Sunny Afternoon at the Harold Pinter Theatre

Sunny Afternoon
Harold Pinter Theatre, 6 November 2014

I don't usually write about the few West End shows I go to but since this one is rock-related - written by Ray Davies and all about the early days of The Kinks - I think it fits in here.

Going to see a musical called Sunny Afternoon on a dark, wet and cold winter evening seems funny in itself but strangely enough it did brighten my day and without a doubt is a sunny, warm feeling show. It's also far cooler than your run-of-the-mill musical. Ray Davies wrote the story (based on his own life of course) and I believe had a hand in the production - he certainly produced the cast album anyway - which may account for the music still being as raw and rocking as the original singles. There's a great scene where Dave Davies creates the riff for You Really Got Me by ripping up his amp and then clanging on his guitar producing an ear-splitting feedback that reaches the rafters. That obviously made it way more fun for me as so many of these jukebox musicals with rock music at their core are so tamed down and made boringly palatable for the usual theatre crowd. This one seems tailor-made for fans of the band rather than catering to a more general audience and I'm sure that's what makes it a bit more special.

Of course it helps that all the cast members actually play their own instruments and even are at the back of the stage playing during scenes they aren’t involved in. It gives that rare feeling in a musical that you’re actually seeing a live band and at times feels more like a theatrical rock concert than a cutesy musical (although, naturally, there is a little of that as well).

The show follows The Kinks from their days as humble working class lads in Muswell Hill in London to how they got signed and then their first American tour which, after fights with the unions there and all the fees they had to pay to play, led to them being banned from the US for three years. It also deals a little with Ray Davies' depression and also their realisation they were being ripped off by their posh management (the song The Moneygoround is used brilliantly here). But mainly it focuses on the relationship between fighting brothers Ray and Dave. It's not as tumultuous as it obviously was in real life but we do see the contrast between hard-working family man Ray and hard-partying, precocious Dave and the stress it puts on the band. Because it's a musical though everything is solved with a soul-baring song and brotherly love wins the day.

The songs are beautifully used and fit right in, because, as they say in the show, they tell the story of their life and struggles anyway. One of the best scenes is near the beginning revolving around the huge Davies family (there were eight children in all) with the parents deciding whether to sign a contract for the then 16-year-old Dave. Using the band's 1966 hit Dead End Street, they tell the story of how hard it is to be working class in the 1960s, with the family marching around the stage singing as if it was a rallying cry. Obviously the working class and socialist themes also hugely appealed to me and it seemed quite ironic, looking around me, that there were so many upper middle class people, talking in posh voices, on their usual jaunt to the theatre in attendance. Seeing how the other half used to live no doubt. I wonder how many agreed with the politics of it all or thought it all cutesy and twee.

Another key scene uses England's World Cup victory in 1966 to showcase the show's title song and the band's triumph over all the turmoil and there's a nice fashion scene, involving Dave dressing up, played to Dedicated Follower Of Fashion. It all ends with them finally returning to America to play Madison Square Gardens to sing a medley of songs including the singalong, Lola, which had everyone on their feet. 

The star of it all John Dagleish (who I instantly recognised from the charming BBC period drama Lark Rise To Candleford) doesn’t resemble Ray much but he certainly captures his determination and his brooding charisma. But for me it was really George Maguire, who actually did look quite a bit like the young Dave, who frequently stole the show, proving hugely entertaining as he swung on a chandelier in a pink nightgown or was making plenty of funny quips or even enthusiastically dancing around the stage with his guitar.
Original bassist Pete Quaife (Ned Derrington) and drummer Mick Avory (Adam Sopp) also get a fair amount of attention although it’s mostly in connection with their relationships with the Davies brothers, with Mick and Dave’s constant bickering proving particularly amusing (there's even a bloody on-stage fight at one point). Of course the show lives in the magical land where Quaife only threatened to leave and never did, rather than the reality that he left in 1969 before some of the hits they sing were even written. There's also a little sub-plot about the romance and struggles between Ray and his first wife Rasa, who apparently sung backing vocals for the group's early albums, although that could be fantasyland too as I can't recall any female vocals on early Kinks songs.But whether it's true or not hardly matters because it's all such fun.

Not surprisingly I loved it all. When I saw Ray Davies live a few years back I did think his songs often had a music hall feel, perfect for singalongs, so it's no surprise really that they make perfect fodder for a musical. I'll never get to see The Kinks so this gave a lovely flavour of how it would have been and it was great fun throughout. The Harold Pinter Theatre is a funny little place though, close to Piccadilly Circus, it's quite small but with three balconies and poles obscuring the view all over the place. It's worth checking to see exactly where you are sitting if you do go because this is such a colourful, visually entertaining show (it even has a walkway out into the audience like some rock arena shows)  it would be sad to miss those parts of it.