| A subversive
comedy about an army entertainment corps
stationed in South East Asia in 1948.
Privates on
Parade charts the journey of young
Steven Flowers, who is thrown into
the Song and Dance Unit South East
Asia, deep in the Malayan jungle.
By evoking the great stars of the
time, from Fred Astaire and Ginger
Rogers to Carmen Miranda and Noël
Coward, he achieves a spectacular
rite of passage with a little help
from the outrageous Captain Terri
Dennis.
Music and merriment
in Nichols' recollection of National
Service in Singapore. Things ain't
half hot when Steve and the boys from
SADUSEA (Song And Dance Unit South
East Asia) are posted to Malaya in
1948. He's soon up the jungle with
the concert party, keeping up the
pecker of the boys in khaki. It's
a right carry on as his *!*?!* of
a Sergeant-Major tries to keep order
and Steve learns the lessons of loneliness,
lust, love and life. At last, bruised
and battered but defiantly unbowed,
he heads for Singapore and the ship
back to Blighty.
Definitely not
for the easily offended! |
| I have
now seen this play twice and in my opinion
it is one of the funniest I have seen
for a very long time. It is also extremely
well performed. All the actors are worthy
of a mention, not just Roger. As
the play starts we see Private Steven
Flowers (James McAvoy) arriving at
the camp, having been posted direct
from the Intelligence Unit, and meeting
Corporal Len Bonny (Justin Salinger).
This is a very funny scene with Steven's
introduction to what life is like
serving in a Song and Dance Unit and
discovering that they are all gay.
James' performance is one of pure
innocence and it struck me during
the dance number that he performs
with Indira Varma as Sylvia Morgan,
that this young actor has a great
future and that I hope to see him
on the stage again in the future.
There is also
a delightful performance by Hugh Sachs
and Justin Salinger, as Lance Corporal
Charles Bishop and Corporal Len Bonny,
when they do a Flanagan and Allen
impersonation, which I thought was
excellent. Justin Salinger has the
audience very worried when he appears
to throw a bucket of water over them.
Nigel Harman, as Flight-Sergeant Kevin
Cartwright, teams up with James McAvoy
to give us an extremely clever Fred
Astaire type dance wearing army boots,
which can't be an easy thing to do.
Daniel Tuite, as Leading Aircraftman
Eric Young-Love, has the audience
in stitches when he is told that he
was on guard-duty the night that Major
Giles Flack's staff car was stolen
and he was the guard who saluted it
through the gate.
For me, the second
best performance of the whole play
was Malcolm Sinclair as Major Giles
Flack. He has a pompous air about
him but comes across as a complete
'silly-ass' who just doesn't have
a clue as to what is going on and
believes the men when they tell him
that they only wear the ladies perfume
for the show. His little song and
dance number is very funny - in fact,
I can't remember when I last saw anything
so good. He certainly deserved his
Olivier nomination for Best Supporting
Actor, it's just a shame he didn't
win the award.
Naturally, I
have to say that the best performance
of the show was Roger's. His Marlene
Dietrich was hysterical and later
on his Vera Lynn was very well done.
One of the funnier scenes was when
Roger, as Captain Terri Dennis, is
explaining to Steven Flowers what
happened on his first date with a
female and how he found out what a
ladies breast felt like. At times
during the play there was a touch
of Kenneth Williams in Roger's portrayal,
which I think was partly deliberate.
His Noel Coward impersonation was
extremely clever despite the fact
that Roger can sing much better than
Coward ever could. I thought that
the Carmen Miranda number was slightly
spoilt by the music being so loud
but the costume was sensational and
Roger would make a good drag queen.
The character, however, has a sad
side to it and this comes across in
Roger's performance in a subtle way
which does not detract from the humour
of the play. This was a performance
which definitely so deserved the Olivier
Award for Best Actor and Roger did
well to beat the tough opposition
of Alan Rickman and Simon Russell
Beale.
Finally, I have
to say that David Hounslow's Sergeant-Major
Reg Drummond was so good that I really
felt a dislike for the character from
the minute we first saw him and I
failed to understand why Sylvia should
be so fond of him.
All in all, I
am sorry that this play did not transfer
to the West End as the run was far
too short and those who missed it
should be very sad that they did so.
I can't imagine that we will see such
a good production of this play again.
However, I am sure that it goes without
saying that whatever else Roger does
it will certainly be just as good,
if not better. |
