50 Favourite Musicals: 38: PACIFIC OVERTURES (1976) (Stephen Sondheim)

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: 1976, Winter Garden Theatre, NY

First seen by me: 1987, London Coliseum

Productions seen: two

Score: Stephen Sondheim

Book: John Weidman

Plot:  1853, Japan:  Two acquaintances find themselves on opposing sides of society when the ordered, feudal world of Japan is shattered by the West's gunboat diplomacy establishing trade links.

Five memorable numbers: SOMEONE IN A TREE, THERE IS NO OTHER WAY, PLEASE HELLO, WELCOME TO KANAGAWA, POEMS

To go big or go small, that is the question...  Only Sondheim could conceive that, in the year of the flag-waving American Bicentennial, what Broadway needed was a musical of the opening up of Japan to western trade seen through Japanese eyes!  It ran for five months on Broadway but contains some of Sondheim's most haunting and deliciously complex music.  John Weidman's book also has a central couple whose story will remain topical: against the background of change which erupts when an American battleship appears off the coast of Japan to force them to open trade links to the West, Kayama, the prefect of police, becomes more westernized while Manjiro, a fisherman who was rescued by Americans when he was lost at sea, becomes a Samurai and more fundamental.  It took eleven years unil a London production thanks to the English National Opera - although Paul Kerryson had staged the British premiere the year before in Manchester - and it was an epic production - I still yearn for one of the massive veiled-cartwheel hats - but for me the 2003 production at the Donmar, by virtue of being smaller, edges it.  It was directed by US director Gary Griffin and was based on his own revival in Chicago the year before.  It's not for everyone... but I love it.  It also contains the song that Sondheim claims to be his favourite, SOMEONE IN A TREE, which asks the question: how can we believe what happened unless it was witnessed.  The all-important treaty was signed behind closed doors but Sondheim imagines that it was witnessed by a young boy watching from a tree who could see but not hear, and a Samurai hidden beneath the room who could hear but not see.  This glorious song supposedly inspired HAMILTON's "The Room Where It Happens".

The original 1976 Broadway production was filmed to be broadcast on Japanese television - how fabulous it would be to see the full version.  At the top of the show, Mako, as The Reciter, introduced the secret world of 1853 Japan with "The Advantages of Floating In The Middle Of The Sea"...

SATYAGRAHA at the London Coliseum - Sing Out Mahatma!

Amazingly it was 31 years ago that Andrew got me a free ticket to see the English National Opera production of Philip Glass' AKHNATEN at the London Coliseum.  Andrew had been singing it's praises so as it was free I thought I would give it a go... it was one of the most mesmerizing productions I had ever seen and I reeled from the theatre with my senses all a-whirl.  Sadly their 2016 revival I found annoying thanks to the distracting "Director Theatre" tropes of Phelim McDermott.

The good news is that the ENO have revived Glass' earlier installment in his "Portrait Trilogy" SATYAGRAHA.  The bad news is it's directed by Phelim McDermott.  He's not really got any better.

All I knew of the opera was it was based on the life of Mahatma Gandhi - but no, not the famous bit... SATYAGRAHA focuses on his years working as a lawyer in South Africa, from 1910 to 1913.  This saw the beginning of his idea of non-violent protest or 'Satyagraha' as he confronted the ruling powers in their racist persecution of the Indian community.

The libretto is convoluted and even frantic reading between the acts didn't help either - it doesn't help that the opera is sung in Sanskrit and that the sur-titles weren't on.  It later turned out that the phrases that appeared on the back wall were what was being sung.. who knew.  Three incidents are referenced: Gandhi setting up a communal farm named after his literary hero Tolstoy; Gandhi setting up the campaigning newspaper Indian Opinion; Gandhi leading a march of miners and their families to the Transvaal.

As with AKHNATEN, Glass' music is hypnotic and draws you into it's depths, swirling and eddying around until you are swept along again by a shift in the notes.  What annoyed me so much about McDermott's direction was the ball-aching movement he grafts on his performers.  All the singers m-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-v-e at a glacial pace - yes, Glass' music is minimal but hows about moving to the fast-moving beats within it occasionally?  Imagine how exciting that would be Mr McDermott?

The music certainly sounded great, conductor Karen Kamensek was also in the pit for AKHNATEN and again, under her baton, the orchestra made Glass' score glow.  However one feels that McDermott has concentrated all his efforts onto the visuals, especially Julian Crouch's design.  There are certainly no stand-out performances per se, although Toby Spence impressed in the last act where his singing is musically the only game in town.  Snaps too for the sumptuous lighting, originally by Paule Constable and recreated for this revival by Kevin Sleep.

Everything is thrown at the visuals: scenic effects, video projection, large-scale puppetry, fire, flying on wires... the whole mishpocha.  But here, the visuals tend to be stand-alone effects... they do not illuminate what one is hearing or understanding: the start of the third act is mostly taken up with the ensemble SLOWLY crossing from left to right, both upstage and downstage, pulling sellotape across the stage at various heights... this goes on forever and for the wont of an OH WOW stage image - shimmering strands marking the march of the miners - the mind is distracted from the music and what is being told.

There were arresting stage images: a huge living ball of newspapers seeming coming to life at the back of the stage for Gandhi to enter it and emerge in the persona the world was to grow to know;  waving waves of newsprint;  giant warriors fighting each other in the opening scene based on the Mahabharata; a giant fire pit surrounded by Gandhi's acolytes... but the last stage image really irked me... a figure is on a tall podium at the back of the stage obviously giving a loooong speech while Gandhi sings "(God) comes into being age after age" and slowly (everything is done slowly as I said) wanders to the back of the stage to rest his hand on the podium by way of benediction... yes it's supposed to be Martin Luther King.  All very hokey... you can tell it's written by an American!

Oh and one last thing... in these days of both non-traditionalist and strict ethnic casting - when did you last see a white Othello? - why were all the singers white?  In these production photos, the cast looks more like the local operatic society from MIDSOMER MURDERS, in fact Toby Spence looks more like John Crippin than Mahatma Gandhi.

If this was a West End show there would be woolly liberal protesters around the theatre!

TOSCA at London Coliseum - lived for love, lived for art...

Our experiment in seeing new art forms in 2015 resulted in the success of ballet as a new favourite - 14 visits to see the Royal Ballet and the Bolshoi at Covent Garden testify to this.

But opera did not fare as well - the awful Welsh National Opera production PETER PAN seemingly put paid to that.  But this year we saw Richard Eyre's production of LA TRAVIATA at Covent Garden and that whetted our appetite for the classic Big Opera.  Last week we saw English National Opera's TOSCA at the London Coliseum... and I think the operatic penny might have dropped!

This is a revival of the 2010 production by Catherine Malfitano, herself an acclaimed Tosca during her singing career, and Donna Stirrup has directed it with a steady hand, at all times keeping the action focused on the three main characters.  In this she is aided by the clever sets of Frank Philipp Schlossman, Gideon Davey's costume design and David Martin Jacques' lighting, here re-created by Kevin Sleep.

I had a vague idea of the plot, knew that it contained the magnificent aria 'Vissi d'arte' and that it had a spectacular end so the journey to that famous climax was totally new for me - and what a wonderful dramatic story Puccini and his librettists Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica fashioned from the original play by Victorien Sardou.

1800:  With Rome in turmoil after the collapse of the French-backed republic, the jealous opera diva Floria Tosca is duped by the nasty chief of police Scarpia into thinking that her lover, the painter Mario Cavaradossi, has vanished with another woman when in reality he knows Mario is hiding an escaped republican prisoner.  The police follow her to Cavaradossi's hiding place and arrest him.  Cavaradossi is tortured in the room next to where Scarpia has had Tosca brought and to stop her lover's ordeal she reveals to Scarpia where the escaped prisoner is hiding.  Mario is due to be shot at dawn but Scarpia tells Tosca - who he is obsessed with - that he will arrange a 'fake' shooting if she sleeps with him. 

They hear that the escaped prisoner has killed himself, Tosca knows Scarpia will want revenge so agrees to his bargain but on the proviso that he sign a safe-conduct pass for her and Cavaradossi.  After Scarpia has signed the document, she stabs him to death singing "This is the kiss of Tosca".  On the roof of the Castel Sant'Angelo, Cavaradossi reflects that despite her actions, his love for Tosca was the greatest thing in his life.  She appears and tells him she has killed Scarpia, that the execution squad will fire blanks and coaches him on how to 'play dead' then they can escape. The soldiers appear and Tosca exults in their triumph of Scarpia.  However his is the final triumph as Mario is shot dead. She hears the clamour at the discovery of Scarpia's corpse and rather than be arrested, she throws herself from the parapet shouting "Scarpia... in the eyes of God".

The dramatic momentum of the plot in this production drives towards the famous climax with a powerful relentlessness, it's only on reflection that you realize that the action takes place within less than 24 hours.  What I also loved about the production was that, unlike most revivals, Malfitano did not set decide to impose a jarring 'concept' on the production - setting it in the Swinging 60s or in Dublin in 1916 (yes Globe Theatre I am looking at you...) but vaguely in period and allowing nothing to distract from the music and the performances.

Tosca was brought to magnificent life by American soprano Keri Alkema who was in splendid voice and certainly convinced as the imperious diva whose life would never be compromised.  Cavaradossi was well sung by Gwyn Hughes Jones especially his third act aria "And the stars shone" while Craig Colclough's Scarpia (or 'Shitface' as Owen re-christened him) was rewarded with ultimate accolade at his curtain call, yes he was loudly booed like a panto villain.

TOSCA has stayed with me since seeing it, in particular the sheer magnificence of Puccini's score, and I listened to a full recording while writing this to get into the mood.

She lived for art, she lived for love and she is one of the great tragic heroines of the stage.

AKHNATEN at English National Opera - Egyptian Glass Work...

29 years ago, Andrew - in another attempt to introduce me to opera - got me a standing ticket for Philip Glass' AKHNATEN which was receiving it's UK debut at the Coliseum by the English National Opera.  He had praised it to the skies and, well, there was nothing on the telly... and it *was* a free ticket!  I had no idea what I was going to see as the lights went down...

About three hours later I literally staggered out of the Coliseum with my mind spun-round by Glass' swirling, repetitive, hypnotic score which has looped and re-looped in my mind down the years.  This hit it's apogee when, visiting the Temple at Karnak in the 2000s, we found we were practically the only ones in the awesome Hypostyle Hall during the intense mid-day sun.  I parked myself at the foot of one of the massive pillars in the shade and, while Owen wandered about taking photos, I sat quite happily listening to the AKHNATEN finale on my mini-disc.  To this day I am sure I saw shadows dancing....

And now, 29 years after that premiere, English National Opera have staged a new production, well I had to go didn't I?

Sadly whereas the first production directed by Keith Warner did everything it could to frame the music, Phelim McDermott's production does all it can to stand in it's way.

Tom Pye's design was an immediate cause for concern - I could see he was probably going for the tiered design of a wall of hieroglyphics but sadly more often that not it looked like the rebel Pharaoh's story was being acted out on the scaffolding of a building site.  The palace which featured on the stage level did not so much suggest the palace of a King as a pop-up Hoxton bar with it's clear corrugated walls and strip-lighting.

Only once did we get a break from this set-up which was when the set split in two for Akhnaten's Hymn to his beloved Sun or Aten.  Sadly this reminded me more of a mash-up of WEST SIDE STORY's tenements splitting aside for the "Somewhere" dream ballet and revisiting Olafur Eliasson's Weather Project at Tate Modern - maybe they should have asked Eliasson to do it? !  I did like Bruno Poet's lighting however.

Again and again, one was distracted by the LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME design choices: the daughters of Nefertiti and Akhnaten resembled a Divine tribute act while, as Andrew has suggested, it was intriguing that the inspiration for Nefertiti's look was Marge Simpson.  Oh and Queen Tye, Akhnaten's supportive mother, was modeled on Queen Mary.  Go fuckin' figure..  Akhnaten death is still shrouded in mystery but I - no Egyptian scholar admittedly - don't believe he met his death in a volumous plastic tarpaulin.  I am happy to be pursuaded otherwise...

McDermott's biggest artistic choice was to include his company Improbable in the production... this meant that every scene involved most of the company juggling.  McDermott is happy to show in the programme an Egyptian tomb painting of a troupe of girls juggling to justify this but again it distratcted attention from the score as you waited in each act for the juggling to begin.  Don't get me wrong, sometimes it made for interesting viewing but if it went on for too long it just felt like being in the audience for BRITAIN'S GOT TALENT.  I have to report getting an attack of the church giggles when the acrobats came running out with large beach ball-type sphericals... I was so hoping they would break into "Sur Le Plage" from THE BOYFRIEND.

Not so much Improbable as Inevitable.

The lead performances were by Anthony Roth Costanzo as Akhnaten, the Pharoah who attempted to jolt Ancient Egypt into having a monotheistic religion and failed disasterously, Emma Carrington as Queen Nefertiti, Rebecca Bottone as Queen Tye and Zachary James as the narrator Scribe but to be honest, their performances seemed to take second place to being careful not to be whonged over the head by a flying candlestick or ball.

Luckily the evening was saved by the ENO chorus who sounded quite wonderful - and well done on the resolution of their pay dispute - and the orchestra under the baton of Karen Kamensek who made Philip Glass' monumental score the real star of the show.  Hypnotic threads of repetitive music swirled around the auditorium and swept me away again to a different headspace.

Despite the clunking production I am glad to have experienced AKHNATEN again - now where the HELL has my cd of it gone?

THE BARBER OF SEVILLE at English National Opera - a short back and sides blog...

Last week was another of our New Cultural Doings In 2015 with a visit to the always pretty London Coliseum to see the English National Opera's production of Rossini's comic opera THE BARBER OF SEVILLE.

I had been quite busy all week and, come Friday, I was looking forward to seeing the opera but sadly it all caught up with me and I drifted in and out of snooze despite the best efforts of the loud and lively ENO orchestra and the singers.

The production actually dates from 1987 and Jonathan Miller's direction is here recreated by Peter Relton and while it is usually the case that if it ain't broke don't fix it, I felt that what was funny in 1987 might not still be true today, even when reviving an early 19th Century opera.  And the set was mainly beige... beige!  Tanya McCallin, what was going on with your colour palate back then?

It is quite rollicking and certainly raced through the plot of Figaro, the barber of the title, helping Count Almaviva to woo and win pretty Rosina away from Dr. Bartolo, her crotchety guardian who wants her for his own.  Just typing that makes me think of Sweeney Todd!

There's nice work being done by Morgan Pearse as Figaro, a cheeky chappy on the make, Kathryn Rudge as Rosina (no wilting ingenue she, she gave as good as she got!) and Andrew Shore made the most of the foolish Dr Bartolo, in very much the same way that he milked the role of The Major General in THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE which we saw earlier this year.  Among the ensemble, Katherine Broderick was a feisty and full-throated Berta, servant to Bartolo.

All in all it was a nice way to spend the evening, drowsing along to Rossini's delightful score.  I'm sure it will still be around in a year or so if I feel the urge to see it again.

The PIRATES OF PENZANCE - a rollicking band of pirates, we!

Although it is my favorite Gilbert & Sullivan score, I have not seen THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE too often.  I last saw it in 2001 at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park and, before that oddly enough, in 1985 I saw the second half (!) of a touring production which starred Paul Nicholas, Bonnie Langford and Michael Ball.  Both of these productions were based on the 1980 New York production which originated at Joseph Papp's Public Theater and was a runaway success with Kevin Kline and Linda Ronstadt among others.

But on Saturday we saw the new English National Opera production at the London Coliseum which is directed by film director and G&S fan Mike Leigh in a surprisingly pleasant production.  It would be silly to expect his G&S production to be as forensic in detail as his own films and plays but I think I was expecting something a little more personal in tone.

It offers it's biggest surprise in it's look:  Alison Chitty has given it an eye-popping, brightly-coloured set design of various geometric shapes all seen through a large, moving round port-hole which opens up to let the chorus take their place on the expansive Coliseum stage.

The other most obvious Leigh-ism I could spot was the the character of Ruth, the nursery maid of hero Frederic who was the cause of him being apprenticed to a band of pirates.  I had to double-check my programme to see who was playing the role as Rebecca de Pont Davies looks very much like Ruth Sheen, the delightfully-gawky actress who played major roles in LIFE IS SWEET and ANOTHER YEAR.  I guess it was another Leigh-ism to have Ruth be the only one who does not join in the exuberant finale but sits dejected and alone on a grave, forgotten about while the Pirates and the Major-General's daughters all pair up.

Otherwise it felt like a very traditional production with little bits of comedy business given to The Pirate King and The Major-General.  I suppose if I had seen other previous traditional productions I might have spotted more additions.

What took me most by surprise was the vocal weakness of the women.  Luckily there was surtitles displaying the lyrics otherwise I would not have been aware what de Pont Davies or Claudia Boyle as Mabel were singing.  The men all had stronger voices, in particular I enjoyed the barnstorming Joshua Bloom as The Pirate King and Andrew Shore had a ball as the conniving Major-General.  Alexander Robin Baker was also a strong vocal presence as Samuel, the Pirate King's lieutenant.

By and large, I felt all the ENO voices were not on a par with the 1980 Public Theater cast recording - I guess an opera singer will always sing the note rather than putting any character into it, it all sounded a bit colourless to my ears.  There was a peculiarly sombre version of "A Policeman's Lot Is Not A Happy One" which just came over as rather drab by Jonathan Lemalu as the Police Sergeant.

Frederic was well sung by Robert Murray but his tubbyness made it hard to believe that Mabel and her sisters would all swoon while singing "how rare his beauty"!

It was odd that I noticed in this production how much Gilbert's story is so taken with things not being as they seem: Ruth leads Frederic to believe she is beautiful until he sees the fair Mabel, the Major-General weeps over the tombs of his ancestors but it turns out he bought the chapel a year before so they are not actually his relatives, Frederic may think he is 21 but as he was born in a leap year he is only 9 if his age is judged by birthdays and finally the Pirates are revealed to all be peers of the realm who have 'gone wrong' so are forgiven everything.

On the whole I liked the production and it was a fun way to spend an evening, I just wish it had felt a bit more idiosyncratic in performance rather than in it's design.

Last week Owen and I visited Japan. Not for no tsunami business... no we went and stayed in the relative comfort of the London Coliseum - yes, confused reader, we went to see the English National Opera's THE MIKADO...and it's only taken me 25 years to see Jonathan Miller's production!

I'm not the world's biggest Gilbert and Sullivan fan to be honest but Owen had a hankering to see a 'proper' production so away we went to take our place in the Dress Circle with what I suspect was a core G&S/Coliseum audience. More than once my attention was diverted from the action on stage by my neighbours singing along under their posh breaths.

It was all very odd to be in an audience that obviously knew the piece backwards and who laughed uproariously at every laugh line - even when it wasn't funny.


It was always watchable - thanks in no small part to the luxurious 1920s set design of the late Stefanos Lazaridis - a mixture of warm creams and white - the witty and stylish costumes designed by the wondrous Sue Blane and the ever-busy choreography of Anthony Van Laast, recreated here by Stephen Speed.

I didn't realise until I opened the programme that the wandering minstrel Nanki-Poo was played by Alfie Boe who is this year's opera~pop crossover and who is about to start a short run in that graveyard of the musical spirit LES MISERABLES.

It is nice to report that he was very pleasing on stage with a nice baffled air and fine voice. He was partnered by Sophie Bevan as Yum-Yum who while a little colourless in acting sang a lovely version of what I know as "The Moon And I" but turns out to be called "The Sun Whose Rays".

The show was also graced with fine performances from ENO veteran Richard Angas as The Mikado and Richard Suart as Ko-Ko, both of whom have played the role countless times down the years. Suart's Groucho Marx posturings grew a bit stale by the final curtain but what he did do he did with great gusto.

His updated version of the "I have a little list" song which included such possible candidates for execution as the Bercows and Prince Andrew had members of the audience gasping with delight - some people really need to get out more.

But here we come to the reason I was gnawing my knuckles through most of the show. I foolishly assumed that with it being the English National Opera and all that the most basic requirement would be to sing clearly.

Wrong. More often than not great swaths of the score were rendered incomprehensible either down to singers who had neither the breath control for the patter numbers or who seemed more at ease just singing the note rather than the word. It wasn't long before I remembered why I can't abide opera singers.

Every time the awful Anne-Marie Owens started honking and twittering as Katisha I found myself replaying in my mind Louise Gold singing the role in Mike Leigh's film TOPSY TURVY and how she nailed it perfectly. Yes I *know* that was a film and this was live but it has taught me that if I go further in Gilbert & Sullivan's canon then I'll wait until they are presented with actors who can sing and not opera-trained voices trained to just make a noise along with the music.

In fact seeing the show has spurred me into buying TOPSY TURVY and here are Shirley Henderson, Dorothy Atkinson and Cathy Sara giving us a delicious version of "Three Little Maids From School Are We" - watch and learn ENOers....