Review: The World Goes Round, Pheasantry

“What dancing in the park? What laughter in the dark?”

I always find it hard to write much about cabarets that doesn’t just end up as a list of the songs sung, so I’m keeping it short for this one. With the extensive tour of Anything Goes shortened by economic necessity, opportunities to see its leading lady Debbie Kurup again have become available sooner rather than later which has proven something of a bonus. She’ll be in Rhythm of Life, a Cy Coleman celebration later this week but right now she is delving into the work of John Kander and Fred Ebb in The World Goes Round, a cabaret first put together in 1991.

It cherry-picks from a wide range of Kander and Ebb’s collaborations, for film and TV as well as stage, and digs deep into the catalogue to feature lesser known shows like The Happy Time and The Act as well as the marquee numbers like Cabaret and Chicago. And as such it makes for an interesting journey through some brilliant songwriting and in the intimate surroundings of The Pheasantry in this Speckulation Entertainments prodiction, some excellent musicianship from the band of three led by Kris Rawlinson.

Kurup was a predictably fantastic presence, such charisma oozing from every note of ‘All That Jazz’ and a raw hunger underscoring a scintillating ‘Maybe This Time’ and Oliver Tompsett, too rare a presence on stages in front of me for my liking, was also spine-tinglingly good with ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman’. The lesser known but no less talented Steffan Lloyd-Evans, Sally Samad, and Alexandra Da Silva fleshed out the rest of the bill and I’d recommend you go along but it’s only on until Wednesday. 

Running time: 2 hours
Booking until 8th July

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