Theatre review: Play On!

The onslaught of multiple Twelfth Nights continues with a twist, as Shakespeare's mid-career comedy provides the basic plot inspiration for Talawa's Duke Ellington jukebox musical, Play On Exclamation Mark. Set in Harlem's Cotton Club in the 1920s, Sheldon Epps (concept) and Cheryl L.West (book) bring Viola (Tsemaye Bob-Egbe) to the club to try her luck as a songwriter. But her uncle Jester (Llewellyn Jamal) informs her that she won't convince anyone to listen to her music because women are famously incapable of writing songs. To get the legendary Duke (Earl Gregory) to consider her, Viola dresses as a man with the hastily-acquired pseudonym of Vyman, and her songs impress the Duke so much he employs "him" to serenade a disinterested lover on his behalf: Lady Liv (KoKo Alexandra,) the club's resident diva.

Liv of course takes an interest in "Vyman" instead, with... really far fewer hilarious consequences than you might hope: Just like many recent productions of the play itself, West's jazz riff on it gets much too defined by the melancholy side of the story.

So the show leans heavily on Ellington's bluesy ballads, despite the mid-tempo "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" and barnstorming "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" being both obvious highlights and the most recognisable numbers of the evening. At least, whether swinging or belting out heartbreak, Michael Buffong's cast can't be faulted on their vocals - there's no weak links but Gregory's silky baritone and Alexandra's emotional bombast sell their characters as the club's big draws.

The original's major subplot also gets a version here, as the club's prissy manager Rev (Cameron Bernard Jones) falls foul of Liv's dresser Miss Mary (Tanya Edwards) and band leader Sweets (Lifford Shillingford,) who trick him into an ill-advised makeover to try and impress the diva. In one flourish of West's book that I did really enjoy, the musical's Olivia and Malvolio figures actually do get together - happily - in the end.

But elsewhere the story tends to fall flat, or even problematic. An idea that the bullying of Rev comes from him being too obsequious to white customers in segregated times is very casually dropped in at the end, and I don't think the show subverts the misogyny of the setting as much as it thinks: Having Jester and Sweets' chauvinism undercut by their respective girlfriends doesn't hit that hard if it's the men who then get the big valedictory drunken duet to end the scene on. Early on we also hear that Miss Mary gave up her own singing career, a setup which demands a big solo number payoff later, but which Edwards doesn't get.

I even came close to an Annie Wilkes moment when the play tried to completely rewrite the Vyman/Liv dynamic halfway through the story, suggesting she didn't realise "he" was actually the Duke's emissary and not courting her by choice. You just took the piss out of the song you were given for being the same as all the Duke's other maudlin unrequited love songs, literally in this same scene, what the hell are you talking about? Also there's many references to the things Liv loves but nobody does a "Liv, Laugh, Love" joke, which is an oversight.

It's a shame that I'm coming across very down on the production but while there's undoubtedly some great singing of great songs, I don't think the Twelfth Night jukebox format really works for it. In fact by far my highlight of the evening was every time the chorus came on to perform Kenrick H2O Sandy's frenetic choreography. Maybe Ellington's songs and the impressive vocal talents on display would have been better served providing the soundtrack to a more dance-based show, than one that keeps robbing its own energy with another ballad.

Play On! by Sheldon Epps, Cheryl L. West and Duke Ellington is booking until the 22nd of February at the Lyric Hammersmith.

Running time: 2 hours 40 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: Ellie Kurttz.