Play On! Review: a joyous riff on Shakespeare and Ellington

Play On! is showing at the Bristol Old Vic throughout this week.
-Credit:Ellie Kurttz (www.elliekurttz.com)


"How strange that people feel they have to reinvent themselves for their trues selves to be discovered - to be loved, even!".

What do Shakespeare and jazz music have in common? They're both highly respected: if someone quoted Hamlet or put a Sarah Vaughan record on at a party you might think they were quite sophisticated (or, a bit of a poseur). While both are considered 'high art', not everyone finds them accessible.

'No Fear Shakespeare' is a mainstay in classrooms up and down the country, with the original text on the left page and a plain English version on the right. Hating Shakespeare is almost as cliché as loving Shakespeare, with the flowery language inspiring venom in untold scores of schoolchildren forced to read it. Meanwhile, jazz rarely makes the charts: Lady Gaga's jazz album with Tony Bennett is her most obscure, and Amy Winehouse had to majorly dial down the scat on her second album to hit the mainstream.

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Shakespeare is an acquired taste. Jazz is an acquired taste. Combining both takes bravery and vision.

Play On! is a twist on Twelfth Night, performed as a jazz musical and in modern English - no 'verily's or 'art thou's about it. Viola is a young aspiring songwriter who arrives in '40s Harlem to chase her dreams. When her uncle Jester tells her a woman will never be respected as an artist, she disguises herself as a man.

She needs the backing of the famed songwriter The Duke to get ahead in this industry, but he's more interested in using Viola as a wingman to help him get back together with his ex, the singer Lady Liv. If you have even the foggiest recollection of GCSE or A-Level or O-Level English, you can imagine the kind of hijinks that follow.

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Play On! is bright, joyous, infectious. Despite all the homages to 'high art', it's fun and laid-back. The show at its heart is about all the costumes people wear to be seen by others, only for their real selves to be rendered invisible.

Viola is a talented woman who is told she can only promote her gift while pretending to be a man. Liv laments that while the 'Lady Liv' persona has netted her fame, few know her real name and less care to know the real her. Liv's rigid, straight-laced employee Rev is told to 'loosen up' a little to impress her: he ends up making a fool of himself.

The show has a wonderful cast, but special mention has to go to Koko Alexandra (Lady Liv). When she performed her first solo, my mouth hung open. She has a truly transporting voice, almost otherworldly in its beauty. You forget where you are when she sings.

Lady Liv is a true diva archetype, a star who makes life difficult for her employees and yet is loved by all. You need an actress with a rare magnetism to make that character believable. To believe this person is charismatic and talented enough that everyone really would put up with her. Koko Alexandra has that rare magnetism.

If you don't have much prior knowledge of The Bard or Duke Ellington, fear not! You don't need to be an expert in either to enjoy this musical. Why, you don't even need to be a dabbler. What might have been a hard sell - Shakespeare and jazz, jazz and Shakespeare - is rendered accessible by an impeccable cast and music that goes down smooth as a shot of bourbon. All you need to bring to Play On! - beside your ticket - is an open mind.

Play On! is on a UK Tour and is currently showing at the Bristol Old Vic from now until Saturday, January 25. You can book tickets online.