Archives: Porgy and Bess

26 April 2007 (Tues), West End

The opera performed as a musical, directed by Trevor Nunn. The story was reworked and all the recitative turned into dialogue, and the show was given an eight-performance-a- week run in the same way as any West End musical. It seemed a reasonable idea since the show is such a familiar name even to non-opera audiences, not to mention that wealth of famous jazz standards. I’d always found some of the recitative a bit long, so it made some sense from an artistic standpoint as well to try it out in a musical format. (Whether opera singers can hold up for eight performances is another question.) Generally I hate the idea of making things more “accessible”, since I would prefer to lift an audience up rather than to bring the show down. In this case, though, it seemed a justifiable effort.

But, as it turns out, it’s all in the execution. Continue reading →

Archives: Follies

10 February 2007 (Sat), Encores!

The opening show of the 2007 Encores! season, which is saluting the Ziegfeld Follies-type format. I wouldn’t have thought that Follies is a show that they would have chosen, since it’s still commercially produced – including two major productions within the last 4-5 years at Paper Mill and on Broadway – and thus hardly lost or forgotten. But the production has apparently generated the biggest response in the history of the Encores! series, and they actually had to add an extra performance on Monday, a first, in order to accommodate the crowds. I hadn’t seen Follies since the mid-1980s London production, which I remember only as being confusing. But given the show’s near-legendary status, the buzz surrounding this production (including a fantastic NY Times review) and the star-filled cast, it was hard not to be excited. Continue reading →

Close to You

13 December 2016 (Sun), West End

A tribute to Burt Bacharach with songs presented in modern arrangements. There was no book, and while it did have guided movement and direction, it was basically a glorified concert. Continue reading →

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

12 December 2015 (Sat), West End

My second chocolate factory this trip after Menier. I hadn’t bothered to see this in any of my previous trips but went along this time with a friend, figuring it would be harmless enough. I imagined that they would darken it, being British and all, and knew they had jettisoned the movie music for a new score. That score, though, was by the Hairspray team, which had me a bit hopeful. Continue reading →

Funny Girl

11 December 2015 (Fri), Menier Chocolate Factory

This is the first big-time revival of the show since its initial run in the mid 1960s, meaning anyone who saw it as a teenager then would now be retirement age. The first question on anyone’s mind is: who’s going to play Barbra? Streisand’s long shadow over the role makes casting extremely tricky; the aborted attempt at a revival a few years ago in the US was to star a Streisand impersonator from Glee, which would have been a disaster – why get a second-hand Barbra instead of a first-rate something else? The situation applies as well to London, where Streisand repeated her success after her sensational Broadway run and just before the hugely popular movie. While it’s true the show ran for a year-and-a-half on Broadway after Streisand left (with the wonderful Mimi Hines), that was before Barbra became a legend and diva nonpareil with the film, to the extent that many people think that the show and songs were written specifically for her (they weren’t). I don’t think even Fanny Brice herself could be cast these days. So when tickets for the revival by the estimable Menier Chocolate Factory went on sale, the entire run was snapped up within 90 minutes by audiences curious to see the original musical and the actress who dared take on La Barbra. The show was announced for a West End transfer before it even opened, which signals a lot of confidence on the part of the producers. I managed with difficulty to snare a seat on a Friday night. Yeah, I was excited. Even this theater’s usual pitiful printed program didn’t dampen things.

The actress who sparked all the excitement was Sheridan Smith, a blonde British shiksa who’s about as far from a Jewish Brooklyn girl as high tea from gefilte fish. Even given the impressive range in her career – her two Oliviers are for Legally Blonde and Terence Rattigan’s wartime-era Flare Path­ – this one seemed a stretch. Still, the word was good, and I was ready for anything. Continue reading →

Sunny Afternoon

9 December 2015 (Wed), West End

This was a jukebox musical built around the music of The Kinks, but it was all effectively new for me since I don’t really know the group. The songs are sung in many cases as character material, which worked to an extent. The story was a bit by the numbers and not overly compelling, but it moved along smoothly enough. Continue reading →

The Mikado

6 December 2015 (Sun), ENO

I had loved this production four years earlier, and it was just as good the second time around – better, in fact, since I could read the subtitles this time, which helped immeasurably (I wonder if this is how Italians feel listening to opera). Great sets, colorful costumes, broad bright comedy, whimsical choreography, nutty elements like the headless waiters – this production really has it all. Continue reading →

Archives: Company

17 November 2006 (Fri), Broadway

A revival (still in previews) of the Sondheim classic directed by John Doyle, the English director known for his minimalist approach in which the cast members play all the instruments. I didn’t want to miss this show, one of my all-time favorites, so I ordered the tickets from Tokyo rather than waiting for the half-price booth. I wasn’t taking any chances. I went with a friend who was seeing the show for the first time.

The previous year’s Sweeney Todd, which used the same actor/musician technique, was a revelation. While it hardly replaced the traditional version, it certainly provided a fresh perspective on the show. (Whether it would be enjoyable without having seen the original is an open question.) Company, being an abstract series of loosely related sequences rather than a proper narrative, seemed like an even more appropriate choice for this technique. The various couples interact with other couples in song but not in narrative scenes other than the birthday party that frames the show; that is, outside their specific vignettes, the characters are for the most part commenting on the action rather than participating in it directly. I figured that the use of instruments would work perfectly within this context, providing another means of commenting on the story.

The results were not what I had expected. Continue reading →