If the whole point of SirKenBran's eponymous, year-long residency at the Garrick was
to prove that he could programme a whole season and actually remember to turn up for
the whole thing, then it looks like a success. If we're also meant to take into
account the actual shows, though, this has made Michael Grandage's underwhelming
West End season of a few years ago seem like a resounding triumph in comparison. For
the finale SirKenBran lets Rob Ashford take the directing reins on his own, while he
himself takes on the lead role in John Osborne's
The Entertainer, a part the
playwright himself once told him he should play. Of course, Osborne's been dead for
over twenty years so he probably wouldn't be too offended if his suggestion had been
ignored, and maybe SirKenBran should have thought instead of the living who actually
have to sit through it every night. He plays Archie Rice, a music hall entertainer
who followed his father Billy into showbusiness.
