The theatrical déjà vu of this week’s London press openings (that has already kicked off with the return of Whistle Down the Wind in a new production just five years after it was last seen in London) continued last night with the return, two and a half years since it opened, of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, with Christian Slater reprising his performance as Randle P McMurphy. Almost all the first string critics were duly in attendance again, even though Birmingham Rep was simultaneously offering a new musical, Promises and Lies, crafted out of the back catalogue of pop band UB40.
Only pop picker Charles Spencer absented himself from Cuckoo’s Nest to go to Birmingham instead, while the Daily Mail’s Quentin Letts went even further off-beam, electing to attend a 50-minute play by Amy Rosenthal (“a youngish writer who has been securing herself some attention of late”, he says, without mentioning that she’s the daughter of Maureen Lipman and the late Jack Rosenthal, which partly accounts for it) at Camden Town’s Etcetera Theatre that no national first string critic has graced in years, I’d guess. Quentin explains that, “rather than plod along to last night’s West End relaunch of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (which I liked moderately well a year ago, but had little desire to revisit)”, he voted instead “for new talent” and opted for Camden and Rosenthal’s Henna Night.
Good for him; its certainly interesting that the Mail is turning into Time Out and prioritising a pair of unknown actors over Christian Slater. The rest of the week also sees us chasing our tails, called back to see the new cast of The Producers tonight, and re-visiting the Royal Court’s production of My Name is Rachel Corrie on its West End transfer tomorrow. Sometimes, though, you need to find your own fresh discoveries away from the official cosy London first night circuit. The number two critics, of course, usually have more latitude to do so, which is why the Guardian’s Lyn Gardner and the Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish are such valuable voices. But while Charlie was last night doing the regional shuffle that is usually Dominic’s domain, they swapped roles and Dom was to be found at the Garrick.
But if such exchanges provide refreshing changes of perspective, last week saw one of the most interesting ones of all: as Benedict Nightingale took his seat at the Toronto premiere of The Lord of the Rings, he was there in support of his son Christopher, the show’s musical supervisor and co-ordinator, rather than critic. Instead, one of his regular deputies, Sam Marlowe, was sent to Toronto instead to file a review for The Times. And it was intriguing to see a critic “on the other side”, acutely nervous of what the reviews might be like. Christopher was sitting behind me, and when I introduced myself as one of his dad’s colleagues and told him of how nervous his father was, he told me that he’d told his parents to treat it like a school play, only a bit larger than usual!
