Felix Cross (pictured, right) and Nitro have breathed fresh life into regional theatre with high energy productions like Slamdunk and The Wedding Dance. Their new production is Up Against The Wall.

Felix has been Nitro’s Artistic Director since 1996. For Nitro his credits include The Wedding Dance (writer and co-director); Mass Carib (composer, director); The Evocation of Papa Mas’ (composer, lyricist); High Heeled Parrotfish (MD); Slamdunk (writer, co-director); Passports to the Promised Land (writer, composer); Tricksters’ Payback (composer and lyricist); ICED (director); An African Cargo (director), and An Evening of Soul Food (director).

He has also written the musicals Blues for Railton (Albany Empire) and Glory! (Temba) and composed the music for over seventy stage, TV and radio productions including Macbeth, Talking to Terrorists, O Go My Man, The Overwhelming, Convicts Opera (Out of Joint); Ghostdancing, Ryman & The Sheik, Strictly Dandia, A Fine Balance, Wuthering Heights (Tamasha); The Bottle Imp and Jekyll & Hyde (Major Road).

We caught up with him to find out about Up Against The Wall, his favourite recent production and his future plans.

Both Slamdunk and The Wedding Dance were full of energy. Does Up Against The Wall follow this vein?
Yes I guess there’s something about Nitro’s shows that are louder than most. It might be that, as a black music theatre company, the music styles we have on our palette tend to be of the more energetic types – jazz, hip hop, salsa, funk, as opposed to Morris dancing music. Our stories too, tend to be more extrovert, though this has more to do with the fact we only put on musical theatre.

What’s the show about?
Up Against the Wall is a musical comedy about a band called The Emperors of Funk, founded and led by Henry and Courtenay since the late 1970s. They only had one minor (very, very, very minor) hit in 1982 but they’ve been trading on that ever since, gigging on an ever-diminishing touring circuit. Now, in 2008, they employ a new backing singer, Gloria. With her, the band not only improves greatly but there is suddenly the chance for them to play at a huge festival of funk in Germany supporting their all-time heroes, Earth, Wind & Fire. For Henry and Courtenay, it doesn’t get any better than that!  So what happens next? Do they get the gig? Does Henry get the girl? How many brilliant songs can we cram into two hours?

Many musicals and music based shows seemed to be rooted in nostalgia. Why do you think songs like “Shaft” and “Carwash” still get people up dancing?
First they were and still are great songs; with extravagant arrangements; played by excellent musicians and sung by some of the most soulful voices in the history of popular music. Of course there were also some that were simply so funky you physically couldn’t sit still when listening – you had to dance – it was scientifically and medically proved; those twitches in your legs were chemical reactions to the interconnected contrapuntal rhythms of funk.  And today you still have to: it’s impossible to sit down or lean casually against a wall when “Carwash” or “Mr Big Stuff” is playing.

How does Up Against The Wall differ to a jukebox show like Oh What A Night! with Kid Creole?
I haven’t seen the Kid Creole show so I can’t say. However, Up Against the Wall is very much a story, not just a compilation of songs. And I don’t think we have any coconuts.

What inspired you to write the show?
Many years ago, in the late nineties, there was a revival of all things from the seventies. Flares, medallions, big hair. Every other West End theatre had some compilation musical based on songs from the seventies. And all of them ignored the one glaring fact; that the best music of that time was soul and funk being played by (mainly) black American artists. Also at that time we saw the phenomenon of the “blaxploitation” movies; some were ridiculous, some were…. actually they were all ridiculous but some were fabulously ridiculous and some were horribly ridiculous. I wanted to redress the imbalance of all these white only retrospective shows, so Paulette and I wrote this thing, It did a short tour in 1999, was very well received and so we decided to put it back on as soon as possible. Ten years later, here we are.

What was the last piece of theatre you saw which impressed you and why?
Easy – La Cage Aux Folles. One of the most joyous evenings in the theatre that I’ve had for a long time. Douglas Hodge’s performance was massive.  Also, Convicts Opera, in Sydney by Out Of Joint and Sydney Theatre Company; because I did the music (does that count?)

In a time of bad news, surrounding the economy, how can a show like this lift the spirits of the audience?
It would be too glib to suggest that, during the two-hours of our show, people would forget that their homes are being repossessed, their chances of employment receding faster than Greenland’s glaciers; their pension funds have been wiped out; businesses and rainforests are disappearing as fast as each other; the Middle East is about to explode leaving the only available oil in the whole world in the hold of some hijacked super-tanker off the coast of Somalia; one Pound is now worth less than one Euro; bird flu and rabies are just hiding around the corner waiting to pounce; Fulham may have to sell Jimmy Bullard….. But they might just remember, in the words of one of the many great songs in our show, that we are all, “One Nation Under A Groove”. And with those powerful and deeply philosophical words they might come the realisation that, back at home they’ve left the hall lights on and the front door open.

What are your plans when the run finishes?
To take it on a tour of the Middle East ….. but I haven’t told the actors yet.

Felix Cross was talking to Glenn Meads

Up Against The Wall runs at the Octagon from 29th Jan until 28th Feb.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 30th, 2009 at 4:00 am and is filed under Interviews, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.