Musical parodist’s sideways tribute to Richard Carpenter

THEY were one of the world’s biggest pop acts, with a string of instantly recognisable hits including Rainy Days and Mondays, We’ve Only Just Begun and Yesterday Once More.

Brother and sister duo The Carpenters are estimated to have sold 90 million records worldwide since forming in 1969.

But their success came at a price. Touring almost continually throughout the Seventies, Richard was forced to take a year off in 1979 after becoming addicted to Quaaludes, while Karen developed anorexia nervosa — complications from which were to lead to her death from heart failure in February 1983.

While Karen was undoubtedly the superstar, Richard had numerous roles including record producer, arranger, pianist, keyboardist, lyricist, and composer, as well as joining with his sister on harmony vocals.

In the years since her death he has released two solo albums — in 1987 and 1998 — but has largely faded from public view, preferring to devote himself to family life.

A long-running concert-style musical, The Carpenters Story, continues to tour the UK and is due to visit the Wycombe Swan next April.

But in the meantime, a new musical comedy set in a world where rainy days and Mondays collide and one man’s journey to find himself has only just begun is about to pay a sideways tribute to Richard’s life and music.

Richard Carpenter is Close to You is the brainchild of Matthew Floyd Jones, best known as one half of the musical comedy duo — and parodists nonpareil — Frisky and Mannish.

Following a sell-out run at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe and a critically acclaimed Australian tour, the show has embarked on a UK tour and will visit Reading’s South Street Arts Centre on Friday, November 16, at 8pm.

Filled with bittersweet dark comedy, the show tells the hilarious, traumatic and entirely imaginary tale of the ultimate piano player — a character comedy, theatre and live music hybrid that sprinkles pitch perfect song parodies over an ultimately very moving story.

As Matthew says of what is his first major solo show: “This is the first show ever created specifically about Richard, as opposed to the Carpenters in general or Karen.

“This is a piece that’s been crying out to be created. Playing Richard Carpenter feels so right to me — he was my first musical inspiration growing up and after 10 years of Frisky and Mannish I am essentially the Richard Carpenter of the comedy circuit.

“I am so lucky that he hasn’t sued yet and that I am getting to take my wacky show, made with such love, all over the world.”

What can the audience expect on the night? “If the show is anything, it is certainly not a tribute show with just a series of Carpenters songs. It is to a large extent a flight of fancy on my part, looking at what Richard may have been like and thinking following the tragic death of his sister. The show is packed with the well-known songs, but perhaps some of the lyrics are not quite as you remember them.”

Matthew, who grew up in Guildford, will be playing his hometown theatre the G Live the day before his Reading date. As he makes clear, his interest in the Carpenters dates back to his childhood.

“When I was six, I moved to a new school. On the first day, I told a brown-haired girl I liked her sandals. We became best buddies and she turned out to be Surrey’s youngest expert on the Carpenters. So I raided my parents’ vinyl collection and started cultivating a deep love for 12-part harmonies and double-tracked Wurlitzer. Their music was the soundtrack to my childhood, and I will always harbour a deep affection for both of them. Richard is the focus of my show mainly because, just like him, I am a boyish fair-haired piano player who made his career as the double-act partner to an extraordinary female singer.

“It is a crazy, fabulous, uplifting, distressing, musical journey through his tortured mind, but it’s not a biopic. Legally, I have to stress that. I’m sort of like Shakespeare in that I’ve also taken a real historical figure named Richard and then imagined a version of him that suits my dramatic needs. It is my fevered imagining of what it might be like to be in Richard Carpenter’s shoes. Chunky white platforms, obviously.”

What has the reaction been like from fans of the band?

“Before my first show at Buxton Fringe in 2017, a woman grabbed my arm as I passed, told me she had seen the real Carpenters in concert at the Palladium in 1974, and then ominously said I had ‘a lot to live up to’. No hint of a smile — not even a wry mouth-corner turned up. Full serious threatening intensity. I squeaked out a titter and ran into the venue.

“The show started. She was in the front row, by herself, sauvignon blanc in one hand, eyeballing me. At the curtain call, I told them they were a really great crowd and thanked the Carpenters lady for not walking out. She leaned forward, everyone breathless to see what her verdict was, after an hour of me lampooning her favourite band of all time. ‘You did great but that is not what Richard’s hair looks like.’ Basically a four-star review — I’ll take it!”

Tickets for Richard Carpenter is Close to You at the South Street Arts Centre are £16 with concessions £14 from 0118 960 6060 or www.readingarts.com

Additional reporting:
Peter Anderson and Stella Reilly