A few interesting YouTube videos about the play:

[www.youtube.com]

[www.youtube.com]

I’m going next week - interested to hear what others think .

[www.thesun.co.uk]

"And I know Keith is coming to see the play.”

Maybe a marketing ploy, but I live in hope...

I don't know about Keith but I did see Nigel Havers looking happy during the interval last night, which was press night and a full house, It would be interesting to learn what his take on the play was.

Initially, I thought that we might be in for a long night but the play soon morphed for me into a good piece of entertainment as the characters and story evolved. It was quite cleverly done with the main focus on the Havers family and some of it was very comedic. The two playing Mick and Keith may deliberately have avoided trying to ape them to a tee, which worked for me. Nor were the songs too exact, which was also good. It would be great if it did eventually make it to the West End.

Redlands review – Rolling Stones play second fiddle in 60s culture wars clash



Chichester Festival theatre

This drama about Mick Jagger and Keith Jones’s 1967 drugs bust curiously foregrounds their lawyer’s family issues


Ikin Yum

The public outcry that followed the prison sentences of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in 1967 after a drugs raid on the latter’s country pile is proof that the culture wars are not this era’s invention. The cause célèbre campaign and subsequent overturning of their convictions marked a clash between establishment values, tabloid-engineered moral panic and the rising rock’n’roll generation.

Justin Audibert’s production of Charlotte Jones’s play foregrounds the band’s story with a fictionalised father-son clash involving the barrister who fought their case. Michael Havers QC (Anthony Calf) is from an illustrious family of lawyers who expects his son to follow suit. But Nigel Havers (Louis Landau) – then a schoolboy, now a veteran performer of screen and stage – has designs on tearing away from tradition to become an actor.

It is an original take with a strong local angle – the case took place at Chichester Crown Court and Richards still owns Redlands, the Sussex home that was raided. But it makes for a peculiar melange, stranger for pushing Jagger (Jasper Talbot) and Richards (Brenock O’Connor) into the backdrop in favour of the family story, although Jagger’s then-girlfriend and singer, Marianne Faithfull (Emer McDaid), gets more of a look-in.

Havers Jr narrates his story, which includes a friendship forged with Faithfull, and the Havers family occasionally – unnecessarily – bursts the fourth wall to no particular end other than making good use of the auditorium.

It is rock history uneasily spliced with a coming-of-age story, sweet in its teen spirit and energetic in its rock covers – from (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction to Faithfull’s This Little Bird – but the Rolling Stones story, so fascinating in itself, feels eclipsed.

Jones’s script is at its strongest when it brings the court case alive in cross-examinations and star testimonies, but these are brief glimpses that touch on tabloid chicanery, class clashes and misogyny surrounding Faithfull in her representations in court (in absentia, because she was not called to testify) and in the press.

The Havers’ family drama is endearing but Jones’s characters are picaresque. Havers Sr is a lovable stuffed shirt, his wife tenderly portrayed by Olivia Poulet and Landau is charming in his wide-eyed worship of Faithfull. McDaid in turn gives a strong performance of a woman both scapegoated and sidelined, and she has a wonderful voice, too.

t is never easy to breathe life into celebrities as thoroughly known as Jagger and Richards; here they are not given the space or depth to be anything other than broad brush types. But both actors carry a likeness at least, especially Talbot in Jagger’s hip-wiggling foot stomps when he sings.

Joanna Scotcher’s set design captures the moment, and the era, with its ruched red curtains and light bulbs. Ryan Dawson Laight’s flower-power trousers and flamboyant neck-ties are delightful, even if they verge on Austin Powers’ exaggeration.

It revs into fullness as the family story becomes emotional but leaves the fascinating social and music history around the Redlands episode squeezed and ultimately it seems oddly twee for a play about rock’n’roll rebellion.

- At Chichester Festival theatre, until 18 October

[www.theguardian.com]

Go Keith Jones go!

But thanks for sharing the review!

- Doxa



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2024-10-03 20:44 by Doxa.

So I saw this on Saturday night and have to say I was very impressed. As already noted, the play isn't really about the bust but uses it as a device to focus on generational change (more through the Havers' domestic issues than coverage/debate about the Stones), but there is obviously a lot of Stones content in it. The portrayals of Mick and Keith weren't intended to be lookalike/soundalikes, but I thought the actor playing Mick had a decent grasp of Jagger's character. The actor playing Keith less so, he was more just a generic lout (though to be fair, Keith's public persona wasn't really developed by 1967). I would have liked him to play/mime guitar more like Keith c1967 - being an unconvincing guitar player was the biggest bugbear for me, though I suspect most people wouldn't notice/care.

The star of the show for me though, was the actress playing Marrianne, who I thought was excellent. The other major theme of the play was how Marrianne was effectively on trial but unable to speak for herself. I've read that Marrianne feels very resentful about the Redlands bust/trial - that Mick and Keith came out with their reputations enhanced but hers was smeared forever - and I think this was a really strong part of the show.

As someone who hates jukebox musicals, I actually thought the music was very well done too. Some smaller parts were mimed, but there was a band for the major numbers (the other three very much not lookalikes - the bass player looked like Don Was). In the first half of the show, it was all Stones covers (eg You Can Make It If You Try), to the point where I wondered if ABKCO had priced them out of singing originals. But there were a few MJ/KR compositions in the second half, and it all ended with a rendition of JJF, which I thought made sense as it is really the song that brings them out of this troubled period.

I have a few minor quibbles (I didn't think the characterisation of Allen Klein was right) but, overall, thought it was very well done and extremely enjoyable.

syrel

It was a great evening: very entertaining. The focus on the Havers family highlighted the wider society changes at the time. The Stones content and music was very good... except that the (generally) good backing band played a chorus of JJF very differently (like different chords) than I have ever heard. Why?

Does Keith still own Redlands?

Quote
Shott
Does Keith still own Redlands?

He does, yes. He spends some time there, most summers.