Owen and I had a double dose of musicals to end the week off, one small, one big, both Broadway legends, one better than the other.

On Friday we went with Angela to see the new revival of SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM at the Venue Theatre. Somewhere I saw it billed as the 30th Anniversary production but any fule kno it was first staged in London in 1976 at the Mermaid Theatre with the unbeatable cast of David Kernan, Julia McKenzie, Millicent Martin and with Ned Sherrin narrating. It transferred to the Wyndhams where it started a run of nearly two years (transferring down the road to the Garrick during that time) before the original cast took it's coals to New York for a run of nearly a year.

The idea for SBSBS came to David Kernan while appearing in the original London cast of A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC. He thought that Sondheim might be a worthy successor to recent compilation shows such as COWARDY CUSTARD and COLE. It is widely accepted that this show was the one that first made UK audiences see just how gifted a composer and lyricist he was. One has to bear in mind that of the six shows he had composed music and lyrics for when SBSBS was written, only three had been seen in London. There have been quite a few Sondheim compilation shows since but this is the one that has been most revived - last seen at the Donmar in 1986 - even though it has never been re-written to include songs from the seven Broadway shows he has written since.

I wasn't too keen when I heard a revival was due. Although I liked Alasdair Harvey as the vulgar Boatman in the Menier's SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE I had not heard of Abi Osman or Josie Walker so was unsure of their abilities. Well I know 'em now and they, I am happy to report, were excellent.

Sondheim's songs offer such rich material to work with that the three performers all displayed a wide range of emotions and styles. Abi Osman's sweet soprano was used to good effect in "Another Hundred People" and "Barcelona" from COMPANY and she later stepped up for a wrenching "Losing My Mind" from FOLLIES - the second in as many weeks as Petula Clark sang it in concert. Alasdair Harvey was great, particularly fine with the ballads "I Remember" from the 1960's tv musical EVENING PRIMROSE , MARRY ME A LITTLE dropped during try-outs of "Company" and the title song of ANYONE CAN WHISTLE. He turned in a blistering "Could I Leave You" from FOLLIES but the staging of him singing it at a wincing Abi O pulled the focus away.

By far the star of the evening was Josie Walker, a quite remarkable performer. She mastered the difficult speedy patter of "Getting Married Today" from COMPANY with ease, turned "I'm Still Here" from FOLLIES into a great Eleven O'Clock number - tho' in FOLLIES it's more like a Nine Thirty - and her spare and rueful "Send In The Clowns" from A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC had both her and me wiping away a quick tear at the end! Christopher Cazenove handled the narration with his easy charm amid the odd mispronunciation.

Hannah Chissick's production zips along but the Adam Cooper choreography is at times intrusive and seems somewhat unnecessary for this particular show. On the whole tho' I loved it - and of course it made me want to see all the individual shows again particularly GYPSY.

Then onto bigger if not necessarily better things. On Friday we saw the English National Opera's production of ON THE TOWN at the Coliseum. Some time ago I saw a production of this at the Guildhall by the final year students - among them was Alistair MacGowan playing the various club MCs in the second act - and of course I saw the film yonks ago. There are several songs I really like in the score but I've never felt the urge to splash out on a cast recording. I still don't think I want to as I'm afraid this production by the inexplicably well-thought-of Jude Kelly left me a trifle becalmed.

The simple story of three sailors on a 24 hour furlough in New York should, by the very nature of the story, zip along through their frantic attempts to find fun, sightseeing and girls - not necessarily in that order - but this production seemed to be strangely ponderous and took forever to get warmed up. The production was designed by Robert Jones whose central motif was iron girders moving around the stage to form parts of the scenery as well as standing sets trucked on from the sides. In all this I never got a sense of New York which after all is almost a character in the show itself. The choreography by Stephen Mear was certainly effective in the three large dance/ballet numbers but I finally got to thinking that maybe you can have too much of a good thing.
The performances too varied wildly - Caroline O'Connor as the man-hungry taxi driver Hildy, while popular with the audience, was guilty of more shameless mugging than Brixton on a bad night. It's the best part in the show which has been reflected in the previous casting of the role - originally played in 1944 by Nancy Walker (later famous as Valerie Harper's screen mother in RHODA), in the two unsuccessful Broadway revivals since it's been played by Bernadette Peters (1971) and Lea DeLaria (1988). Here O'Connor dominated every scene she was in but not always to best effect.

Unsurprisingly it was just over halfway through the first act when June Whitfield appeared as the soused music teacher that I perked up. Finally a performer who simply inhabited the role without signalling like mad to the auditorium and who seemed totally comfortable on stage. Sadly she and Janine Duvitski as Hildy's flu-ridden flatmate were in very small roles. Of the three sailors the only one who made any impact was Joshua Dallas as the love-lorn Gabey, his nice singing voice and warm personality really selling LONELY TOWN and LUCKY TO BE ME. When it comes to Leonard Bernstein musicals give me WEST SIDE STORY any day. I must say however the orchestra at the English National Opera made the score sound fantastic.