La Bete on Broadway: It’s a hit!
October 18, 2010
The Broadway transfer of recent West End success La Bete proves a hit with New York critics, with particular attention heaped on Mark Rylance’s tour de force performance.
Mark Rylance in La Bete
Matthew Warchus’ production of comedy La Bete opened on Broadway at the Music Box Theater last week, Thursday 14 October, following its spring run at the Comedy Theatre in London.
After the failure of Enron – the last big London transfer of a play to New York, all eyes were on this new production of David Hirson’s comedy, particularly as its premier on Broadway in 1991 was a huge flop.
Whilst the critics still had reservations about the play itself, the cast of this new production, particularly Mark Rylance, have enjoyed rave reviews.
Ben Brantley in the New York Times gave the production an enthusiastic review, saying that, ”Mr. Rylance delivers a comic performance of such polished crudeness that it easily ranks with his Tony-winning tour-de-farce in “Boeing-Boeing” of two years ago… while he is more than ably partnered by David Hyde Pierce and Joanna Lumley in this revival, mounted with eye-popping élan by Mr. Warchus and the designer Mark Thompson, Mr. Rylance is by far the best reason to revisit La Bête”.
Elisabeth Vincentelli in the New York Post gave it four stars, praising the “dream cast led by David Hyde Pierce, Joanna Lumley and Mark Rylance. The last more than steals the show: He pulls off a one-man “Ocean’s 11″ heist. After his Tony-winning turn in “Boeing-Boeing” (also under Warchus), Rylance may well bag another statuette for his performance here.” David Hirson’s “ambitious if uneven play” is a revival that is about “as good as can be” she said.
All eyes are now on another hit Matthew Warchus play in London, Deathtrap at the Noel Coward Theatre, to see if producer David Pugh decides to take Simon Russell Beale and Jonathan Groff to Broadway.
Book tickets to La Bete on Broadway
La Bete – Save £13
July 30, 2010
La Bete at the Comedy Theatre – Save 13 on tickets
Balcony tickets reduced from £25 to £12
Enjoy a special offer on tickets to La Bete at the Comedy Theatre in London. The show, which opened recently to rave reviews, features an all-star cast including US theatre and TV star David Hyde Pierce (Frasier), recent Olivier Award winner Mark Rylance (Jerusalem), and Joanna Lumley (Absolutely Fabulous).
The play is directed by acclaimed, Tony award winning director Matthew Warchus and is running at the Comedy Theatre for a short season until 28 August before moving straight to Broadway.
American playwright David Hirson’s rollicking 1991 play, is a comic tour de force about Elomire (David Hyde Pierce), a high-minded classical dramatist who loves only the theatre, and Valere (Mark Rylance), a low-brow street clown who loves only himself. When the fickle princess (Joanna Lumley) decides she’s grown weary of Elomire’s royal theatre troupe, he and Valere are left fighting for survival as art squares off with ego in a literary showdown for the ages.
Other cast include Stephen Ouimette, Lisa Joyce, Greta Lee, Robert Lonsdale, Michael Milligan, Liza Sadovy and Sally Wingert.
Book tickets to La Bete at the Comedy Theatre in London
Balcony tickets reduced from £25 to £12
La Bete – Reviews Round-up
July 16, 2010
Reviews have been largely positive but tinged with disappointment for Matthew Warchus’s new production of David Hirson’s 1991 play La Bete at the Comedy Theatre in London.
The much anticipated revival features an all-star cast including US theatre and TV star David Hyde Pierce (Frasier), and national treasure Joanna Lumley (Absolutely Fabulous). However, it was recent Olivier Award winner Mark Rylance (Jerusalem) who stole the show for the critics with his energetic and hilarious performance.
The play is directed by acclaimed, Tony award winning director Matthew Warchus and will run at the Comedy Theatre for a short season until 28 August before moving straight to Broadway.
Book tickets to La Bete at the Comedy Theatre in London
La Bete – Review
July 15, 2010
The protean Mark Rylance, surely Britain’s most versatile actor, sinks his comically protuberant prosthetic teeth into David Hirson’s muddle-headed Moliere pastiche La Bete. He plays a loquacious buffoon called Valere (the beast of the title) and single-handedly provides artificial respiration – and a great deal of mirth – to a play which, bereft of his extraordinary presence, wouldn’t stand a chance.
Mark Rylance in La Bete
First seen at the Lyric, Hammersmith eleven years ago with the less talented Alan Cumming as Valere, and here tweaked in preparation for its forthcoming Broadway run, the play, written in rhyming couplets, performed without an intermission, and slickly directed by Matthew Warchus, is an elaborate comic dissertation on pure art versus vulgar commercialism and the value of cultural sponsorship – topics as relevant in the mid 17th century as they are today.
A princess (Joanna Lumley) is throwing a lavish banquet at her Langedoc estate, her purpose being to persuade a distinguished actor-playwright called Elomire (an anagram of Moliere) to invite the egregious Valere to join his acting troupe.
The evening starts promisingly with Rylance delivering a 40-minute monologue in praise of his own brilliance, but in which he also condemns himself as a brainless idiot with every syllable he utters.
To call Rylance’s delivery a tour de force would be to understate the case, as it would be to say he all but chews up and spits out Mark Thompson’s impressive floor-to-ceiling book encrusted set. Whether stumbling over Latin quotations or making a quick excursion to an on-stage lavatory and doing his business, Rylance pummels Hirson’s witty rhyming couplets for every laugh he can possibly squeeze from them. It’s a joyous star turn and an impossibly hard act to follow.
And that, alas, is the problem. Valere’s solo histrionics are soon followed by an impromptu performance of one of his own plays about two brothers from Cadiz, and all the exhilaration felt in the first half drains alarmingly away. It’s replaced by boredom as the play-within-the-play grinds drearily on as Hirson attempts to underline his fuzzy premise about art and artifice.
Another problem is that none of the other characters in the play make any impact whatsoever. If the portrait of Valere is painted in a spectrum of colourful oils, the rest are little more than pencil sketches.
The most surprising casualty is David Hyde Pierce (Niles Crane in the sitcom Frasier), who, as the intellectual, almost smug Elomire, is required to react more than act. He has a couple of good moments hurling invective at Valere, and it is he who closes the play. But for the most part he is left playing the foil to Rylance’s fool.
In a gender-switch from the earlier production, Joanna Lumley doesn’t fare much better as The Princess simply because the part doesn’t allow her to.
Still, Rylance’s star turn is quite extraordinary and collectors of bravura performances will derfinitely want to add this one to their list.
Comedy Theatre
CLIVE HIRSCHHORN. Courtesy of This Is London.
Book tickets to La Bete at the Comedy Theatre in London
La Bete set for opening
July 7, 2010
Star-studded opening night set for La Bete
The much anticipated revival of comedy La Bete will have its premiere tonight at the Comedy Theatre in London.
An all-star cast features US theatre and TV star David Hyde Pierce (Frasier), recent Olivier Award winner Mark Rylance (Jerusalem), and veritable national treasure Joanna Lumley (Absolutely Fabulous). The play is directed by acclaimed, Tony award winning director Matthew Warchus and will run at the Comedy Theatre for a short season until 28 August before moving straight to Broadway.
American playwright David Hirson’s rollicking 1991 play, is a comic tour de force about Elomire (David Hyde Pierce), a high-minded classical dramatist who loves only the theatre, and Valere (Mark Rylance), a low-brow street clown who loves only himself. When the fickle princess (Joanna Lumley) decides she’s grown weary of Elomire’s royal theatre troupe, he and Valere are left fighting for survival as art squares off with ego in a literary showdown for the ages.
Other cast include Stephen Ouimette, Lisa Joyce, Greta Lee, Robert Lonsdale, Michael Milligan, Liza Sadovy and Sally Wingert.
Book tickets to La Bete at the Comedy Theatre in London
ALSO OPENING THIS WEEK:
Thursday 8 July sees the opening of WOLFBOY at the Trafalgar Studios. This psycho-sexual musical thriller stars Daniel Boys (Avenue Q), Emma Rigby (Hollyoaks), Paul Holowaty and Gregg Lowe.
Wolfboy is a dark and disturbing tale of two troubled teenage boys locked in an asylum for their own good. Bernie has attempted suicide; David may or may not have the powers of a wolf. For them the outside world is a frightening place of abuse and violence. Bernie’s brother Christian and Cherry the young nurse on the unit, also hide secrets that surface in the night, when the moon is full.
This new musical premiered at the Edinburgh Festival fringe last year and has a book by Russell Labey, music and lyrics by Leon Parris and is based on a play by Brad Fraser. Labey previously directed New Boy at Trafalgar Studios in 2009, while Parris has won the Vivian Ellis Award for Best Musical, Really Useful Group Award for Most Promising Writer and the Cameron Mackintosh Bursary.
Book tickets to Wolfboy at the Trafalgar Studios in London
Summer Theatre in the West End
June 28, 2010
New shows opening in London this summer
Spring and autumn may be the busiest times for new shows in London, but this summer will still pack quite a punch with some big names, high-profile directors and a few surprises in store.
A range of musicals and plays will open in the capital over the next few months, including classic musicals from Stephen Sondheim (Into the Woods) and Rogers & Hammerstein (State Fair); starry comedy, including David Hyde Pearce and Joanna Lumley in La Bete, Jeff Goldblum in The Prisoner of Second Avenue and Simon Russell Beal and Jonathan Groff in Deathtrap); dance spectaculars (Burn the Floor), new musicals (Wolfboy), ambitious children’s drama (The Railway Children) and a terrifying new play (Ghost Stories).
OLIVIER AWARDS – Best Comedy Winners
June 14, 2010
OLIVIER AWARDS – Best Comedy Winners
Best New Comedy
2010 The Priory
2009 God of Carnage
2008 Rafta Rafta
2007 John Buchan’s The 39 Steps adapted by Patrick Barlow from an original concept by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon
2006 Heroes by Gerald Sibleyras translated by Tom Stoppard
Best Comedy
2003 The Lieutenant Of Inishmore by Martin McDonagh
2002 The Play What I Wrote by Hamish McColl, Sean Foley and Eddie Braben
2001 Stones In His Pockets by Marie Jones
2000 The Memory Of Water by Shelagh Stephenson
1999 Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle And Dick by Terry Johnson
1998 Popcorn by Ben Elton
1997 Art by Yasmina Reza
1996 Mojo by Jez Butterworth
1995 My Night With Reg by Kevin Elyot
1994 Hysteria by Terry Johnson
1993 The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice by Jim Cartwright
1992 La Bête by David Hirson
1991 Out Of Order by Ray Cooney
1989/90 Single Spies by Alan Bennett
1988 Shirley Valentine by Willy Russell
1987 Three Men On A Horse by John Cecil Holm and George Abbott
1986 When We Are Married by J.B. Priestley
1985 A Chorus Of Disapproval by Alan Ayckbourn
1984 Up’N’Under by John Godber
1983 Daisy Pulls It Off by Denise Deegan
1982 Noises Off by Michael Frayn
1981 Steaming by Nell Dunn
1980 Educating Rita by Willy Russell
1979 Middle Age Spread by Roger Hall
1978 Filumena by Eduardo de Filippo, adapted by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall
1977 Privates On Parade by Peter Nichols
1976 Donkey’s Years by Michael Frayn
Best Comedy Performance
1995 Niall Buggy for Dead Funny
1994 Griff Rhys Jones for An Absolute Turkey
1993 Simon Cadell for Travels With My Aunt
1992 Desmond Barrit for The Comedy Of Errors
1991 Alan Cumming for Accidental Death Of An Anarchist
1989/90 Michael Gambon for Man Of The Moment
1988 Alex Jennings for Too Clever By Half
1987 John Woodvine for The Henrys
1986 Bill Fraser for When We Are Married
1985 Michael Gambon for A Chorus Of Disapproval
1984 Maureen Lipman for See How They Run
1983 Griff Rhys Jones for Charley’s Aunt
1982 Geoffrey Hutchings for Poppy
1981 Rowan Atkinson for Rowan Atkinson in Revue
1980 Beryl Reid for Born In The Gardens
1979 Barry Humphries for A Night With Dame Edna
1978 Ian McKellen for The Alchemist
1977 Denis Quilley for Privates On Parade
1976 Penelope Keith for Donkey’s Years
Rylance Broadway bound
February 14, 2010
Mark Rylance currently appearing in Jerusalem
The West End’s man-of-the-moment Mark Rylance will star in a revival of David Hirson’s comedy drama La Bete, initially in London and then New York.
Rylance, who is currently appearing in the Royal Court’s Jerusalem at the Apollo Theatre having garnered rave reviews and an Olivier Award nomination for his standout role as Johnny “Rooster” Byron, will follow La Bete on Broadway by taking Jerusalem to New York.
The cast of La Bete will also feature Joanna Lumley, making her Broadway debut in the play, and Frasier’s David Hyde Pierce.
Set in 17th century France, La Bete is a comedy about a conflict within a theatre troupe, and will be directed by Matthew Warchus and run in the West End for a short season before transferring to New York.
Rylance Broadway bound
The West End’s man-of-the-moment Mark Rylance will star in a revival of David Hirson’s comedy drama La Bete, initially in London and then New York.
Rylance, who is currently appearing in the Royal Court’s Jerusalem at the Apollo Theatre having garnered rave reviews and an Olivier Award nomination for his standout role as Johnny “Rooster” Byron, will follow La Bete on Broadway by taking Jerusalem to New York.
The cast of La Bete will also feature Joanna Lumley, making her Broadway debut in the play, and Frasier’s David Hyde Pierce.
Set in 17th century France, La Bete is a comedy about a conflict within a theatre troupe, and will be directed by Matthew Warchus and run in the West End for a short season before transferring to New York.
