It’s a gardener’s world for Lady Chatterley

There’s something very exciting about London having two completely new musicals premiering in the same week., writes Christopher Walker.

And with reduced Covid capacity too. Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella has been well publicised, not least by his very public spat with the Government over that particular issue.

But it was another opening this week that caught my attention – Lady Chatterley’s Lover.

The production at the Shaftesbury Theatre was put together by two of South London’s most important theatre heroes.

Sasha Regan, of Union Theatre fame who is directing, and the highly gifted Phil Willmott who seems to turn his hand to many things, including acting and directing, but this time wrote the book.

The enjoyable music is by John Robinson.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover is of immense cultural significance.

The original book by DH Lawrence was so controversial when it was written that it had to be published abroad, and would not appear in print in the UK until 1960.

The explicit sex and ubiquitous four-letter words led to an infamous obscenity trial with publishers Penguin in the dock. They won, and promptly sold three million copies.

In his poem Annus Mirabilis, Phillip Larkin quips that this is when sexual intercourse began in the UK.

The four-letter words are fortunately absent from the musical, and the sexual content is toned down as you would expect on the London stage.

On the other hand, the political element that is there in Lawrence’s book is very much dialled up.

Imagine a politicised Downton Abbey that seeks to expose the hypocrisy of the British class structure.

This could almost be entitled Lady Chatterley’s Bolshevik.

The plot concerns an aristocratic couple Sir Clifford and Lady Chatterley living an empty, isolated exitance at Wragby Hall.

The windows of the hall are sealed shut to keep out the soot from the surrounding collieries which support the couple’s wealth.

Sir Clifford is an invalid, having been injured in the Great War, and part of the dysfunctional nature of the couple’s relationship is his bullying nature and their meandering discussions about childlessness.

Inevitably Lady Chatterley seeks refuge from the smouldering gamekeeper, Mellors.

The performances by the cast in the musical version are all strong.

Georgia Lennon is a perfect Lady Chatterley, a complex character torn between the physical and the intellectual. Georgia has a strong clear voice, and is dressed by Jasmine Swann.

Likewise, Sam Kipling as Sir Clifford demonstrates the versatility of his talent.

This part is so far from his role in the Pirates of Penzance I had to pinch myself. And yet Sam is even more successful here.

The lusciously-locked Michael Pickering is very convincing as Mellors, and has quite a few demanding songs.

The audience really believes he is in love, which can be rare in musicals.

Some of the characters in Lawrence’s book are developed further.

Emma Linders is quite delightful as Mrs Bolton (Sir Clifford’s Nurse) who becomes a radical influence over him (and his mines). One of the best numbers in the show is her political credo, belted out with great gusto.

Tommy Dukes, who in the book is an ascetic Major General, is transformed here into a witty novelist by the suave Jake Halsey-Jones.

This Tommy is very much interested in sex, and becomes Lady Chatterley’s gay confidant.

Zoe Rogers plays Hilda, another politically seething maid. Andrew Exeter’s stage set drives home the political point.

The set is divided in two horizontally. Wragby Hall sits on top of the collieries, which double also as the woods where Mellors lurks seductively, and the downstairs domain of the Corbynite servants.

A very interesting piece of new work, which we are promised will return for a longer run as well as for streaming.

Main Pic: Jake Halsey-Jones and Georgia Lennon in Lady Chatterley’s Lover Picture: Mark Senior