He brought the law... Here Comes J Edgar, Kings Head Theatre

Bryan Batt sells it! All photos © Mark Douet

Make no mistake, this was a West End quality performance that oozed exemplary class from start to finish and from design and direction to song and to dance. Here Comes J Edgar is a history lesson of a different kind and one that is as much about feelings as fact. I’ve no idea whether the long-time Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations lived a secret gay life* or occasionally dressed as a woman but I’m pretty sure he was in denial about something and that he was undoubtedly corrupted in his heart and working practice.

This is a cry from the heart for all of those who have seen their country mismanaged by self-righteous bullies chasing down the different, the “unconstitutional”, and all manner of subversive perverts. I saw a celebration of the poet and activist Allen Ginsberg at the Queen Elizabeth Hall a few days ago and from Howl to Here Comes J Edgar is not too much of a stretch. Ginsberg satirised his country’s brutality and was pursued by Hoover and many others. Sticks and stone J Edgar… but the great poet would have laughed his ass off watching this demolition of the evil succubus that sat atop the monolith of law and order for almost half a century – 1924-1972 – dying whilst still in post. 

Laughter and song are the best revenge, not to mention dance and comedy. I’m pretty sure that the declaration signed just over 250 years ago was founded on fun as much as freedom. 

This is a very much a play for today, yet it’s taken along time to be staged originating on US radio in the early 1990s with Kelsey Grammer, John Goodman and Christopher Guest. It perhaps says a lot that here we are in the United Kingdom and Islington for its World Premiere on stage – a musical about the inherent corruption of US law-enforcement in the Greenwich Village of London, nothing should be less expected. The special relationship between political comedy culture is as strong as ever: we are two nations united by a sense of purpose and humour.

Bryan Batt abides... Photos © Mark Douet

Written by Harry Shearer, Tom Leopold, and the late Peter Matz, Here Comes J Edgar is a huge production that is crying out for a West End transfer and I mean that as a reflection of the quality of the King’s Head’s programming as much as its outsized excellence. It’s an explosion of joy that fills the theatre full of light and there’s so much happening that you are bewildered not to mention bewitched and bothered in the best possible way. 

The songs have an uncanny feeling of familiarity with snippets of form and style hinting at a little bit of Sondheim here, Gershwin there and Bernstein somewhere as our dying hero’s life flashes forward in a style that mirrors the musical theatre he grew old with. Song after song hits home and bursts from the stage with the leads supported by a chorus line strong in voice and movement. 

Bryan Batt hits the high notes as J Edgar and has vast Broadway experience and it shows with power and projection of the highest order and a range that achieves the almost impossible task of making J Edgar a sympathetic character. A lot of this sympathy is generated by his relationship with Clyde Tolson (Hugo Bolton) who was his deputy – his “Lifetime Assistant” – who not only took over the running of the FBI on his death but also inherited his estate – not something that tends to happen between mere colleagues...

Bryan Batt and Jess Pratley

“So, you’re me as a boy come back to show me my life as a musical?” 

We open as the Director of the FBI is on his deathbed watched over by two tough New York nurses (Martha Pothen and Isobel Grace Bass) who give some key background about their patient’s main visitor… They leave and a flashing of lights sees J Edgar awake into a dream, greeted by his younger self (the versatile Jess Pratley) who, acts as his guide to his greatest hits past in the dying moments. Leather-lunged Lucy O’Byrne appears as his mother and sings of his childhood devoid of company and games: all great men were lonely children… At school his isolation is clear but mother doesn’t agree that he is “not well ordered” and takes the presence of muscle magazines under his bed in her gracious stride.

J Edgar finds his vocation though and we’re greeted to the first big number – one of so many showstoppers – featuring almost the full cast in a tightly-choreographed spectacular that would do Busby Berkely proud. Mr Berkely – married six times – had a drink problem and a brush with the law when drunk driving in 1935; he was just the kind of showbusiness personality who the rising star of the Bureau of Investigations liked to keep tabs on via secret files that would serve him well over the next forty years.

Lucy O’Byrne has A Voice! Photos © Mark Douet

There are knowing name checks for Gable, Lombard, Bogart and Myrna Loy as well as the tragically maligned Roscoe Arbuckle (an innocent man) and genuinely great silent stars such as Ronald Coleman, Vilma Banky and Marie Dressler! But it wasn’t just actors, there’s an hilarious running gag in which Hoover meets and gently persuades four presidents to let him carry on protecting America his way. In the second act there’s a delightful quartet of JFK, FDR, LBJ and Eisenhower all bemoaning their choices.

In all great lives there are great partners and, sadly for Hoover’s secretary Helen (Laura Medforth) only her administrative qualities are required… she gets her chance to shine though when her boss is desperate to consider the kind of “lavender marriage” so beloved of his Hollywood targets. It’s another showstopper as Helen lets rip and J Edgar recoils in mortal fear.

Other contacts and “collaborators” were the mobsters of myth and legend who where the targets of Hoover’s investigations, the men who made him famous and eventually the collaborators in the search for the greater evil of socialism and perverted behaviours. Dillinger (Simon Anthony) was the big one and with the aid of the media in the form of Walter Winchell (Marc Elliott), these successes were amplified and sometimes telegraphed but when the gangster was finally betrayed and shot in Chicago watching Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, and William Powell in Manhattan Melodrama (1935), Hoover and Winchell played it for all it was worth.

Laura Medford, Bryan Batt and Hugo Bolton

“You know I wanted children when you asked me to be your Lifetime Assistant…”

Throughout most of this time, Clyde Tolson is presented as Hoover’s emotional rock and their romance follows the conventions of the musical form with a delightful dance around a moving restroom sink which momentarily throws up a spout of water as the two look into each other’s eyes, whirling round for a song that could have been Two Feds ‘round a Fountain. Bolton too has a fine voice – heck everyone does – and has great chemistry with Batt’s superbly masked and conflicted J Edgar. There are so many knowing looks and those twinkles shine so bright we ought to have worn shades!

Given the King Head’s relatively confined performance area the direction of Josh Seymour and choreography of Bill Deamer are inch and pitch perfect. Sophia Pardon’s sets are also compact and versatile whilst you have to tip the hat to Luke Holman’s musical direction and Benjamin Ferguson orchestration and arrangements. It’s pretty much faultlessly entertaining and for that you must hail Harry Shearer and Tom Leopold as well as Peter Matz’ amazing musicality – no wonder Ms Streisand liked him.

Bryan Batt and Hugo Bolton Photos © Mark Douet

IThankYou Rating: There’s no way I’m not giving this beauty anything less than *****!

This is simply the most fun you can have in a theatre in London with or without a little black dress, six-inch heels and a blonde wig. To quote Alan Cummings’ MC all those years ago at the Donmar Cabaret, “In the Kings Head, life is beautiful. The girls are beautiful. Even the orchestra is beautiful!” as are the cast, crew, writers and audience! 

Congratulations to all concerned for this life-affirming, justice-affirming musical miracle and if you don’t act quick it will sell out! I hope there’s a lot more to come for this production.

Here Comes J Edgar is at the Kings Head Theatre until 16^th August and full details are on their website here! 

Blessed are the marketers... Marc Elliott broadcasts the news

*The evidence is pretty darn compelling and the sadness is that two men with hearts open would choose the business of human misery over justice and fair play. So, it goes…