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As part of my London Theatre module, I needed to see a show at the National Theatre in the Southbank and since I had just seen the amazing Hadley Fraser in Coriolanus I decided to see his girlfriend, Rosalie Craig, in The Light Princess. Scoring a £12 Travelex ticket for today’s matinee, I was in for a royal treat.
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| View from my seat in the Circle Slips (SR6) |
Rosalie Craig (whose previous credits include Finding Neverland and Aspects of Love) was well-deserving of her London Evening Standard Theatre award for Best Musical Performance (2013). She is on the stage 95% of the time and is constantly giving 200% of herself in her performance with fabulous vocals and an adorable performance giving cause for the audience to invest in her character’s happiness and sorrow.
Unfortunately this show is shuttering on 2 February so you only have a handful of dates available to still see the show. Hopefully there are plans to take The Light Princess to the States. I have seen enough Broadway shows to know when something is magical and worthy of a hearty recommendation and this show deserves five stars for its visual design alone.
True… there are some problems with the musical score by Tori Amos which is a shame considering her obvious talent as a songwriter but the problem is that there are just not enough memorable numbers. Two standouts (Althea and Better Than Good) are thankfully recorded [and now the entire cast recording is available on Amazon].
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| Amy Booth-Steel, Rosalie Craig. © Brinkhoff/Mögenburg |
Thankfully the show’s visual mastery and talented cast more than makes up for the show’s few short comings. Rae Smith‘s design is perfectly whimsical as only a fairy tale should be. Matthew Robin‘s animations made me immediately think of a Disney cartoon and helped transport me into the proper mindset. And Paul Rubin‘s aerial effects were extraordinary — there are no words to describe how wonderfully the acrobats (Owain Gwynn, Tommy Luther, Emma Norin and Nuno Silva) and Mr. Rubin’s aerial effects and of course Rosalie Craig’s performance (willingly to put her life in their hands) took my breath away with its creativity, originality and genius ability to give true meaning to the show’s title character – The Light Princess.
Do you have a spare evening or afternoon this week? And you’re in London? Do yourself a huge favour and go see The Light Princess. You will not regret it. George MacDonald’s fairy tale truly comes to life in this magical production. It’ll be a shame when it closes. I only wish I had known about this show much sooner.
