Love Goddess is (another) biopic musical about Rita Hayworth – AKA Margarita Carmen Cansino – the dazzling yet ultimately tragic 1940s American dancer and actress.
Directed by Steve North and performing in the theatre-in-the-round Cockpit Theatre, the musical begins with a young Hayworth (Imogen Kingsley-Smith) performing with her father. She has an undeniable talent and charm, and everyone speculates she will one day be hugely famous. Thus, she is married off to a middle-aged man, beginning the rocky path to fame.
Almog Pail as Rita Hayworth was, at times, very strong, having the suave Hayworth possessed, making it easy to accept her as the star. Unfortunately, she fluctuated in her acting and bizarrely seemed to switch accents throughout the show. Portraying such an iconic and at times overwhelmed woman is no easy feat, especially when you try to capture almost her entire life in a span of two hours. By the end of the show, Pail left something to be desired, and not just with her acting, as she also wrote the show. The script was at best cheesy and at worst confusing. Pail often spoke directly to Kingsley-Smith as the younger Hayworth (or an unspecified other character/the audience?) the most common line being the cliche, “Remember what you love.” I felt like the script was trying too hard to be profound, sadly resulting in doing a disservice to the titular actress.
With only the four remaining actors playing multiple roles, (Pail only played Hayworth) it is way too far a reach to bring in as many secondary characters as they did. This was not helped by the fact none of the people from Hayworth’s life that they featured were likable; I could not connect with one character. Sometimes I didn’t even know who was being played, as it wasn’t clear and the actors seldom changed costumes.
A few biopics of women I have seen (e.g. Tina and The Cher Show) form the plot around their husbands or love interests, which I find problematic. Love Goddess is no different. Though there’s something to be noted for Hayworth’s rejection of her husbands, there is a song where she pretends to shoot them one by one, ending with her slowly turning in a circle, pointing the gun at the audience. I was very uncomfortable and wondered at the reasoning behind that decision.
The most outstanding aspect of the show, and the reason for its third star, is Kinglsey-Smith’s dancing. She is fluid, graceful, and performed a spectacular tap number. (I’m a sucker for a tap dance break.) She is obviously an extremely talented dancer, and it is a delight having her showcase Hayworth’s dancing.
All in all, I was disappointed in what looked like a promising musical paying homage to Hayworth. Though there’s obvious effort and passion put into this show, it needs to be developed a bit more to reach its full potential.
{🎟 AD – PR invite – Tickets were gifted in exchange for an honest review}
2 Star Review 3 Star Review 4 Star Review 5 Star Review 2022 2023 Adaptation Almeida Cabaret Camden Fringe Cast Announcement Christmas Comedy Dance Drag Edinburgh Fringe Edinburgh Fringe Interviews Fringe Immersive Interviews Jukebox Musical LGBTQIA+ Lyric Hammersmith Manchester Musical New Musical News New Wimbledon Theatre North West Off West End Park Theatre Play Review Revival Richmond Theatre Round Up Royal Court Theatre Shakespeare Show Announcement Show Recommendations Soho Theatre Southwark Playhouse Touring Production VAULT Festival West End
- A PISSEDMAS CAROL – REVIEW – LEICESTER SQUARE
The infamous Sh!t Faced Showtime are back in London with a festive edition, they have taken Dickens’ classic and put a drunken spin on it. The formula is the same as other iterations of the Shi!t Faced shows, one member of the cast has been boozing, and this time it is John Milton who plays Scrooge. Before the show, half a bottle of Jim Beam, some wine, and beer have been consumed in the previous 4 hours. The rest of the cast, try to keep the show on track, also aided by James Murfitt as the compere, Charles Dickens. The … More A PISSEDMAS CAROL – REVIEW – LEICESTER SQUARE - A CHRISTMAS CAROL – REVIEW – ALEXANDRA PALACE
Spine-tingling yet heart-warming, Mark Gatiss’s retelling of A Christmas Carol truly encapsulates the haunting atmosphere of a Victorian ghost story, balanced out with enough humour so as to capture the festive season. Led by Keith Allen as Scrooge, with Peter Forbes as Marley, this show is perfect for Christmas viewing. The set design by Paul Wills is instantly captivating, containing stacks of metal cabinets towering over the theatre, moveable by the cast to allow space for other central props like doors, beds and tables. In addition to this, the puppetry design by Matthew Forbes is incredibly clever, adding creepy elements to the show such … More A CHRISTMAS CAROL – REVIEW – ALEXANDRA PALACE - A WOMAN WALKS INTO A BANK – REVIEW – THEATRE503
The title of this winner of Theatre 503’s 2023 International Playwriting Award by Roxy Cook may seem like the set-up to a joke, but the narrative that unspools is instead an affectionate, gently barbed and at base quite sobering portrait of three ordinary souls (and one restless feline) adrift in modern Moscow. There is much affable, satirical back-and-forth commentary on the accepted myths & stereotypes of the Russian spirit & soul. Beset by the indignities of age, opportunism, graft, fatigue, the characters orbit one another, doomed to play out their roles in an unjust, predatory and saturnine universe. The play opens … More A WOMAN WALKS INTO A BANK – REVIEW – THEATRE503 - PETER PAN GOES WRONG – REVIEW – LYRIC THEATRE
Peter Pan Goes Wrong first premiered in London at the Pleasance Theatre in 2013, and earlier this year the show made its Broadway debut. Now the production is back in the West End for the Christmas season. Following on from The Play That Goes Wrong, in this production, J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan is staged by the fictitious Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society and goes awry, disastrously so. The meta-comedy is filled with slapstick comedy, sometimes the humour may be predictable and silly, but it’s universally funny throughout – there is something for everyone here, and the laughs come thick and fast … More PETER PAN GOES WRONG – REVIEW – LYRIC THEATRE - GHOST STORIES BY CANDLELIGHT – REVIEW – SAM WANAMAKER PLAYHOUSE
Drawing heavily from the classic canon of the British supernatural, HighTide’s trio of contemporary Gothic narratives uses traditional storytelling formats to address contemporary themes. Directed by Elayce Ismail, reverent musical interludes accompany tales of apparitions and nighttime conjurings that speak of women from the East of England. Unfortunately, the effect is less chilling and more lightweight, with conventional structures, predictable plot twists and an over-reliance on external forces to drive narrative shoring up some of the less relatable aspects of the genre. Nicola Werenowska’s The Beach House, perhaps the cleanest of the three tales, tells of a mother and daughter’s … More GHOST STORIES BY CANDLELIGHT – REVIEW – SAM WANAMAKER PLAYHOUSE