in the story is imaginative and leaves the door open for a few in-jokes. Everyone on stage is doing a lot of different tasks here and at times that is at the cost of there being time to develop any real depth to the relationship between Jane and her beloved Rochester. The time allowed to develop this story also allows us little insight into Jane’s childhood, and that is to me always a more interesting story than the one of the older Jane. This dramatic childhood is where Jane takes all of her strengths from as an adult and we are given an all too small glimpse of this side of Jane. Like many stage productions at the Fringe, this production cannot get away from the problem of performing in a space that is not raked for a theatre production and sight lines are difficult, a problem accentuated by so much of the production being seated on stage. This is not the company’s fault, or the venue’s fault as space is what it is at The Fringe and you have to make allowances for that. This production of Jane Eyre was always going to run into having to make choices and trade-offs in its production and Blue Orange Arts have done a good job here with limited options available to them. Review by Tom King (c) 2021 ARTS REVIEWS EDINBURGH |
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