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Jarrett and Raja
The Hilton Hotel,
Blackpool
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays
Ends Saturday 3rd September 2005
Reviewed by
Quentin Reynolds
The
Jarrett and Raja Show at The Hilton Hotel, Blackpool brings forth mixed
emotions. There is a lot of this show that I like – a lot, but there’s just as
much that irritates the hell out of me. And the funny thing is, the irritating
parts could be easily remedied, improving the show exponentially.
Let’s start at the beginning. The show opens with the six dancers The Pussy Kat
Girls, who during the evening worked very hard in both halves. They shared the
first half with exuberant and vivacious singer Jodie Moore. Each time any of
them stepped on stage they had a new and different outfit. Jodie especially
looked like she would fit in any Vegas show.
The second half opens with two separate doors in frames on the stage. The Pussy
Kat Girls perform a dance routine going in and out through the doors, so they
are obviously concealing nothing. Our two heroes, Jarrett and Raja (Jarrett
Parker and Raja Rahman), appear through the doors. Raja, a classical pianist
goes to the piano and Jarrett goes into a pretty average sub trunk presentation
with his girl assistant (I believe Nancy Troia).
With Raja on the piano we are then taken on a fun Cowboy sequence with Jarrett
as the cowboy. The piano stool is taken upstage left, Raja sits on it, gets
covered with a cloth and vanishes a la DaKolta Vanishing Lady. This is the first
time I’ve seen this vanish from a stool, rather than the usual chair. Raja
appears in the audience. This sequence went down well.
Back on stage there’s a large painting on an easel. Whistler’s Mother on the
beach. The painting is covered and like the Bathing Beauty effect, items of
clothing are removed ‘from the painting’. Each time the painting is shown and we
see Whistler’s Mother minus the removed clothing. Eventually her underwear is
removed and when we see the painting, the tide has come in, revealing Mother up
to her neck in water. As a finish a beautiful girl emerges from the painting
which is now minus Mother.
Before the show members of the audience are invited to fill in slips of paper
with the name of their favourite piece of music and its composer. These are
placed in a bowl at the front of the stage. With Raja’s skill at the piano I
expected this would be an exciting set and an opportunity for him to showcase
his talents. Alas, it was a rather drawn out attempt at comedy with Raja
eventually playing a few bars from Beethoven’s Fur Elise, the ‘chosen’ piece.
What followed was perhaps the worst version of the Razor Blades I’ve seen. The
method was blatantly obvious to the laymen at our table and the presentation was
like watching paint dry. This could have been such a fun and yet dramatic
presentation. Consider this: As Jarrett displays each blade Raja plays a tune of
different tempo, speeding up or slowing down as Jarrett tries to keep pace. Then
Raja gets up from the piano to see how Jarrett’s doing. He gives him a playful
slap on the back, which apparently causes him top swallow the blades. Then a
dramatic build up to the production of the strung blades.
Out comes a long surgical table. Raja climbs up and lies on it face up. Without
any additional cover, Jarrett takes a chainsaw and cuts through Raja’s middle.
His upper torso is slid up towards the top half of the table. The table is split
in two and the two sections move around. The legs are moving, as is Raja’s upper
half. The sections are re-assembled, Raja’s torso pushed back to his legs and
after a few moments he gets up, none the worse for his experience. This was a
stunner and very well done.
To get his revenge on Jarrett, Raja has him tied up in a straitjacket and he
must escape before Raja finishes playing Chopin’s Minute Waltz. Otherwise a slab
of sharp knives and blades will come crashing down on the cardboard box where
Elvis, Jarrett’s pet rabbit resides. They weren’t sure whether this was being
played seriously or for comedy which took away from the dramatic effect. Also if
you’re going to get tied up in a straitjacket, it should look like you’ll have
great difficulty in getting out.
As it happens, the blades fall and the box is shredded. Poor Elvis! As
punishment Raja gets placed in a Perspex box through which many swords are
placed making sure he is pinned in place and can’t move. With an Assistant’s
Revenge plot, a curtain is placed around the box and before we know it, Raja is
out and Jarrett is in the box with all the blades still in place. From a top
hat, Elvis reappears, so all is well.
For an Encore a Perspex box is wheeled on stage. Eighteen inches off the ground
it’s about seven foot tall and three foot square. Jarrett (tastefully) strips
naked and gets in the box to have a shower. To preserve his modesty he then dons
a dressing gown. Picking up a large towel, a shape appears and under cover of
the towel moves downstage. This is repeated twice more before the curtain on the
shower front is drawn. The three shapes turn out to be two girls and Jarrett. So
who’s in the cabinet? It turns out to be Raja!
Overall this is a good show. It wouldn’t take much to make it sensational. All
the elements are there. Personality, talent and good magic. The problem is it
doesn’t know why it’s there. The theatrical subtext is confusing and the
characters aren’t properly developed.
Jarrett is a Puckish type of character who should be much more mischievous. Raja
on the other hand is the quiet, serious thinker. But neither character is
properly developed. There are attempts at conflict between the two personalities
but they don’t ring true. Jarrett is performing the magic but he’s not selling
it. For example when he goes into the sawing illusion, he dons a surgeon’s gown
and for a short while starts to become a ‘mad scientist’. But he doesn’t
continue and you aren’t sure whether it’s being played serious or for comedy.
Thus the illusion which is brilliant loses impact.
Another question on the audience’s mind. What is a magician doing with a concert
pianist? There is no attempt at explaining how this came about. Is it a magic
show or a concert? A line from Jarrett like, “On the beach I found a bottle.
Uncorking it a genii popped out and granted me one wish. He must have misheard
me because I ended up with a large pianist,” would help. If both appeared early
in the first half, it would help set the tone for what was to come later.
The printed publicity for the show, posters and tickets, do not, at first
glance, convey there is magic in this show. In fact they’re the dullest posters
I’ve seen. One, outside the showroom has the subtitle ‘HOUDINI MEETS HOROWITZ’.
Now who in Blackpool is going to assume that the Horowitz refers to Vladimir
Horowitz, the famous pianist? And if they did would it make them want to see the
show?
Living in Las Vegas I suggest Jarrett and Raja invest in the services of a good
show director who will, probably in less than a week, resolve all the points
I’ve mentioned. They’re 90% there and with the help of the director, the show
would be completely transformed into the world class show it’s crying out to be.
© Quentin Reynolds, August 2005