Sunny Afternoon continues at the Harold Pinter Theatre, London. Picture: Roy Tan
Sunny Afternoon continues at the Harold Pinter Theatre, London until 23 May 2015.
The music of The Kinks, the north London rock group that made a mint (and lost it) shortly after The Beatles and the Rolling Stones had transformed the British pop scene in the early 1960s, rather washed over me at the time – I was more into Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and the folkies – so Sunny Afternoon is the perfect opportunity to play catch-up with the songwriting genius of their main man, Ray Davies.
I used to sit opposite him in the train going up to town in my Fleet Street days and wished I’d said more to him than a mere hello, but he always seemed wrapped up in his own thoughts. I would have told him how ‘Waterloo Sunset’, a poetic paean to MY city, our gorgeous but undervalued capital, moved me to tears.
The lyrics describe a solitary narrator watching two loves passing over Waterloo Bridge with the melancholic observer reflecting on the couple, the Thames and the nearby railway station. Along with Noel Coward’s ‘London Pride’, it remains one of the great love songs to a special city.
The thoughtful and reflective Ray appeared to have been the only near-normal one in a dysfunctional band that remains the only British group to have been drummed out of the USA after refusing to tow the Musicians’ Union line and pay their dues.
This is a richly comic moment in what is far more than a mere jukebox musical and it doesn’t need Mystic Meg to predict this one will run and run, probably picking up a few nice awards along the way.
If you enjoyed Jersey Boys, which depicts the career of one of America’s iconic groups, the Four Seasons, you are guaranteed to love this one (book by Joe Penhall, music, lyrics and original story by Ray Davies) every bit as much if not more, because it is much closer to home.
What made The Kinks so different was that they were a proudly London group at a time when the north of England was getting all the rock‘n’roll glory. True, the Stones were from the south, but they sang American-style stuff, while Davies’ style, far more ethnic and quirky, required more careful listening.
Who, for example, among the standing, clapping, chanting audience enthusiastically joining in the show’s rousing finale ‘Lola’ realised it was all about an innocent abroad who falls for a transvestite’s charms – “walked like a woman and talked like a man” – in a Soho bar?
It was Davies’ most daring song and, coming in 1970 six years after their first chart-topper ‘You Really Got Me’, more or less marked the end of their golden period, although they still had a few hits left in the tank and went on selling reasonably well until the 1990s.
Given they were one of Britain’s best-loved bands for so long, it’s slightly surprising they had only three number ones with ‘Tired of Waiting For You’ in 1965 and the show’s title song the following year cementing fame and a fortune which, sadly, they mostly failed to hang on to.
It was the old, old story of a naive band from humble beginnings in Muswell Hill being turned over by incompetent or unscrupulous managers and publishers, and all sides of that coin are woven into a story that is never less than an absorbing sidebar to their wonderful hits.
‘Sunny Afternoon’, in particular, is given a high-octane production number married to England’s World Cup triumph success in that summer of ’66 and it is particularly fascinating to watch the group working on the nuts and bolts of creating a hit.
Director Edward Hall nails all the humour and pathos of a piece in which the pace never slackens and the ensemble numbers, well choreographed by Adam Cooper, provide many a joyously high-kicking moment.
The cast are all fabulous with John Dagleish, better known before more as actor than singer, capturing all the wit and sadness of Ray, especially in the moving scenes with stay-at-home wife Rasa (Lillie Flynn).
George Maguire is hilariously over the top as the outrageous and violent Dave, while Dominic Tighe and Tam Williams, having the time of their lives as toffish Tory early managers of a devoutly Socialist band, are wickedly on the money.
Adam Sopp and Ned Derrington as the other weird members of the group, are terrific actors, singers and musicians as well in what is an irresistibly entertaining (if slightly overlong at almost three hours) celebration of some undoubtedly exceptional rock‘n’rollers.
Already booking to next May following its much-awaited transfer from Hampstead to the West End, this belter of a show more than merits all the sparkling reviews already showered on it.
Jeremy Chapman
www.sunnyafternoonthemusical.com
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