Jeeves Takes Charge & Who Killed Marilyn?

This episode, we travel from the wonderfully ridiculous world of P.G. Wodehouse to the glamour, tragedy and conspiracy surrounding Marilyn Monroe. We review Jeeves Takes Charge at Charing Cross Theatre and Who Killed Marilyn? at the Emerald Theatre: two productions exploring famous characters and cultural icons in very different ways.

Jeeves Takes Charge

The unmistakable world of P.G. Wodehouse comes to the stage in Jeeves Takes Charge, bringing with it the hapless Bertie Wooster, his extraordinarily capable valet Jeeves and all the misunderstandings, social disasters and gloriously silly situations that inevitably follow them. At the centre of it all is Sam Harrison, taking on the extraordinary challenge of playing all 22 of P.G. Wodehouse’s much-loved characters himself – from Jeeves and Bertie Wooster to Florence Craye, Gussie Fink-Nottle, Bingo Little, Uncle Willoughby and Aunt Dahlia. It’s a one-man comic juggling act requiring lightning-fast character changes, impeccable timing and seemingly endless energy.

At Charing Cross Theatre, we enter a world of impeccable manners, eccentric characters and quintessentially British comedy as Jeeves once again attempts to rescue Bertie from his own spectacularly questionable decision-making.

We discuss whether Wodehouse’s much-loved humour translates successfully to the stage, the joy of watching Jeeves remain several steps ahead of everyone around him and whether there’s still an audience for this delightfully old-fashioned world of troublesome relatives, romantic entanglements and upper-class chaos.

Who Killed Marilyn?

Over at the Emerald Theatre, Who Killed Marilyn? attempts to uncover the mystery surrounding the death of one of the most famous women of the twentieth century.

Pixie Lott takes on Marilyn Monroe in Sharleen Cooper Cohen‘s play, which explores the theory that Marilyn’s relationships with the Kennedy family and connections to organised crime may have played a part in her death. At the centre of the story is Marilyn’s hidden notebook, containing her private thoughts, poetry and potentially dangerous secrets shared by some very powerful men.

But does the production reveal the complicated woman beneath the famous image? We discuss Lott’s performance, the frustrating decision to give a singer of her ability so little opportunity to sing and a production that too often presents its supporting characters as broad caricatures. There are welcome exceptions, particularly Julie Armstrong as Marilyn’s troubled housekeeper and keeper of secrets, Eunice, alongside Benjamin Dilloway as Arthur Miller and Paul Kane as Robert Kennedy.

There’s an intriguing conspiracy thriller somewhere inside Who Killed Marilyn?, but we ask whether the production digs deeply enough into Marilyn herself – the intelligent, witty, ambitious and politically curious woman behind that instantly recognisable breathy voice and Hollywood image.

From Jeeves quietly cleaning up Bertie Wooster’s latest catastrophe to Marilyn Monroe becoming entangled with some of America’s most powerful men, it’s an episode filled with famous names, secrets, scandal and people desperately trying to keep trouble behind closed doors.