Theatre Review | Promises, Promises at Southwark Playhouse
By Darren Mew
Set in early-60s New York Promises, Promises is the story of a junior exec named Chuck Baxter who, desperate for a promotion, lets the married higher-ups use his apartment for clandestine liaisons and a waitress named Fran Kubelik who lets herself be used by just such a cad. But to berate this revival of the show (which is based on the 1960 film The Apartment starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley Maclaine and premiered on Broadway in 1968), as some reviewers have done, for its sexual politics is as redundant as objecting to the 1860S/Deep South-set Gone With The Wind because of its depiction of race relations.
With music and lyrics by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and a script by master of the caustic one-liner Neil Simon, the musical is a time capsule of a less enlightened time and yes, it has its flaws. At three hours including an interval it’s waaaaaay too long and I’ll Never Fall In Love Again is the only great song in it, but under Bronagh Lagan’s direction this revival breezes past the cracks.
You couldn’t hope for better leads. Gabriel Vick is an adorably square Chuck and, explaining his fantasies about Fran to the audience, he’s so likeable you pray for him to get the girl – even if it takes said girl, who’s having an affair with his boss, a while to warm to his charms. And, beyond her gamine haircut, Daisy Maywood puts all thoughts of Maclaine out of your mind as she gives a tougher take on Fran and delivers A House Is Not A Home with such passion it doesn’t matter that the inclusion of the song (added for the 2010 Broadway revival to give Kristen Chenoweth something to belt) doesn’t make much lyrical sense.
Then there’s Alex Young as Marge, one of the greatest musical-comedy supporting characters – a bar-hopping broad Baxter drunkenly encounters on New Year’s Eve who announces that the fur coat she’s wearing is actually made from owl. Young steals her big scene with fantastic comic timing and her Marge is a feminist of sorts, owning her sexuality and leading the charge for a sexual revolution that’s just around the corner. She’s a superb redress to those critics whingeing about the male-female imbalance of power.
Rating: 4/5
Promises, Promises is at Southwark Playhouse until February 18th. For more information and tickets visit southwarkplayhouse.co.uk
Words – Simon Button