'Play On!' review — this all-swinging, all-dancing musical take on Shakespeare's comedy is a jazz-hot joy

Read our review of Play On!, which pairs Twelfth Night with Duke Ellington songs, now in performances at Lyric Hammersmith to 22 February.

“If music be the food of love, play on”: so the Duke Orsino advises us at the start of Twelfth Night, and what better cue could there be for a stage musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s comedy that both swings – and sings.

Sheldon Epps’ take on this immortal text had a 61-performance Broadway run in 1997 that shone a spotlight on such burgeoning young talents at the time as André De Shields and Tonya Pinkins. But one can imagine a longer life for the director Michael Buffong’s richly enjoyable current iteration which arrives as a collaborative venture with numerous producing entities, the Black British Talawa Theatre Company chief amongst them.

It makes sense, too, to elide Shakespeare’s Duke with Duke Ellington, whose songbook provides the musical throughline to the show, arriving 15 years or so after a previous Ellington-driven musical, Sophisticated Ladies, transferred much the same endlessly rich repertoire to the theatrical arena and stormed Broadway with brio.

And so we have, just for starters, “I Let A Song Go Out of My Heart”, “It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)”, and “Take the A Train” as the backdrop to an Americanised take on the source. Shakespeare’s lovesick Duke is here the smooth-talking (and velvet-voiced) nightclub impresario played by Earl Gregory, who is handed the “Some are born great” speech that appears in a different context in the play.

Cheryl L West’s book dispenses with Illyria and mistaken identities to tell of a songwriting wannabe from Mississippi, Viola (played at the matinee attended by a hugely capable understudy, Jarnéia Richard-Noel), who must disguise herself as the newly named Vyman in order to further her career at the Cotton Club in Harlem – a place, we’re told, where “big dreams can come true”. (Her gender makeover happens to the jazzy counterpoint of “I’ve Got To Be A Rug Cutter”.)

As with the Bard, people fall in love when they least expect it, often with objects of their affection who aren’t at all what they seem. Malvolio’s famous rictus of a smile remains – the character, here renamed Rev, is played by the irrepressible Cameron Bernard Jones – but is rather more generously conceived than he is by Shakespeare: gone is his humiliation, replaced instead by a dazzling appearance in tip-to-toe yellow (the character’s signature colour) that lends an iridescence to the design.

Those unfamiliar with the Bard will be at no disadvantage. KoKo Alexandra’s diva-ish singer, Lady Liv (aka Olivia), gives off the high-strutting sheen of Jennifer Hudson (whom the performer somewhat resembles), as her black-sequinned figure succumbs to the charms of the cross-dressing Vyman. The two ladies are musically conjoined by “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” – the song title cheerfully negated by the demands of the plot. Vyman later plumbs the pain that comes from being “(In My) Solitude” – the relevant song of that moment – as the tonal shifts carry through to an exultant ending.

Llewellyn Jamal’s leggy, lithe Jester provides buoyant comic relief, voicing early on the very words, “What You Will”, that complete the full title of Twelfth Night. And he finds a revelatory duet partner in Lifford Shillingford’s Sweets, who rocks out to, yes, “Rocks In My Bed”, the highlight (for me anyway) of the given catalogue.

At times the band threatens to overpower the singers, and the set design from ULTZ feels a tad functional, as if built to be easily portable on tour. But Kenrick 'H20' Sandy’s choreography provides an infectious lift throughout to a show tailor-made for the SAD days of winter to point the spirits forward in every way to spring.

Play On! is at Lyric Hammersmith to 22 February. Book Play On! tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: Play On! (Photos by Ciara Hillyer)