SOB's 8 Singular Sensations Of '08As regular readers of Steve On Broadway (SOB) know, while others use the end of the year to provide their lists of the top shows of the past year, I wait until the conclusion of the entire Theatrical Season to provide my official tally.
Instead, I'm once again devoting the end of the calendar year to celebrate SOB's Singular Sensations -- those magical live performances that have stayed with me throughout the year. While it's easy to bid "good riddance" to a year that has been fraught with economic, man-made and natural catastrophes, I took refuge in once again being truly wowed and ultimately inspired by an extraordinary display of excellent performances from some of the theatre world's best actors, singers and dancers of our time.
Before I launch into my mini-countdown, I'd like to offer a few personal observations on my own year. Without a doubt, one continuing highlight has been the enormously gratifying opportunity to meet a wide cross-section of fellow theatre bloggers.
Thanks to Esther at
Gratuitous Violins for getting the ball rolling as 11 bloggers with a predominant focus on theatre became friends and family as we joined together for a freewheeling brunch at
Angus McIndoe's -- one of the Broadway theatre district's more renowned hot spots. That list included Aaron at
‘kül That Sounds Cool, Alicia at
Things You'll Learn To Love About Me, Chris at
Everything I Know I Learned from Musicals, Jan at
Broadway & Me, Jimmy at
Third Row, Mezzanine, Kari at
Casual Heap, Mike at
The Lunar Gemini, Patrick at
Just Shows To Go You and Sarah at
Adventures in the Endless Pursuit of Entertainment.
But as the year progressed, it was a high honor meeting several other vital bloggers, including Andrew and Philip at
West End Whingers, Angel at
The Theatergoer, Eric at
Man In Chair, Gabriel at
Modern Fabulousity, Kevin at
Theatre Aficionado At Large, and, of course, the man responsible for my wonderful new photo, the incomparable Ste at
The Stephen Mosher Blog.
To all my blog friends, let me say I am proud to know you and count you among my friends.
Now, dear readers, I give you SOB's 8 Singular Sensations of 2008:
#8 - Francis Guinan - While most of the rest of the
August: Osage County ensemble headed off to London this fall to reprise their celebrated performances, one notable principal from Steppenwolf's Chicago and Broadway casts did not make the journey:
Fran Guinan.
The actor who singlehandedly delivered the tenderest performance and arguably the most heart in this year's Tony Award-winning Best Play as Charlie Aiken had a couple other projects and a whole host of characters to handle back in Chicago. Guinan enjoyed some delicious scene-stealing roles as Colonel Sanders and Johnny Walker in Steppenwolf's
Kafka On The Shore, but it was his extraordinarily touching take as Sharky in Steppenwolf's just-extended production of
The Seafarer that completely blew me away.
It's because he seems to effortlessly imbue each and every one of his wide-ranging characters with limitless shadings and nuance, I'm looking forward to seeing this sensational actor next in Steppenwolf's early 2009 mounting of
Art.
#7 - Martha Plimpton - Is there
nothing Martha Plimpton cannot do? First, as the wine-swilling pontifica-ting, pompous Pope Joan and then as an English teen,
both as part of
Caryl Churchill's
Top Girls, she was simply mindblowing.
But as Gladys Bumps in the current Broadway revival of
Pal Joey, Plimpton proves nothing short of a complete revelation. We already knew this Tony-nominated actress had the dramatic chops, but who knew she also possesses such an sensational singing voice? Her "Zip" alone is worth the price of admission. Along with her sly moves, it truly does appear that there's nothing Plimpton can't do.
Look for another Tony nod in the New Year for this sensational actress.
#6 - Lois Smith - Shame on me for missing
Horton Foote's
The Trip To Bountiful during its celebrated
Signature Theatre Company run a couple years back. Fortunately, for me (and countless others), Chicago's
Goodman Theatre chose to honor the works of the great nonagenarian with a
festival that enabled the incandescent
Lois Smith to reprise her lauded Off-Broadway turn as Carrie Watts.
Smith's astonishing luminescence burned brighter and brighter throughout her performance as she brilliantly captured Carrie's yearning to return home, one last time, to a place called Bountiful. Smith's impeccably drawn portrayal proved one transformative power.
The always sensational Lois Smith was nothing short of excellent.
#5 - Daniel Breaker - I have yet to see what he can do in
Shrek The Musical.
But
Daniel Breaker The Actor is one exception-ally gifted talent worth watching, thanks to his truly astonishing breakthrough role as Youth in my favorite new musical of the past year:
Passing Strange. Breaker has the ability to convey so much more with a simple roll of his eyes than many actors have with their entire portayals. He possesses a natural presence found far too infrequently on the stage.
His sensational Tony-nominated performance made
Passing Strange come alive, and it will be the reason I go see
Shrek.
#4 - Jim Norton - Actors from two different productions of the same outstanding play land on my list.
Back at #8 was Fran Guinan as Sharky from Steppenwolf's current run of
The Seafarer. The acting genius who originated the role of Sharky's brother Richard in London and reprised his performance again on Broadway lands at #4. The breathtaking
Jim Norton earned very well-deserved Olivier and Tony Awards for his incredible work. His superb portrayal more than convinced me he had literally drunk himself blind. I really thought, "this man truly is without sight." Of course, only at the curtain call did I realize he could see.
I'm so looking forward to seeing this sensational actor once again in
New York City Center's March mounting of
Finian's Rainbow.
#3 - Mark Rylance - For a British actor,
Mark Rylance sure has the Midwestern accents down pat (perhaps it's because, like me, he lived in
Mequon - Thiensville, Wisconsin, during part of his formative years).
Shortly before making his Broadway debut, this master Shakespearean actor returned to a Guthrie stage in Minneapolis in the title role of
Peer Gynt. This retelling of
Henrik Ibsen's play began with Rylance portraying a modern-day Minnesotan on the receiving end of a surprise party for his 50th birthday.
Soon thereafter, Rylance took Broadway by storm with his Tony-winning farcical turn as a Wisconsinite named Robert in the revival of
Boeing-Boeing. He's still keeping them laughing through Sunday at the
Longacre via his absolutely masterful turn.
Given his wide range, there's no telling where the sensational Rylance will land next.
#2 - Elena Roger - As the only artist from last year's SOB Singular Sensations lists to make a return, the marvelous
Elena Roger is a major force to be reckoned with. Her bravura performance as Eva Peron in the recent London revival of
Evita was more than enough to
land her at #4 one year ago. In the current West End production of
Piaf, this abundantly assured and captivating actress dazzles once again. Roger proves a true sensation.
Succeeding in eerily channeling
Edith Piaf, Roger soars to make for one of the year's most extraordinary and magical performances, almost in spite of the ill-conceived production around her.
I for one can't wait to see what this sensational talent does next and can only hope that Broadway is finally paying attention.
#1 - Patti LuPone - I know, I know.
Patti LuPone easily earned
the number one spot two years ago on my year-end list for her electrifying/terrifying performance as Mama Rose in
Ravinia's concert version of
Stephen Sondheim,
Jule Styne and
Arthur Laurents' best musical of all time,
Gypsy. How could I possibly give the same artist the same pole position for the same role yet again?
Easily. Laurents' current Broadway mounting of
Gypsy is no ordinary revival. Just when I thought LuPone couldn't get any better, she manages to eclipse her own jawdropping performance with a Rose who is at once sympathetic, conniving, sexy, funny, tragic and repulsive all at the same time. Brava, Patti! Brava!
I was so mesmerized by LuPone's sensational performance of a lifetime that I'll be there to cheer her on once more before
Gypsy closes on January 11.
Happy New Year!
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Daniel Breaker, Elena Roger, Francis Guinan, Jim Norton, Lois Smith, Mark Rylance, Martha Plimpton, Patti LuPone, SOB's 8 Singular Sensations of 2008
SOB's Best Of 2007-08: Best Revivals Of PlaysOver the past year, I've had an opportunity to see 22 revivals of plays throughout the United States. Many tested the limits of my imagination, while others simply tested my nerves, but overall, there were many fine productions to be seen.
Here's my personal "5 Best" list of the revivals I'm thankful I had a chance to see:
5 - Boeing-Boeing (Longacre Theatre, New York, NY)
Looking for the funniest, laugh-out-loud comedy now on the Great White Runway? Look no further than the current Broadway revival of
Boeing-Boeing. It's a mostly fantastic, high-flying farce. As absurd as the storyline is,
Matthew Warchus portentously propels this first class flight to a new altitude with a turbocharged cruising speed that left me breathless from laughing. Much of the marvelous mirth comes from watching
Mark Rylance, who proves even a great Shakespearean actor can be a worthy master of slapstick comedy. Nearly as wonderful is
Christine Baranski's wickedly funny propensity for broad comic relief, whether it's with an exaggerated roll of her eyes or via her deadpan, droll response.
Boeing-Boeing is about the wildest ride on Broadway. Fasten your seatbelts!
4 - A Bronx Tale (Walter Kerr Theatre, New York, NY)
Chazz Palminteri's enthralling solo show
A Bronx Tale arrived to well-deserved audience cheers from The Bronx and beyond when it was revived this season on Broadway. Palminteri vibrantly brought to life 18 different characters in an astonishing first-person account of his coming of age on some of New York City's toughest streets. A master storyteller, Palminteri succeeded in weaving a captivating ninety minute tale that built to a climax that can only be characterized as indisputably gripping theatre. I was in the palm of his hand.
Told from his heart, Palminteri's message was so powerful and breathtaking that it deserves to be heard far beyond The Bronx when the production begins its
national tour this fall.
3 - The Trip To Bountiful (The Albert, Goodman Theatre, Chicago, IL)
A theatrical experience that plainly stated exactly what it was, right up front, in its title,
Horton Foote's
The Trip To Bountiful was just that and so much more in the wonderful revival playing Chicago's Goodman Theatre earlier this year. The playwright's brilliance was more than proficiently realized by director
Harris Yulin through the incandescence of its performances. As the aptly named Carrie Watts,
Lois Smith provided an astonishing luminescence, burning brighter as her yearning to return home to a place called Bountiful, one last time, became a transformative power. Never mind that she was trying to get there against the will of her control freak daughter-in-law Jessie Mae, magnificently and haughtily portrayed by the playwright's daughter
Hallie Foote. Both actresses were nothing short of excellent.
With acting beyond bountiful, this was one show that was definitely worth making the trip to see.
2 - Pygmalion (American Airlines Theatre, Roundabout Theatre Company, New York, NY)
Sure, some audiences may have been expecting
My Fair Lady only to be disappointed by the lack of a score. But
David Grindley's splendid five act revival of
George Bernard Shaw's classic
Pygmalion was practically pitch perfect nonetheless, thanks in part to a flawlessly superb performance by
Jefferson Mays as Professor Henry Higgins and an equally compelling
Boyd Gaines as the genteel Colonel Pickering. With aplomb and grace,
Claire Daines proved a revelation as Eliza Doolittle. I adored this show and its genuine blissful humanity that echoed in the music of its lyrical spoken word.
Pygmalion is one period piece that remains timeless, and thanks to the
Roundabout Theatre Company, audiences had another opportunity to revel again in the story that launched the famous musical.
1 - Cymbeline (Vivian Beaumont Theatre, Lincoln Center, New York, NY)
Forget
Macbeth. Broadway's far superior
William Shakespeare revival of the year was
Lincoln Center's underappreciated
Cymbeline. Sending an unexpected, yet definable chill of delight shooting down my spine, I found myself utterly thrilled. Director
Mark Lamos restored the work's long lost luster via his brilliant, sparkling vision, empowering his cast to maneuver through the Byzantine layers of plot unscathed, as well as to navigate through the cadences of Shakespeare's often difficult language with such natural precision, grace and gusto, that they never felt unnatural or forced. In fact, Shakespeare never sounded so crisp. She may have received a Tony nod for her amazing work in
Top Girls for playing two very different roles, but in
Cymbeline, the luminous
Martha Plimpton moved every bit as skillfully from dazzled lover to forlorn royalty in hiding with unimpeachable ease that was equally moving.
Unquestionably, this was singularly the best production of one of the Bard's works I have ever seen.
So what were the best revivals of plays
you saw over the past year? I invite you to join the conversation by sharing your own theatre experiences with me.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Related Stories:SOB's Best Of 2007-08: Best Special Theatrical Events (May 24, 2008)
The SOB Five "Worst" Of 2007-08 (May 23, 2008)
SOB's Best & Worst Of 2007-08 Theatre Season (May 22, 2008)
SOB's Best Of 2006-07: Top Ten Of The Year (June 4, 2007)
SOB's Best Of 2006-07: Best New Musicals (May 22, 2007)
SOB's Best Of 2006-07: Best New Plays (May 21, 2007)
SOB's Best Of 2006-07: Best Revivals Of Musicals (May 18, 2007)
SOB's Best Of 2006-07: Best Revivals Of Plays (May 16, 2007)
The SOB Five "Worst" Of 2006-07 (May 14, 2007)
SOB's Best & Worst Of 2006-07 Theatre Season (May 14, 2007)
SOB's Best of 2005-06: #1 - Theater Of The New Ear (May 30, 2006)
SOB’s Best of 2005-06: #2 – Guys And Dolls (May 26, 2006)
SOB’s Best of 2005-06: #3 – Hedda Gabler (May 25, 2006)
SOB’s Best of 2005-06: #4 – A Blameless Life (May 24, 2006)
SOB’s Best of 2005-06: #5 – Reeling (May 23, 2006)
SOB’s Best of 2005-06: #6 – “MASTER HAROLD”…And The Boys (May 21, 2006)
SOB’s Best of 2005-06: #7 – Love Song (May 19, 2006)
SOB's Best of 2005-06: #8 - Billy Elliot The Musical (May 18, 2006)
SOB's Best of 2005-06: #9 - The Well-Appointed Room (May 17, 2006)
SOB's Best of 2005-06: #10 - Sweeney Todd (May 15, 2006)
SOB's Best and Worst of 2005-06 Theatre Season (May 12, 2006)
Flashback: Best of 2004-05 (May 26, 2006)
Flashback: Best of 2003-04 (May 25, 2006)
Flashback: Best of 2002-03 (May 25, 2006)
Flashback: Best of 2001-02 (May 24, 2006)
Flashback: Best of 2000-01 (May 23, 2006)
Labels: A Bronx Tale, Boeing-Boeing, Chazz Palminteri, Cymbeline, Lois Smith, Martha Plimpton, Play, Pygmalion, Revival, SOB's Best of 2007-08, The Trip To Bountiful
The Trip To Bountiful (The SOB Review)
The Trip To Bountiful (The SOB Review) - The Albert, Goodman Theatre, Chicago IL***1/2 (out of ****)Finally, some truth in advertising.
That's right, a theatrical experience that plainly states exactly what it is, right up front, in its title.
Horton Foote's
The Trip To Bountiful is just that and so much more in the current revival now playing at Chicago's Goodman Theatre. The playwright's brilliance is more than proficiently realized by director
Harris Yulin through the incandescence of its performances.
Ironically, the play cleverly ensues with
John McKernon's dimly lit stage, the only hint coming from a lonely window where an aging Texan is quietly rocking in her chair. The light glows around Carrie Watts, aptly named thanks to the astonishing luminescence of
Lois Smith, and burns brighter as her yearning to return home to a place called Bountiful, one last time, becomes a transformative power.
Never mind that she's tried to get back there before. For 20 years, she's been cooped up in the same Houston flat with her passive dullard of a son Ludie (
Devon Abner) and his control freak wife Jessie Mae (
Hallie Foote, the playwright's daughter), who feigns being inconvenienced by anything that takes the spotlight off her. From time to time, Carrie tries her best to sneak off, but fails to get very far.
But that little light that's shining brightly within her very soul can't easily be extinguished. And when it burns hot enough, with each multiple henpeck and scolding from Jessie Mae, Carrie is set into motion yet again. This time, however, she gains just enough traction with an assist from the kindness of a stranger named Thelma (
Meghan Andrews), a fellow bus passenger who shares the ride with Carrie to a town near Bountiful.
That she gets so close is only half the story, but that she must also endure life alongside Ludie and Jessie Mae is most certainly the other in a classic example of children treating a parent as the child.
Abner's Ludie is so submissive, so fearful in his relationship with his wife that you just want to shake him, admonishing him to be a man. Jessie Mae, on the other hand, is so vainly narcissistic that she disparages Carrie, taking all her marital hostility out on the poor beleaguered mother-in-law. The acting was so convincing that just as I wanted to tell Ludie to snap out of it, I wanted to reach out and wring Jessie Mae's neck.
Allow me to pause here to salute Foote's magnificently haughty portrayal, serving as the perfect foil to Smith's impeccably drawn Carrie. Both actresses are nothing short of excellent.
After missing the
Signature Theatre Company's celebrated revival of Foote's gentle, yet powerful work about the indignities of aging, I couldn't stop kicking myself. Not only did the play receive
accolade after
accolade when it played Off-Broadway, but it also reaped
award after
award.
How absolutely fortunate for all of us who missed Signature's run that Chicago's
Goodman Theatre chose to honor the works of the great nonagenarian with a
festival. And that great fortune extends to transferring Harris Yulin and most of the exceptional Signature cast, as well as design team (including
E. David Cosier's marvelous sets), to Chicago.
This is one show that's definitely worth making the trip. I'm glad I finally did.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Labels: Chicago, Devon Abner, Goodman Theatre, Hallie Foote, Harris Yulin, Lois Smith, Off-Broadway, The Trip To Bountiful, Transfer
100 Saints: Were Critics Singing Its Praises?Two evenings ago, budding playwright
Kate Fodor's new play
100 Saints You Should Know opened. The reviews are mixed on the material, but generally positive on performances.
Calling it "a play you should know,"
Newsday's
Linda Winer recommends the work: "Fodor invents rich characters who speak in their own peculiar rhythms and make observations that defy our expectations for this perilous subject matter....
Ethan McSweeny has directed an exquisite cast to find the humor, absurdity and simple elegance of the search....The luminous
Lois Smith continues her recent surge of priceless portrayals of seemingly ordinary women in such plays as
The Trip to Bountiful....Any cliche of the impossibly precocious daughter is turned into something exhilarating, scary and new by the terrific young actress
Zoe Kazan....
Jeremy Shamos has a quiet, touching credibility as the priest whose conflicts go beyond the generality of headlines into particular heartbreak."
Observing that the show's characters "earn the attention they crave,"
Variety's
Marilyn Stasio also offers praise: "Helmer Ethan McSweeny's sensitive reading of the material and an extremely classy cast make all the difference in a production of this episodic and none-too-original drama about the difficulties of grasping and holding onto one's beliefs in a modern world....Structurally, Fodor has written an articulate, if dramatically circular play, with the overlong and repetitive setup scenes in the first act methodically paying off in the second."
Taking note of "unresolved quality throughout,"
Ben Brantley of
The New York Times is mostly kind: "This tale of everyday people in search of faith, directed by Ethan McSweeny and featuring the estimable Lois Smith, is thoughtful, well spoken, humbly aware of its limitations and respectful of its characters. It is, in other words, the kind of play you could take home to mother. Just don’t expect it to provide you with a transporting night of passion....But the story approaches these topical matters with a calm, open mind and a tidy, symmetrical structure that balances and parallels different points of view....Ms. Kazan enjoyably nails the hostile neediness of an adolescent girl who hates her mother as much as she loves her. And Ms. Smith...turns Colleen’s first scene into a mini master class in acting."
Labeling it "sensitive and engaging yet, in the end, uneven,"
Joe Dziemianowicz of New York's
Daily News offers a mixed review: "The dialogue sometimes sounds more like a setup for punch lines than honest-to-God conversation....(The second act) tolls with such honesty and depth that one imagines
Francis de Sales, the patron saint of authors, watching Fodor's back when she wrote it....The always excellent Lois Smith makes the most of Colleen....Zoe Kazan, memorable last year in
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is uninhibited and brash and makes the wild-child Abby both believable and sympathetic."
Noting how
100 Saints You Should Know "has enough issues for a trio of
Lifetime movies,"
New York Post's
Frank Scheck offers a two-and-a-half star review: "Though the playwright's compassion is evident -- as is her ability to interweave their plights in emotionally resonant and sometimes humorous ways --
100 Saints has a patented feel that recalls the many similarly sensitive off-Broadway dramas that preceded it....To her credit, Fodor doesn't provide any pat solutions to her characters' crises....It's hardly a surprise that Smith is wonderful, but there is also fine work by Moloney...Shamos....and the two younger performers.
As you'll recall from last week,
I recommended the production with ***1/2 stars. Performances of
100 Saints You Should Know run through September 30.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:100 Saints: One Opening Night (September 18, 2007)
100 Saints You Should Know (The SOB Review) (September 14, 2007)
Labels: 100 Saints You Should Know, Critics' Capsule, Jeremy Shamos, Kate Fodor, Lois Smith, Off-Broadway, Play, Zoe Kazan
100 Saints You Should Know (The SOB Review) - Mainstage Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, New York, NY
***1/2 (out of ****)Coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the death of that
most saintly of 20th Century Nobel Prize winners, recently released passages from
Mother Teresa's remarkable diaries have illuminated what has been characterized as
her personal crisis of faith. All of which begs the question of where faith and disbelief intersect.
Those two intangible elements intersect quite literally in
Kate Fodor’s arresting and provocative new play,
100 Saints You Should Know, now enjoying its "world premiere" at Off-Broadway’s
Playwrights Horizons Mainstage Theatre (in actuality, it was first presented last July at
Steppenwolf's Garage Theatre in Chicago, but I won't quibble that point here).
In this frequently humorous, yet ultimately circumspect morality play directed with sharp veracity by
Ethan McSweeny, another Theresa (Janel Moloney) finds herself on a spiritual quest. Having been a teenage mother -- her acerbic, downright bitter teenage daughter Abby (Zoe Kazan) is now teetering close to the precipice in replicating Theresa's earlier missteps -- she is nearing middle age and searching for more meaning in her life. Perhaps it's no accident that she's found herself cleaning toilets in the rectory of a local Catholic Church.
Matthew (
Jeremy Shamos) -- a priest on leave from that parish is experiencing a crisis of faith -- returns home for respite in the care of his reliably faithful, old-fashioned Irish mother Colleen (
Lois Smith). Fueling Matthew’s crisis is his inability to reconcile his inner longings with church doctrine (or for that matter his own mother's).
When Garrett (Will Rogers), the dimwitted young son of Colleen's grocer, drops by with his latest delivery, he immediately places Matthew on the defensive by asking probing, sexually suggestive questions. While Garrett's pondering is meant to assuage his own carnal guilt, his questions further isolate a despairing Matthew.
Later that same evening, Theresa calls on Matthew, while leaving her daughter out in the car. Theresa is seeking spiritual guidance, but finds she must scale the walls Matthew has built around himself. Meanwhile, a very bored Abby is left to her own devices outside; she chances upon Garrett, who's hanging around hoping to bare his soul to Matthew, but instead shares his innermost secrets and desires with Abby.
Since I won't act as spoiler, let's just say that what transpires from there spins everyone's lives out of control (aided by Rachel Hauck's simple, yet stirring turntable set design). What still resonates and lingers with me is the purity in which Fodor wrote this compelling piece seemingly without any agenda or ax to grind.
In the program notes, Fodor writes, "I was interested in thinking about what true religious longing might feel like, especially if it took a nonbeliever by surprise, and as a mirror image, what it might feel like for a believer to be pulled away from God by a longing for the things in the secular world." To that end, Fodor has succeeded brilliantly without being heavy-handed or preachy.
It doesn't hurt that she is aided tremendously by the uniformly exceptional cast. Certainly, many will go to see
100 Saints You Should Know for the unique opportunity to see the graceful dignity offered by Lois Smith. But Shamos offers his own solemn, if sobering, portrayal as the priest in crisis. Kazan once again demonstrates that no young stage actress delivers sassy adolescent insolence quite the way she can. Rogers' tender yet goofy take on Garrett shows the awkwardness that comes with burgeoning teen sexuality. And Moloney is radiant as the would-be believer.
Regardless of your religious beliefs or lack thereof,
100 Saints You Should Know is worth seeing and knowing.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Labels: 100 Saints You Should Know, Ethan McSweeny, Janel Moloney, Jeremy Shamos, Lois Smith, Off-Broadway, Play, Playwrights Horizons, Steppenwolf, World Premiere, Zoe Kazan
#2 - Elena Roger - As the only artist from last year's SOB Singular Sensations lists to make a return, the marvelous Elena Roger is a major force to be reckoned with. Her bravura performance as Eva Peron in the recent London revival of Evita was more than enough to land her at #4 one year ago. In the current West End production of Piaf, this abundantly assured and captivating actress dazzles once again. Roger proves a true sensation.
