ROLES WE’LL NEVER PLAY (Apollo Theatre/Stream Theatre)****

 

By Louise

Link: https://www.stream.theatre/season/23

Available until: Livestream 17^th January 7pm.

Roles We’ll Never Play was filmed in December under socially distant conditions and I was very excited when I found out it was going to be livestreamed on Stream Theatre. Stream Theatre is such a great site and as lockdown has continued, its productions have become more and more varied. It is also great that they are bringing back not just shows which they have done before but also offering a platform for successful plays which were streamed somewhere else first time around. I am really looking forward to seeing The Pirates of Penzance and Southwark Playhouse’s The Poltergeist again because I loved them the first time and I think Little Wars is one of those plays that could be even better the second time.

Roles We’ll Never Play has a very relaxed feel, even in the current environment. It is a great concert and host Carl Mullaney has a brilliant style. He’s very funny and natural.

But the one problem with these concerts is that the actors do such an amazing job of singing roles they wouldn’t usually be cast in, I usually end up thinking that the actors actually could play these roles really well!

At one time, gender would have been a barrier to certain roles, but I think that is changing. I have seen so many women in male roles during lockdown and it seems completely normal to me now. I have also seen men in roles that are traditionally played by women and that works for me too. It is more difficult for men to play women’s roles (except in productions like Sasha Regan’s wonderful Pirates of Penzance) as part of the reason women are playing men’s roles now is because there aren’t enough good roles for them. But I can definitely see it becoming more commonplace for men to play women’s roles, even if it is mainly in shows which have been specially adapted for men.

Mainly, I don’t think there are many roles in this concert which the singer definitely couldn’t play, but there are a couple. Luke Bayer sings Out Tonight from Rent and Maiya Quansah-Breed sings Not My Father’s Son from Kinky Boots. They are both ideally suited to the roles vocally. Mr Bayer captures Mimi’s character perfectly and sings her music beautifully while Ms Quansah-Breed is incredibly moving as the transvestite Lola. But I don’t think we’re at the stage (and maybe we never will be) where a biological woman could play Lola because her gender is so important to her story. I also don’t think a man could play Mimi because that will make the character of Angel seem less important. Also, a great strength of Rent is that Mimi, a straight (or possibly bi) female character, has AIDS. I think that sends a very important message that would be lost if Mimi was played by a man. This is why the Roles We’ll Never Play concerts are so special and such a good addition to the West End. Mr Bayer and Ms Quansah-Breed perform these songs outstandingly and this concert gives them a platform to do that.

But there are some songs where I can’t think of a reason for the singer not to perform the full role. Trevor Dion Nicholas’ ‘Children Will Listen’ from Into the Woods isn’t sung in the most typical way, but he puts a lot of emotion into it and his characterisation is so good, I’d love him to play the Witch. The musical is about fairy tales so I think there’s definitely a place for a (much, much more sophisticated) equivalent of a pantomime dame. Alan Richardson is outstanding in ‘Glitter and Be Gay’, with exquisite high notes and really agile coloratura. I think Candide is such a strange musical anyway, the audience would probably accept unusual casting as part of the general weirdness, especially if it’s this well performed.

There is also a brilliant moment with six men playing the Six queens and I’d like to think that the all-male version which a lot of the Queendom seem to want really could happen. And speaking of Six, the original super-swing Grace Mouat sings ‘Corner of the Sky’ from Pippin. I have actually only seen this role performed by a woman and it worked really well. Ms Mouat would be incredible in this role. She sings this song beautifully, from the soft opening to the belt at the end.

I’d be very happy with Laura Baldwin as Olaf in Frozen II, though she’d be so ideal for Elsa or Anna, I think she’s more likely to be cast in one of those roles. Pearce Barron gives a really fun performance of ‘I Can Hear the Bells’ from Hairspray. Nicole Raquel Dennis is outstanding in ‘For Forever’ from Dear Evan Hansen. She played Alana in the West End, but this is Evan’s song and it’s a really meaningful and genuine performance. Idriss Kargbo characterises Regina George from Mean Girls perfectly in ‘World Burn’.

Renée Lamb’s performance of ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ is also brilliant. I doubt they’d let her sing it in this style in the musical, but it’s a beautiful arrangement of the song. Kelly Agbowu’s ‘Empty Chairs at Empty Tables’, also from Les Misérables, is sung in much more of a rock style than usual, but it is no less moving. But I’m sure Ms Lamb could sing a more conventional ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ too and I’d be happy with a female Marius.

That’s not even all the performers – there are lots I haven’t even mentioned and they’re all so good. But if it is possible for Jack in Newsies to be sung by a woman (I don’t know this musical so I’m not sure), I think Alice Fearn will be getting a call as soon as theatres reopen. Which I hope will be really, really soon.