Close-Up by Ben Elton. The Menier Chocolate Factory, 50 Southwark St, London SE 1 to 18 November 2023. 2**: William Russell.
Close-Up by Ben Elton. The Menier Chocolate Factory, 50 Southwark St, London SE 1 to 18 November 2023. 2**: William Russell.
Poor Twiggy. What she did to deserve this juke box musical account of her life set against a collection of hits from the sixties and seventies devised by Ben Elton is hard to fathom. It doesn’t even cover all of her life as it ends for no very good reason, except that it has gone on quite long enough, in 1982 although at the beginning we do get to see her being created a Dame by Prince Charles in 2019. Lesley Hornby was the face of the sixties, a teenage model from Neasden turned into a star by her dodgy manager Justin de Villeneuve who went on to reinvent herself time and again throughout her career – pop star, actress, film star – she was in The Boyfriend directed by Ken Russell, Broadwayleading lady in My One And Only, television personality, saviour of Marks and Spencer and so on. Elena Skye who plays her has a fine voice but whenever a clip of the real Twiggy – director Elton uses a lot of them – pops up on the screen which occupies the centre of the rather dull photographer’s studio set she is instantly eclipsed. Twiggy was and still is a star. Not that the awful wigs that she gets to wear help Skye and just what Darren Day, who plays her first husband, the alcoholic Hollywood actor she married after getting rid of boyfriend deVilleneuve, has on his is anybody’s guess – but it is either dead or hibernating .
The pop songs are pretty random – it presumably depended on what rights were available – but as a hum through all their yesterday’s the selection will please audiences well enough. The dresses Twiggy wears designed by Jonathan Lipman look authentic, and Stephen Serlin and Hannah-Jane Fox do nice end of the pier variety turns as her parents as does Aoiffe Dunne as one of her school friends, but while horeographer Jacob Fearey keeps the ensemble gyrating like mad trying to inject some life into the goings on he never quite manages to capture the dance horror of the past. The swinging world of the sixties was pretty awful, very white, although as happens today there are some coloured players in the cast, and men exploiting women were rife. One problem is that the video footage of Twiggy is invariably miles better and far more interesting than anything live on stage. Elton has some political or social points to make – there is even a levelling up joke – but as a tribute to a born survivor it is pretty poor pleasant though it is to hear songs like Downtown sung quite well. As for Twiggy, no mention that she has been married for decades to the actor Leigh Lawson as it ends before he came on the scene.
The second night audience rose to its feet at the end and as I left I heard one of them say it had been a cracking show which didn’t deserve the reviews it had received. These days there are two press nights, the first being for the likes of the national press, the second for the world of bloggers so, having decided on my way home what I wanted to say after writing it I had a look. All of us go out on a limb sometimes and find it pretty lonely. This time the limb is so crowded it is likely to fall off due to the sheer weight of numbers.
Cast
Elena Skye – Twiggy.
Steven Serlin – Norman Hornby.
Hannah-Jane Fox – Nell Hornby.
Aoife Dunne - Cindy.
Beth Devine - Sally.
Lauren Azania A.J. King-Yombo - Kay.
Matt Corney – Justin de Villeneuve.
Darren Day – Michael Witney.
Creatives
Company – Emma-Kate Adcock; Liam Buckland; Harriet Bunton; Leanne Garretty;
Luke Johnson; David McIntosh; Danny Nattrass; Sydney Spencer; Karen Walker.
Director – Ben Elton.
Choreography & Movement Director – Jacob Fearey.
Musical Director – Stuart Morley.
Set Designer – Timothy Bird.
Video Designer – Tim Blazdell.
Costume Designer – Jonathan Lipman.
Lighting Designer – Philip Gladwell.
Sound Designer – Gregory Clarke.
Hair, Wigs & Make-Up Designer – Diana Estrada Hudson.