Review: SUNNY AFTERNOON

At the Harold Pinter Theatre, London, England

Book by Joe Penhall

Music and lyrics by Ray Davies

Original story by Ray Davies

Directed by Edward Hall

Designed by Miriam Buether

Choreographed by Adam Cooper

Lighting by Rick Fisher

Sound by Matt McKenzie (for Autograph)

Musical Director and Supervisor; Elliott Ware

A loud, jumped up juke box musical about the Kinks and their bumpy, tortured rise to fame and subsequent crash to disbandment.

The Story. It’s the story of the ‘60s rock band, the Kinks, headed by Ray Davies, a veritable song-writing machine, Dave Davies, his occasionally cross-dressing, song-writer brother, Mick Avory, and Peter Quaife. They came from working class, British stock. Ray Davies seemed to compose standing up, observing. He celebrated being British unlike other rock bands that wrote about worldly things. They were picked up by two suit-wearing stockbrokers who wanted to manage them and the music publisher who wanted to record their songs.

Ray Davies was street-smart and knew that the managers seemed to get all the money and the band got precious little. But they wanted to have their music recorded, fame was an afterthought. They signed.

Their songs became hits: Sunday Afternoon, Waterloo Sunset, Lola, Long Tall Sally, You Really Got Me, and on and on. You might not be familiar with the Kinks but you will know their songs.

They toured. Fame and eventual money got the better of them. They went to America and ran afoul of the unions. They refused to pay American union dues. They were then banned from touring in America for four years. That was death to a band that wanted to make it big.

In the end they got another manager—who took most of their money—but he got them a gig at Madison Square Gardens. They disbanded in 1996 because they couldn’t make any money.

The Production. Miriam Buether has created a set that looks like both a recording studio and a club or stadium where the band would give a concert. There are all sorts of speakers mounted on the back wall, musical instruments and microphones in front of that and a runway that goes into the crowd down which a singer can run and scope out the audience. There are round tables and chairs along the sides of the stage suggesting the band’s earlier incarnation as the Ravens when they played to sophisticated supper-club audiences. Then they were fronted by a white-jacketed singer who catered to the upper class crowd. At a certain point in the crooning concert the music gets raucous, the band plays loudly and the swish crowd kicks up their heels.

From there the band is picked up by the well-suited stock-brokers who change the name of the band to the Kinks—something about them looking ‘kinky’. The band is now dressed in identical green suits. They have a look like any other band. Their individuality is not established until the end of the show, when they play Madison Square Gardens. They are then in casual slacks and shirts, each different.

Director Edward Hall and his celebrated choreographer Adam Cooper had all the lively jumping around of a rock concert. I find one section odd with the back-up girl dancers dancing to the sides but in front of the band, thus pulling focus as far as I thought. But it seems that might have been how it was back then. Cooper keeps the dancing simple. Nothing provocative, generic moves

As Ray Davies, the conscience of the group, main song-writer and front man, Luke Baker is brooding, watchful, smart, and an artist. He is also the understudy and does a splendid job. As Dave Davies, the hedonistic, out-of-control, occasionally cross-dressing brother, George Maguire is hopped up, hair-flicking manic. He also plays a mean guitar. The rest of the cast is unremarkable.

Comment. I was not a follower of rock music growing up. Broadway musicals was my love (truly!), so while I knew who the Kinks were and realize I knew a lot of their songs, I didn’t follow that kind of music.

Their output is impressive. Their story seems to follow a pattern of struggling to make it; making it; then having it all go to ruin with the success, money and fame going to their heads. I found the book by Joe Penhall to be cliché ridden, which surprises me because he’s written such good plays: Haunted Child, Blue Orange, Landscape with Weapons.

For all the success of Ray Davies as a song writer, I found the songs simplistic and the lyrics like bubble gum. Interestingly the music only used three chords, according to those in the musical know. Of course the songs sounded simple. But an extensive program note parsed and examined the lyrics of Davies and praised them for being deep, satiric, and calls Ray Davies a genius. The writer also thought that since Davies pronounced his words clearly that was revolutionary. Me, I found the show forgettable. And long. Well of course, it wasn’t the story that kept us in the theatre so long, it was having to get through the band’s many hits. I am not slighting it for being what it is, a juke-box formulaic musical. I just prefer something deeper; something with bite. Give me Sondheim.

Produced by Sonia Friedman Productions, Hampstead Theatre Productions and many other producers.

First performed at the Harold Pinter Theatre: Oct. 4, 2014.

I saw it: Jan. 20, 2015

Closes: Open ended.

Cast: 15; 10 men, 5 women

Running Time: 2 hours, 45 minutes

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