Tuesday 10 May 2016

"Breakfast At Tiffany's" by Truman Capote
Nottingham Theatre Royal.

Back in 1961 when the film was made starring Audrey Hepburn as Holiday (Holly) Golightly, I imagine it would have caused quite a stir because of Holly's many male friends who pop round at any time of the day or night, well you get the gist of what I mean.

Originally the character was described as a naive and eccentric cafe society girl, Holly is far from naive, eccentric maybe but definitely a society girl who has a love of male company.

The original film was initially received very positively and the song from the film, "Moon River" won two Academy Awards for the Best Original Song and Best Original Score.

At most this is a very nice way to spend a couple of hours in a theatre. The story is of course about Holly's latest journey from her last husband, "Doc"; her running away to find her next conquest, which she finds several of and ends up flying off to marry Jose in Brazil. Along the way she makes a good friend in the upstairs tenant, a writer, who she names Fred, after her brother. In the film the tenant is called Paul.

There's more controversy with Paul/Fred as there are hints at his sexual preferences, or is it just for money?

There are certain similarities with Holly and Sally Bowles in "Cabaret", and as "Breakfast At Tiffany's" came first, it makes you wonder if Holly was an influence.

Holy is played by ex "Inbetweener" Carly, aka Emily Atack, and surprisingly, this role is her debut stage role. Loved the attitude from Emily as Holly. i think naive is not a word I would use to describe Holly because Emily plays the role as a very self assured and strong young woman. There's no doubt that Emily can sing, after all her parents are Keith Atack, who was one quarter of 70's boy band Child, and recently left The Illegal Eagles, and her mum is singer/impressionist and TV presenter Kate Robbins.You can see where Emily gets her gorgeous looks and vocal talents from.

Fred is played by ex "Downton Abbey" actor Matt Barber. Matt also acts as narrator and carries the pace of the show. A very energetic performance and there's not many times when he is actually standing still.

You may also recognise Joe, the barman, who is played by Victor McGuire from "Trollied" and, if you're as old as me, can remember him playing Jack in the brilliant comedy "Bread" and Ron in "Goodnight Sweetheart".

A very talented bunch of ensemble actors fleshed out the story.This also included Bob The Cat, who is a veteran of TV and film roles and even has it's own twitter site! And yes, it is a cat!

As you can imagine the make up, and costumes are amazing, although the iconic image of Audrey Hepburn's Holly isn't in this production with Holly keeping her blond locks.

The sets were really impressive, as was the lighting and a crisp clear sound, and an equally impressive array of props, but would Holly have drunk out of plastic wine glasses?

Directed by Nikolai Foster, who is a very well known name in the world of theatre, he upheld the classy feel of the film and kept it nice and pacy.

The play is a wee bit dated but it is what it is, a couple of hours of escapism entertainment with some wonderful stylish retro clothing on show. This is no reflection on the cast though because they made this play the enjoyable event it is.

"Breakfast At Tiffany's" is on at the Nottingham Theatre Royal until Saturday 14 May 2016.

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