The Time Traveler’s Wife Musical – The Apollo Theatre – Saturday 23rd December 2023

(Rated 5/5 Musical, 7/5 Book, 5/5 TV, 3/5 Film)

Audrey Niffenegger's 'The Time Traveller's Wife' is in my top 5 favourite books (alongside George Eliot’s ‘Middlemarch’, The Works of William Shakespeare, Michael Cunningham’s ‘The Hours’ and (maybe?) Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’). I so love the story I've now experienced it in 4 different media, and they are all associated with special memories. I first read the book on a weekend Mum- and Fred(dog)-sitting. Sadly, Mum was on a major low, but looking after her was always special to me. I sat on the sofa, with Fred lying across my left hip, and read to the end, never wanting it to finish Later, Mum would enjoy the same copy of the book, pictured in accompanying photos. I saw the film for my birthday in 2009 with friends. None of us were very impressed, but still a beautiful memory. I watched the TV series on my own sitting in Mum's chair, and absolutely loved it - written by genius TV scribe, Stephen Moffat and with one of my newer favourite actors, Rose Leslie, as Clare - I love her beautiful, sensitive, expressive face, and Moffat adapted it very cleverly, embracing the skill of apparently chaotically jumping around in time, yet in a very structured way, in Audrey Niffenegger’s book.

And now I've seen the stage musical and made more special memories with my sister-from-another-mister (she knows who she is 😉) .Such a fabulous day and experience. We both felt Act2 was better than Act1 – mind you that is usually the case as first acts usually suffer from having to set things up and so maybe come across as slower and less dramatic. We found Joanna Woodward as Clare initially a little too ‘shouty’, but I think in time, (pun actually unintended), forgave her and she did sing and perform very well indeed. David Hunter was a great Henry, and we especially enjoyed the dance/movement section in Act2, exhibiting his time-travel. My theatre companion really liked Tim Mahendran as Gomez, and whomever we had as Young Clare/Alba (Ava Critchell/Poppy Pawson/Lily Hanna/Holly-Jade Roberts) was adorable. The idea to create a musical of the book came from Producer Colin Ingram’s Wife 😊 (how appropriate!). The book was adapted by Lauren Gunderson, who wrote about how efficient a musical has to be, compared with an original book, which allows the development of concept, characters and their relationships to grow gradually, intricately and – in this case – so artistically creatively over time, yet with all sorts of time shifts too. The musical had to come right in there with the first song telling us the nature of the big issue in Clare & Henry’s lives together, whilst in the book, the structure and skill of the placement of their meetings at different ages and times, so providing different challenges to them both at each meeting, is part of the extraordinary genius of Audrey Niffenegger’s composition. An additional draw for me (as if it being one of my favourite stories wasn’t enough) was that the music and songs were created by Eurythmics Dave Stewart and Joss Stone. I’ve said before that I love the way a song in a musical is able to encompass the essence, story and motivation of the particular character singing it. Clearly, there are other songs, and some duets, some ensembles, which provide other aspects of the whole production. The staging was magical and, for me, the whole show moved me to tears.

So, I'm still thinking about my 'leader board, but The Book definitely top, the film definitely bottom, and, in the words of Claudia Winkleman 'everybody else in between' TheTimeTraveler’sWife – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2023

‘Constellations’ - Royal Court at the Duke of York’s Theatre - Tuesday 4th December 2012

(Rated 7/5 ) 

I had a real struggle with physics at school – if only there had been a play like Constellations to see then to help me understand quarks and strings and parallel universes and Schrodinger’s cat in a box and similar concepts. I might then have had a hope, and not assumed it had to be the opposite of what I worked out, because I found it so hard to solve and confusing, that I thought maybe the opposite was right. Ironic as maybe in another universe or along another string (hm yes I still don’t fully understand strings (!)) the opposite maybe/is, right! Unfortunately in this one it wasn’t and I had to re-take my exam! But all that is in the past and with an idea like Constellations that past could be subtly or completely different depending on how I play it. In this case, in the story of physicist Marianne (Sally Hawkins) and bee-keeper Roland (Rafe Spall), the subtleties of possible play-outs of the relationship between them, the ways they play it/ act it are beyond phenomenal – out of this universe! I was in a funny mood when I went into this one – having a kind of lapse in passion for performance somehow – oh goodness did these two cure me of that… and then some! Two masters showing us the best of a masterclass in acting – how to express a full range of emotions combined with possible relationship dynamics and switch them at the clang/chink/fizzle of lights going off and on in split seconds – and keep it all fully believable throughout. Empathy hit the moment they both started. And they kept this up for a full seventy minutes. For a performance by actors to be that good though, they can’t do it alone. Yes, this really was two actors, both of whom I love – she especially for Happy-Go-Lucky, and he as the hilarious psychopath from The Shadow Line, and almost equally amusing and very Rafe Spall-ish interpretation of William Shakespeare in Anonymous – at their sensational best and the genius who enabled that is writer Nick Payne. I can honestly say I have never been so blown away by the intricacies and cleverly structured flow of a piece of writing since Audrey Niffeneger’s The Time Traveller’s Wife. I adored that book so much it found its way into my top five all-time favourite novels immediately and I felt so sad when I’d finished it! Constellations also harks back to Ground-Hog Day in terms of repeats of the same situation, ways of dealing with it and possible outcomes, though in my opinion Constellations is far superior and more intelligently done. The actors were also supported by superb direction by Michael Longhurst.  

This is the best thing since – whatever the last best thing was for me – and gets my fullest mark accordingly J

Constellations  – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2012

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