Synopsis Quiet, private Little Voice sings as sweetly as the divas in her father's record collection - Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, Shirley Bassey, Billie Holiday...Little Voice can do them all. When her mother's flash new man Ray Say hears her sing he can't believe his luck thinking that he has finally found the meal ticket he has been looking for..but will Little Voice give in to his schemes? A poignant and funny love story The Rise and Fall of Little Voice was a huge hit in the West End and on Broadway and as a movie achieved worldwide acclaim and a number of Oscar nominations.
Vickers plays Little Voice (LV), a shy young girl who can impersonate Judy Garland, Edith Piaf, Billie Holiday and other famous divas to perfection, alongside Lesley Sharp as Mari, her alcoholic mother living vicariously through her, and Marc Warren as Mari's lover Ray Say. The cast also features the playwright's son James Cartwright, who plays LV's love interest Billy.
Most critics who saw Little Voice the first time round agreed it has now lost some of its “shock” value, but nevertheless welcomed this rare revival of Cartwright's “rough-cut gem”. Diana Vickers can certainly hold her head high after receiving a raft of plaudits for her “magical” performance as LV, and Lesley Sharp, who was so lauded for her turn as Harper Regan last year (See Review Round-up, 28 Apr 2008) again basked in praise for her powerhouse performance as Mari - “the biggest blast on the West End stage” according to Whatsonstage.com's Michael Coveney.
Michael Coveney on Whatsonstage.com (three stars) - “The play stands up well in Terry Johnson’s no-holds-barred production, with its savage portrayal of a skew-whiff working class milieu in a small Northern town on the Lancashire side of the Pennines. LV’s widowed, alcoholic Mum, Mari Hoff, has set her sights on Marc Warren’s Ray Say … The house is designed on a revolve by Lez Brotherston, allowing full value to the outdoors and rooftop scenes, while the chaotic split-level interior is inhabited by the grotesque posing of Ray as well as the whale-like manoeuvres of Mari’s huge neighbour Sadie, hilariously played by Rachel Lumberg, rounding off her Jackson Five turn with the splits. Mr. Boo, the club manager, is given a nice seedy edge by Tony Haygarth in a precariously applied ginger hair-piece that looks as though it’s been out on the town by itself. But the real star turn here is that of Lesley Sharp as Mari, whose opening twenty-minute salvo of crass, crude self-absorption is the biggest blast on the West End stage, an amazing performance that is then sustained with brilliance and bravura for the whole, slightly over-long duration.”
Michael Billington in the Guardian (three stars) - “Inevitably, Jim Cartwright's play has lost some of the shock of its 1992 premiere. Then we were amazed when doormouse heroine Jane Horrocks suddenly sang like a woman possessed. Now Diana Vickers, the 18-year-old X Factor discovery, takes the same role with the vocal assurance we would expect. She's good; but we are no longer astonished … The plum role, however, is her mum, Mari, whom Lesley Sharp plays with fizzing energy. What Sharp also shows is the ultimate heartlessness of the raucous, man-hungry Mari who moves from cheery wisecracker to the wicked witch of the north-west; and it is not Sharp's fault if you feel that Cartwright overloads the character with one verbal riff too many. There is spirited support from Marc Warren as the exploitative agent, to whose trousers Mari clings, and from Tony Haygarth as a ludicrous club owner who, unexpectedly, articulates the show's moral, 'blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth'. The sentiments themselves are admirable. But, for all the hectic business of Terry Johnson's production, this is a play that doesn't quite pack the punch it did on a first viewing.”
Henry Hitchings in the Evening Standard (four stars) - “The Rise and Fall of Little Voice is amusing, affecting and decidedly old-fashioned. Now and then it rambles, particularly when LV’s admirer Billy is to the fore, and there are some undeniably saccharine touches. But it has emotional marrow as well as passages of spirited horseplay and Terry Johnson’s revival accentuates its pathos and hilarity … Lesley Sharp (the lugubriously business-like Louise in Mike Leigh’s Naked), revels in Mari’s chaos and brassy excess. It’s a brilliantly uninhibited performance, especially relishable when Mari is vamping it up to excite her beau. She inhabits every nook of Lez Brotherston’s lovingly detailed design, abetted by her quietly shambolic friend Sadie (Rachel Lumberg, a delight). Hers is the kind of house where there’s gin in the fridge door - and inside a beanbag. This doesn’t unsettle Marc Warren’s Ray, a sort of urban gunslinger who could be a refugee from Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights. Warren is poised and creepy; he lacks only a redeeming hint of vulnerability. The title role is the key. Created for Jane Horrocks, it belongs here to Diana Vickers, previously known for being a semi-finalist in ITV’s The X Factor. While Vickers’s acting may not have great range, it’s winsome. And when she sings she soars.”
Charles Spencer in The Daily Telegraph (four stars) - “It is nights like this that make my job both a privilege and a pleasure … Having endured more than my fair share of trial by light entertainment over the years, I have always given the show a miss. But what’s remarkable about encountering Diana Vickers for the first time on stage is that it turns out that she can act as well as sing, and more than hold her own in the company of seasoned professionals. Cartwright’s play is a rough-cut gem, blessed with filthy jokes, outlandish characters, and moments of both sentimentality and savagery. It has its faults: the author overdoes the vernacular stage poetry, like some word-drunk Dylan Thomas of the Lancashire mill-towns, and there are moments, even in a production whipped along by that great master of popular theatre, Terry Johnson, when the pace flags … Vickers, clutching her knees to her chest, brings a poignant buttoned-up grief and fear to Little Voice, and is magical when she sings. And there is terrific support from Mark Warren as the odious Ray Say; Rachel Lumberg as Mari’s fat friend who astonishes the house by performing the splits; James Cartwright (son of the playwright) as LV’s shy admirer and Tony Haygarth as a sleazy MC in a hilariously improbable toupee. Popular theatre doesn’t come much better than this.”
Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail - “Bravo, Diana Vickers. The teenager, familiar to TV viewers of last year's X Factor, hit the West End last night and gave a five-star creamer of a performance. All right, the show itself is probably only a three-star job, but Miss Vickers's voice growls from nought to sixty faster than an Aston Martin … It probably suits Miss Vickers that the part does not call for too much speaking. She is at her best - her considerable best - when she has a microphone in her hands … Comedy and pathos is supplied by fat Sadie the next door neighbour, delivered with exquisite poise by Rachel Lumberg. At one point Sadie, bopping to some music, does the splits. The whole audience gasped … The show moves a little slowly and the gallant Miss Sharp - at times so brassily northern that she is incomprehensible - has to carry more of the burden than is feasible. But there is no doubt about the star of the show. Miss Vickers is a scorcher.”
Jim Cartwright wrote his 1992 play specifically for Jane Horrocks, who burst out of her bedroom-bound chrysalis to shake the rafters as a nightclub singer who could make you feel you were in the same room as Judy Garland, Shirley Bassey or Dusty Springfield.
The transformation seems less astonishing in the sweet and studied performance of 18 year-old X Factor finalist Diana Vickers; she makes LV’s emergence one that is more to do with confidence than brash vocalising talent. But hers is an extremely assured West End debut.
Otherwise, the play stands up well in Terry Johnson’s no-holds-barred production, with its savage portrayal of a skew-whiff working class milieu in a small Northern town on the Lancashire side of the Pennines. LV’s widowed, alcoholic Mum, Mari Hoff, has set her sights on Marc Warren’s Ray Say.
But Ray, an out-of-time Teddy boy chancer, is moving into artiste management, and when he hears LV singing along with her Dad’s vinyl collection upstairs, he plots her progress in local show business.
The house is riddled with electrical faults, and indeed burns down in the second act, after a series of black-outs, but not before an equally shy and tentative electrician – played by the author’s son, James Cartwright – falls in love with LV at the top of his fork lift truck.
The house is designed on a revolve by Lez Brotherston, allowing full value to the outdoors and rooftop scenes, while the chaotic split-level interior is inhabited by the grotesque posing of Ray as well as the whale-like manoeuvres of Mari’s huge neighbor Sadie, hilariously played by Rachel Lumberg, rounding off her Jackson Five turn with the splits.
Mr Boo, the club manager, is given a nice seedy edge by Tony Haygarth in a precariously applied ginger hair-piece that looks as though it’s been out on the town by itself.
But the real star turn here is that of Lesley Sharp as Mari, whose opening twenty-minute salvo of crass, crude self-absorption is the biggest blast on the West End stage, an amazing performance that is then sustained with brilliance and bravura for the whole, slightly over-long duration.
Diana's performance was perfect. I can't even describe how well she fit the part. The rest of the cast also seemed to fit together perfectly. The last song in the play, sunlight, was one of the most beautiful songs i've ever heard. - Moheen
16 Apr 10
It was amazing, best show I seen - Tim
03 Feb 10
David Baxter and Gareth James are pretty well spot on here - Lesley Sharp was far too OTT and Diana Vickers would have been chucked out of a gay bar if she had attempted to sing in one of them. Terrible would be an understatement. Not only was the casting to cock, so to was Terry Johnson's direction. If I was generous I would give it 3/10, but I'm not. - cjm
31 Jan 10
I really enjoyed the second half of the show, thought the first half was very repetitive and a bit laboured but the part 2 definitely made up for it. I thought Lesley Sharpe was excellent and gave it her all, as did the rest of the cast. It would have been nice to see Diana Vickers doing more singing and looking more attractive as the show seems to impress but overall excellent and I thought the Big Lady was brilliant to. - Shelley
24 Jan 10
Another one for which I'd like to give 3.5! I agree with most of what David Baxter says below. It's overlong at 2 hours 45 mins and loses impact as a result; the first act in particular drags. It's hard to believe it's 18 years since it was first produced; it seems much older - as old as (the also recently revived) Comedians. Lesley Sharpe, who I love, pushes too far into cartoon territory, but both Marc Warren and Diana Vickers(a hugely impressive debut) are spot on. I was immensely impressed by Rachel Lumberg as Sadie, who moves imperceptibly from funny to sad. Les Brotherston's design is excellent. Worth reviving, but with a bit of tightening it could have been a whole lot better. - Gareth James
21 Jan 10
I absolutely loveed this show and was extremely impressed with all of the cast. Diana Vickers didn't disappoint and I was impressed with Lesley Sharp's ability to make me cringe at the way she treated her daughter. In reply to Holly, I think it depends on your views about swearing as there is a fair bit of it in the show but I would have thought that age 11 and over would be OK. - Lisa
11 Jan 10
what age would anyone rate this? as i have seen it with my husband and i know my daughter wants to see it so i might take her and see it again myself, if anyone could give me an age what is suitale that would be an help. thank - holly
03 Jan 10
Saw it last night and was blown away by Diana Vickers - both singing and acting. The rest of the cast were good, but Vickers steals it.
Shock horror: I saw an excellent Stewart and McKellern 'Waiting for Godot' earlier in the year but, if you can stand the sacrilege, I enjoyed LV even more. - Dave Straker
22 Dec 09
Terry Johnson's production is overlong, surprisingly dull and repetitive in parts and consequently misses nearly all the intended emotional peaks. I seem to be in a minority, but I was not impressed by Lesley Sharp's over-the-top performance. Of course Mari is meant to be a monster but Sharp made her so repellent that I couldn't wait for her to leave the stage and there was not a shred of sympathy or pity at her fate. In contrast Mark Warren managed to find a sliver of humanity in the equally odious Ray Say. The play is so obviously rooted in the 70s that the occasional modern references (Kylie?)sound ridiculous. BUT - the show is unexpectedly rescued by Diana Vickers. Her impersonations are not as spot-on as Jane Horrocks' and her acting ability is not stretched too far, but she has a touching vulnerability and there is a much needed charge of excitement when she sings (helped by some serious amplification). Where she goes after this is open to doubt but it is remarkable that an otherwise ordinary play can be rescued by an 18 year old with almost no experience. - David Baxter
17 Dec 09
Loved the film but this play was almost bad you can see better performances of Dame Shirley and Judy at your local gay bar!! - Dave
Opened 16 Apr 1870. Front re-constructed in 1890. 694 seats. Member of the Society of London Theatre. Each year there will be, from 1997, an Autumn to Spring Variety Season. The theatre is run by Max Weitzenhoffer.
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