The 50 shows that have stood out down the years and,
as we get up among the paint cards, the shows that have become the cast
recording of my life:
First performed: 1962, Alvin Theatre, NY
First seen by me: 1999, Open Air Regents Park, London
Productions seen: two
Score: Stephen Sondheim Book: Burt Shevelove, Larry Gelbart
Plot: Pseudolus, a slave in Ancient Rome, agrees to help his master's son get the girl of his dreams in exchange for his freedom - but the road to liberty never runs smooth...
Five memorable numbers: COMEDY TONIGHT, EVERYBODY OUGHT TO HAVE A MAID, PRETTY LITTLE PICTURE, THAT'LL SHOW HIM, FREE
The original 1962 FORUM won an impressive six Tony Awards, but one contributor got nothing... composer Stephen Sondheim. Yes, it won Best Musical but that is for the overall production: Shevelove and Gelbart won for their riotous book, George Abbott won for his direction, Zero Mostel and David Burns won for their performances, Harold Prince won Best Musical producer... but the score? Nothing. It can be argued that it was a crowded field that year: nominations went to Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh for LITTLE ME, Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse for STOP THE WORLD - I WANT TO GET OFF and, the eventual winner, Lionel Bart for OLIVER! - but a nomination for BRAVO GIOVANNI, a vehicle for opera singer Cesare Siepi? You would think that Sondheim could comfort himself with his Best Score awards for WEST SIDE STORY or GYPSY - wrong! The Score Award was discontinued from 1952 to 1962. He would finally be nominated for Best Score with his next show DO I HEAR A WALTZ?, small comfort for what had been a difficult process writing with Richard Rodgers. Not that FORUM was a breeze either; rewrites, recasting and the baffling out-of-town lukewarm response. But Sondheim concentrated on the form of the piece and ditched most of his generic musical comedy songs and, in particular, changed the opening song from the whimsical LOVE IS IN THE AIR to the barnstorming COMEDY TONIGHT and hey presto, a hit was born. The adage that you can't have a good musical without a good book is proved by Gelbart and Shevelove's excellent writing - based on plays by Plautus - which provides a solid base for the capering, light-hearted songs and the farcical characters. The role of 'Pseudolus' is a Tony Award magnet on Broadway: Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers and Nathan Lane have all played it and have all won Best Actor in a Musical. No such luck for London productions but the two revivals I have seen have had barnstorming performances from Roy Hudd at the Regents Park Open Air Theatre in 1999 and Desmond Barrit at the Olivier Theatre in 2004 About time for another revival I reckon...
I was going to choose a clip from Richard Lester's 1966 film version but it is woefully dated despite the involvement of original stars Zero Mostel and Jack Gilford, so instead here is a glorious version of EVERYBODY OUGHT TO HAVE A MAID from the 2010 Proms tribute to Sondheim with a perfect imaginary revival cast of Simon Russell Beale, Daniel Evans, Julian Ovendon and Bryn Terfel - I love this!
Saturday, November 06, 2010
You know what you have in store when the lights go down in a West End auditorium and the curtain goes up on a set that elicits a panto-style "Oooooooo" followed by a appreciative round.
Welcome to the Garrick Theatre and the revival of J.B. Priestley's WHEN WE ARE MARRIED.
I had seen this cosy comedy before when it was last revived in 1986 at the Whitehall Theatre in a production directed by the late Ronald Eyre. Needless to say, there are a few more lates from that production - Bill Fraser, Patsy Rowlands, Kathy Staff and John Stratton. I seem to remember it being... well, cosy.
Well... it's still cosy but having seen a few more Priestley plays since then I can see that underneath the gentility it still deals with his favorite subject of the passage of time.In a Yorkshire milltown in 1908, three well-to-do couples are celebrating their silver wedding anniversaries having all been married on the same day by the same vicar when they discover to their horror that he was not authorised to officiate at nuptials so technically they are not married.
Once the secret is out, the couples see each other with new eyes - hen-pecked and browbeaten spouses assert themselves for the first time as the 'lower orders' also let 'their betters' know exactly what they think of them.Add into the mix an ageing manhunter from Blackpool and a boozy photographer who has been asked to take an anniversary picture of the couples and you have a very English farce of manners and, of course, class.
Priestley's comedy runs like clockwork and hey if it ain't broke.... However there is little chance that it will ever be fashionable, unlike Stephen Daldrey's re-interpreting of AN INSPECTOR CALLS, as Priestley only toys with the sudden liberating possibilities for the main characters - hidden grudges are aired while the husband from one couple and the wife from another verge on the possibility of starting their old romance again - before suddenly providing an abrupt ending that restores the status quo. It is as if the idea of their starting again scares Priestley as much as his characters.There are moments when Christopher Luscombe's direction hints at the darker undercurrents of the play but these are brought out more by the subtle playing of the main cast.
Simon Rouse and David Horovitch splutter for all their worth as the two husbands with the most to lose socially while Sam Kelly is a delight as the henpecked worm that turns - his lip-smacking delight while savouring a forbidden drink is comedy gold. Maureen Lipman is in splendid form as the domineering wife who is brought to heel but Susie Blake seemed oddly anonymous as the social-climbing wife of the alderman. The surprise of the evening was Michele Dotrice who, while resembling a guinea-pig in an Edwardian dress, reveals a killer sense of comic timing especially when deflating her husband's presumption that she would want to marry him again.The supporting cast are led superbly by Roy Hudd who brings all his comic timing to bear in the role of Ormonroyd the drunk photographer - he does a double-take that's worth the price of admission alone! The lower orders are played robustly by Lynda Barron as the plain-speaking cook Mrs. Northrup and Jodie McNee as the back-chatting servant Ruby - in the Ronald Eyre production Ruby was played like Su Pollard with brain damage (I will allow you a minute to suffer that thought along with me) so McNee's delightful turn was particularly welcome.
As I said, Simon Higlett's Edwardian drawing room with no surface knowingly uncovered in lace, damask or ornaments caused near pandemonium when the curtain rose and he is know doubt receiving fan-mail from the home counties by the van-load.WHEN WE ARE MARRIED does exactly what is expected of it and while it won't change anyone's life, there is no denying the pleasure in seeing such comedy expertese in one place. Would that all West End revivals were such fun.
