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Synopsis It’s talent night at Bunter’s niteclub, and contestant Julie and her fat friend Maureen are waiting backstage. As they are plunged into a world of ukulele-wielding pensioners, crotch-grabbing comperes and some long- buried personal history, Julie and Maureen have to decide how lucky they really want to be.
Comedian Victoria Wood brought her revised production of her 1978 comedy hit Talent to the Menier Chocolate Factory last week (23 September 2009, previews from 17 September), following a run at the Old Laundry Theatre in Bowness-on-Windermere.
Talent, which was filmed for TV in 1979 starring Wood alongside her regular collaborator Julie Walters, centres around two friends - Julie and Maureen (played this time round by Leanne Rowe and Suzie Toase) - as they attend a talent content at fictional Manchester niteclub Bunter's.
The critical response can best be described as lukewarm. Some of the kinder comments came from the Telegraph's Charles Spencer, who highlighted the script's “succession of mordant observations Alan Bennett would be proud of”. However, at the other end of the spectrum most critics pointed to structural flaws in an “inconsequential” plotline as the play's primary failing. Despite this, the cast came in for praise – particularly Suzie Toase's “delightful bovine attractiveness” as Maureen and Mark Hadfield's cross-dressing support.
Theo Bosanquet on Whatsonstage.com (two stars) - "The 'play with songs', here revised and revived in Wood's own production, undoubtedly provides an interesting slice of comic history. But as an experience it's rather like watching a repeat of a sitcom from the same era (it was first performed in 1978), and not just because the cast features Jeffrey Holland. One can revel in the nostalgia, but to put it bluntly it's just not as funny as it once was … Structurally, despite Wood's best efforts to spruce it up with an era-establishing prologue and some additional musical numbers, the play is weak … As Julie and Maureen, Leanne Rowe and Suzie Toase do well to make the parts their own, despite the fact they're wearing custom-fit suits. Rowe makes for a sweet and sexy Julie and Toase captures the virginal gormlessness of Maureen whilst managing to wear a thick coat and hat nearly throughout without breaking sweat.”
Paul Taylor in the Independent (three stars) - “Now an out-and-out period piece, Talent makes for a peculiar evening in this attractively performed revival. It's directed by the author who has stretched the running time to 95 minutes with a prologue, some new songs, beefed-up roles for the men and a closing anthem that is pure Lancastrian Sondheim … It's more a series of routines, inner-monologue ditties that put the perkiness in pathos and one-liners full of Wood's trademark Northern non sequiturs ... Suzie Toase is a delight as Maureen, but the whole love-starved frump/secretly unhappy glamour-girl shtick never moves beyond cliché. Nothing is properly developed – and not just emotionally. Early on, Julie has a pee in a plastic boater, the loo situation at Bunter's being dire. You wait for a drenching slapstick pay-off – but in vain. Given the play's nightclub-restaurant setting and given the foodie Menier venue, it's ironic that, dramatically, Talent is all gong and no dinner.”
Fiona Mountford in the Evening Standard (two stars) - "Dispiritingly, the bewilderingly few laughs Wood squeezes from her slightly reworked script come when we take it on trust that the decade of the Seventies itself - the Lurex, the sideburns, the Babycham - was funny … The tone, not to mention send-ups of Larry Grayson-style campness, lurches between laboured and desperate as Maureen, looking discomfitingly like a 1940s evacuee, helps Julie get ready backstage. Rowe has a tough night of it but Toase is, mercifully, better value. A range of lively expressions draw our attention to her round face while she sits in the corner, letting the pretty one hog the limelight. Even so, this is no talent show winner."
Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph (three stars) - “Structurally it’s bit of a mess, and at the final preview I attended a stodgy audience didn’t laugh as much as they might have done. But for all its faults - a particularly glaring example being a comic routine involving a wee-filled plastic boater which cries out for a comic denouement that never comes - the piece is blessed with both heart and humour … It’s the comedy that really pays dividends, with a succession of mordant observations Alan Bennett would be proud of, and the hilarious entrance of a no-hope magician and his harassed assistant beautifully played Jeffrey Holland and Mark Hadfield. Leanne Rowe is both tough and poignant as the ambitious Julie, desperate for fame and fortune despite her negligible talent, while Suzie Toase is superbly funny and touching as the virginal fat friend who wishes she was 14 again in one of Wood’s finest songs.”
Lyn Gardner in the Guardian (two stars) - "Let us be kind. Victoria Wood is a national treasure, her currency is not gold but something far more precious: an ability to poke fun without cruelty … But what she doesn't understand is that Talent should have stayed a glow in the memory along with flared trousers, raspberry Mivvis, prawn cocktails and cherries jubilee … Wood's revival gets the period detail right, and this celebration of naff offers a chance to snigger at bell-bottom catsuits and ruffled shirts. It is also nicely acted, particularly by Suzie Toase, who invests Maureen with a delightful bovine attractiveness, and Mark Hadfield who does a fine cross-dressing turn as the club housekeeper. But it's so scrappy and inconsequential that it outstays its welcome even at 90 minutes."
Long before Acorn Antiques, Dinnerladies and Pat and Margaret, a 25-year-old Victoria Wood wrote Talent, largely as a vehicle for herself and the equally embarrassingly talented Julie Walters.
The 'play with songs', here revised and revived in Wood's own production, undoubtedly provides an interesting slice of comic history. But as an experience it's rather like watching a repeat of a sitcom from the same era (it was first performed in 1978), and not just because the cast features Jeffrey Holland. One can revel in the nostalgia, but to put it bluntly it's just not as funny as it once was.
Set in fictional Mancunian niteclub Bunter's (“winner of best kept keg beer”), it centres on lithe talent show contestant Julie and her big hearted and big boned friend Maureen. As Julie prepares for her big number, they wait backstage and encounter a number of quirky characters, including a rampant womanising compere, a comedy magician "with banjo finale" and an organist whose organ has caused more than it's share of problems.
Structurally, despite Wood's best efforts to spruce it up with an era-establishing prologue and some additional musical numbers, the play is weak. Running at just over 90 minutes, it manages to feel longer, with few of the dramatic seeds bearing much fruit and the Bunters banter wearing thin.
As Julie and Maureen, Leanne Rowe and Suzie Toase do well to make the parts their own, despite the fact they're wearing custom-fit suits. Rowe makes for a sweet and sexy Julie and Toase captures the virginal gormlessness of Maureen whilst managing to wear a thick coat and hat nearly throughout without breaking sweat.
Among the support, there's good work from former Blue Peter presenter Mark Curry as the randy compere and Mark Hadfield goes great gurns with his selection of cameos, including show-stealing elderly caterer Mary.
But despite the tidal wave of early Wood wit, including the trademark wry song lyrics ("I want to be 14 again / Tattoo myself with a fountain pen"), there's something altogether hollow here. Even the opening night audience struggled to keep laughing through the longueurs, and the strongest feelings stirred were merely niggling doubts over the wisdom of this revival.
This 30-year old early Victoria Wood play was given a rare outing on the fringe last year before this higher profile one at the Menier, but it hasn’t really risen to the challenge. The tale of a talent contest in a Manchester club in the 70’s has its moments, but not enough of them I’m afraid. It proves that comedy was a much better vehicle for her observant humour than plays would have been; she chose the right career. That said, I don’t begrudge seeing this 90 minute curiosity again which is well staged and performed. - Gareth James
08 Oct 09
Apart from the first 20 minutes which are set front-of-house at a cheesy 70s Northern club, this really is pretty dire. Sure there are glimpses of the ear for the daft in the everyday that characterises much of the best of Wood's work, but the clumsy direction, leaden humour, sloppy structure and appalling songs mean that this little piece long outstays it's welcome. Old troupers like Mark Curry, Jeffrey Holland and above all the wonderful Mark Hadfield are great value but the two lead girls are decidedly undercast, like watching understudies who've had insufficient rehearsal. Definitely not a must-see! - ajh
22 Sep 09
Back in the days when boys became bands without the unwelcome attentions of Louis Walsh, or girls sang aloud without a televised vote - young Victoria Wood penned a simple, funny and sweet piece for the Sheffield Crucible based on her own experiences backstage in a provincial talent show. +++
Revisiting it thirty years later, she freely admits she had to explain a lot of the references to the cast, so it's not surprising many of the jokes had to be audibly elaborated by the older audience to its younger boyfriends during last Thursday's first performance at the Menier. There is hardly a gay bar in London in which you couldn't hear someone 'doing' a Victoria Wood sketch, and for the previews they were out in force, and lapping up the familiar comic lines. +++
Asked to comment on her friend Julie Walters' appearance in "Mamma Mia", Wood explained to the Daily Mail that musicals 'really weren't her thing' - which may have been tact as Walters was uncharacteristically dire, but also disingenuous since Wood recently wrote 'Acorn Antiques the Musical' with a swathe of pastiched production numbers. For 'Talent', the musical additions are modest parodies of cheesy cabaret songs which mostly serve to give the male cast members an opportunity to perspire in velour suits with polyester ruffles. +++
Wood appears to have cast this production with a number of old friends - Jeffrey Holland, once the comedian Spike in Hi-de-Hi is amusing as a pensioner magician, but former Blue Peter presenter Mark Curry rather less convincing as the randy compere of the rotting Bunters night club. +++
It's like an explosion in the comedy section of the BBC archives, or at least in the skip where they throw the stuff they don't use any more. +++
The stronger casting is in Suzie Toase playing the role created by Wood, and the ever reliable Mark Hadfield doubling a magician's assistant and the night club's catering manageress in the funniest segment of the show when she organises the table allocations. Both these actors excel with deadpanning the flat northern inflections of Wood's dialogue and illustrate both her easy facility with the language, and its ultimate failure to satisfy. +++
To genuine Lancastrians, the camp non-sequiturs of Wood's dialogue "she was going to be a nun but they had tomato soup and she lost her vocation" are heard on any bus from Bury to Bolton every day of the week, and Wood's skill was to spot the patterns and write it down. Custard creams aren't inherently funny, but when suggested by a northern housewife as a more palatable alternative to oral sex, it gets a laugh. +++
Whilst she has undoubtedly become a 'national treasure' through sketches and sitcom, comparison with more structurally capable dramatists like Alan Bennett are inevitably disappointing. In fact, the way Christopher Luscombe's recent production of Bennett's 'Enjoy' outshines 'Talent' despite the fact they were written at similar times, reflect on both Wood's script-updating and directing skills. +++
Sometimes, Talent alone is not enough. +++ more reviews at londonist.com or www.blowstar.blogspot.com - JohnnyFox
21 Sep 09
If you're of a certain age and preferably someone who enjoys 70's Northern humour you'll probably find much to enjoy in this show. If, like me you're that bit younger and not into that humour then its more like a very dated, quite unfunny show. Yes, there are glimpses of the great Victoria Wood at her best but this very much feels like an early piece of her work and very tired. I can't really see why its been revived. Its a shame for the two girls at the centre of the show who are clearly very talented but are not served well by this. - Paul Wallis
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