Fenton Gray performed his show It’s Only a Way I’ve Got at the Emporium Theatre, Brighton
Fenton Gray performed his show It’s Only a Way I’ve Got at the Emporium Theatre, Brighton.
Fenton Gray, along with guests Emma Odell and Robert Metson, takes his audience on a nostalgic journey to celebrate the two worlds of sophisticated revue and knockabout music hall, as well as paying respect to Gilbert & Sullivan and Irving Berlin. And what a marvellous journey it is.
Noel Coward’s wicked wit and wonderful wordplay is still so amusing and, amongst the more familiar pieces, the lesser-known gem “That is the End of the News” emerges. Ivor Novello proved to be no slouch when it came to comedy either, as his ‘And Her Mother Came Too’ demonstrates.
The second half, a selection of popular music hall songs in which Odell steals the show with her hammed-up version of ‘Oh! Oh! Antonio’, has Gray paying tribute to his great-grandfather, variety artist and pantomime dame Dan Crawley, with a couple of his routines.
The First World War is remembered in a selection of songs that has the audience joining in, as well as a selection from The Return of the Soldier (currently running at the Jermyn Street Theatre), a new musical composed by Charles Miller, the show’s accompanying pianist.
A master of comedy, Gray (resident director of the production of Top Hat currently touring the UK) generously allows his guests to share the spotlight, but at balance the evening is hilariously his.
Barrie Jerram
It’s Only a Way I’ve Got can also be seen at the St James Theatre, London tonight (Monday 15 September).
Readers may also be interested in:
Return of the Soldier – Jermyn Street Theatre, London – Review
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