50 Favourite Musicals: 18: CITY OF ANGELS (1989) (Cy Coleman / David Zippel)

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: 1989, Virginia Theatre, NY

First seen by me: 1993, Prince of Wales Theatre, London

Productions seen: three

Score: Cy Coleman / David Zippel
Book: Larry Gelbart
Plot:  1940s Hollywood: the crime novelist Stine is trying to adapt his novel "City of Angels" for dictatorial film producer Buddy Fiddler but fact and fiction feed off each other and Stine soon discovers his worst critic is his fictional private eye hero Stone...

Five memorable numbers: WITH EVERY BREATH I TAKE, LOST AND FOUND, YOU CAN ALWAYS COUNT ON ME, FUNNY,  IT NEEDS WORK

By the time Michael Blakemore's production of the musical CITY OF ANGELS opened in the West End in 1993. after playing two years on Broadway, I was word perfect with Cy Coleman and David Zippel's score having bought the Original Cast Recording cd soon after it was released.  I immediately loved Coleman's mix of lush film noir music and snappy 1940s big-band jazz along with David Zippel's cynical and tart lyrics.  Blakemore's marvelously detailed production deftly handled the intricacies of Larry Gelbart's book, seamlessly moving from the black and white fictional world of private detective Stone who is hired by the glamorous Mrs Kingsley to find her wayward step-daughter, and the Technicolor world of 1940s Hollywood where we see the film script being written by the increasingly disenchanted screenwriter Stine.  A wonderful cast was headed by Roger Allam and the late Martin Smith as Stone and Stine, Henry Goodman stealing scenes as the egotistical producer Buddy Fiddler, and an array of fine West End actresses playing double roles : delicious Susannah Fellows as the seductive Alaura Kingsley and as Fiddler's actress wife Carla, Fiona Hendley as Stone's long-lost lover Bobbi and Stone's estranged wife Gabby, Haydn Gwynne as Stone's trusty secretary Oolie as well as Fiddler's secretary Donna, and Sarah Jane Hassell as the very-much alive missing step-daughter Mallory and the starlet Avril.  CITY OF ANGELS was seen as going toe-to-toe with Lloyd Webber's SUNSET BOULEVARD which opened a few months afterward which was, of course, also a film noir tale of the Los Angeles film world.  Sadly, despite it being a better show with better reviews, CITY OF ANGELS closed after eight months - it's closure started again the eternal debate about how do you get audiences in to a totally new show which requires a little work from them intellectually, opposed to a show that they know from a previous film.  There was some sort of revenge however when CITY OF ANGELS won the Olivier Award for Best Musical over SUNSET BOULEVARD.

You cannot keep a good show down though: I saw a Guildhall Drama School production 15 years later and then in 2014, it finally received another West End production at the Donmar in a production which suffered from the underwhelming performances of the three male leads and director Josie Rourke's sometimes sluggish pacing.  The show however was wonderfully designed and lit and starred a fine bunch of broads - Katherine Kelly (Alaura / Carla), Rosalie Craig (Bobbi / Gabby), Samantha Barks (Mallory / Avril) and the wonderful Rebecca Trehearn (Oolie / Donna) who stopped the show with the glorious "You Can Always Count On Me".   The show can be accused of having characters that are hard to like and it can be said that Gelbart's second act gets bogged down in the collision of plot lines (both onscreen and off) but owing to Coleman and Zippel's wonderful score it's a show I would love to see again.  And again.

I have chosen the following press-reel video for the original Broadway production of CITY OF ANGELS as it features two favourite songs, powerfully performed, "Lost And Found" and "You Can Always Count On Me" but it also serves to give you a flavour of Coleman and Zippel's standout score.

RUTHERFORD AND SON at the Lyttelton, NT - Emotions Under Glass

In 1912 a play opened at the Royal Court which received such praise that it transferred to the Vaudeville Theatre where it ran for a respectable 133 performances.  RUTHERFORD AND SON, a family drama set against a Northern factory background, chimed with the recent social dramas of Granville Barker, Galsworthy and Shaw; in the same year, the play even appeared in New York.

KG Sowerby's debut play should have launched the writer to success but soon after the play's opening it was revealed that the playwright was a woman, Githa Sowerby.  Newspapers curiously interviewed this odd phenomenon of a female playwright and reported how such a demure lady could write such a hard-hitting work - in truth she was 35 and had a lifetime of experience to help her write her semi-autobiographical play.

Githa's family owned a glass works on the Tyne in Gateshead and she drew directly from that world for the background to her family drama.  She continued to write children's literature and a further six plays but none had the success of RUTHERFORD AND SON, most appearing in small theatre club presentations.  By the time of her death in 1970, her plays had fallen into obscurity.  In 1980 RUTHERFORD AND SON was revived, and it saw a later production at the National Theatre in 1994 with Bob Peck as the tyrannical John Rutherford; in 1998 the play was judged one of the 100 Plays Of The Twentieth Century in a National Theatre poll.

Any thoughts that this might be tokenism are forgotten when you see RUTHERFORD AND SON: it's a gripping play that has hardly aged at all and indeed must have been a seismic shock in 1912 with it's powerful feminist arguments for the 'angel in the house' who could not think for herself.

John Rutherford owns a glass-making factory in Gateshead and rules both factory and home with a will of iron, secretly hated by both employees and family.  His oldest son John Jnr had been sent to Harrow to be educated, but earned his father's displeasure by staying in London and marrying Mary, a working-class girl.  With his health failing, John has returned home with Mary and their baby son Tony, both of them ignored by Rutherford.

His daughter Janet has retreated into a sullen, bitter existence after a lifetime of emotional coldness from her father and the youngest, mild-mannered Richard has earned his father's disdain for becoming a local curate.  With his children failing him, Rutherford has favoured his young assistant Martin, who grew up with his sons.  He approves of Martin's move to a nearby lonely cottage but we later discover he only moved there so he and Janet can continue a clandestine relationship.

Trouble finally erupts when John reveals that, while in London, he discovered a formula for making glass cheaper - Rutherford expects him to give it to him as he is his father but John demands he is paid a good price.  John shocks his father telling him he has shared his formula with Martin who thinks it's a great idea.  Richard brings a woman to the house whose son has been sacked by Rutherford for stealing; when he refuses to take him back, she retaliates by telling him what the workers really think of him, she tells Richard he is thought of as an idiot and tells Rutherford his daughter Janet is the main subject for gossip for 'carrying on' with Martin.  Unseen by anyone, a humiliated Richard leaves the house forever.

Rutherford confronts Janet but she denounces him for cutting off any possible joy that might have been hers.  Rutherford demands she leave his house the next day but Janet is triumphant in knowing that she will be united with Martin.  But the next morning a dazed Martin tells her that Rutherford persuaded him to reveal the secret formula - and then promptly sacked him for colluding with his son and for making his family a laughing stock by 'ruining' her.  Janet realizes that her dreams are in tatters now he has capitulated to her father, and leaves the house to face life alone. 

John rages when Martin tells him what he did and is determined to succeed to spite his father.  He breaks into Rutherford's cash box and steals the money, despite Mary's pleading that if he is going to succeed it should be not using his father's methods but he refuses.  When John says he will go abroad to achieve success Mary realizes that she and her son will never feature in these plans and suggests he let her know when he is settled, an idea to which he all too quickly agrees. Rutherford returns to his house, triumphant but alone - but is he?  An unexpected offer comes from the most unexpected place...  who will blink first to secure the continuation of RUTHERFORD AND SON?

Sowerby's play remains remarkably relevant with it's take on patriarchy at home and in the workplace and women's rights but above all is a rattling good yarn and a well-written play which has languished in the shadows for too long.  Polly Findlay keeps the pressure-cooker atmosphere on all the way through it, even in the quieter moments you just know a ticking bomb is waiting to go off.  Her production starts with sheets of rain pouring from the heavens and ends the same way, compounding the claustrophobic feel of the play.

She is blessed with an ensemble who all give committed, unsentimental performances: Roger Allam is on sensational form as Rutherford, glowering and immovable in his disdain for the world, and in particular, his family. Interestingly, he does not dominate the other actors; it is genuinely an ensemble performance leaving his own stamp on his role.  He is ably matched by Justine Mitchell as Janet, who found colours within the role so while she initially drains one's sympathy in the character, once her plight is revealed she shows the tragedy of a life allowed to atrophy.  Her scene with Allam where father and daughter declare their hatred for each other was spellbinding.

The other male roles are all played with just the right central note of weakness: Joe Armstrong as Martin really gives the role an initial sturdiness that completely deserts him when he loses his job, he is genuinely adrift in his shocked sadness, unable to acknowledge Janet's desperate need for help.  Sam Troughton exudes a clammy, fidgety quality as the oldest son who feels he can challenge his father with his secret formula, only to be outdone again and in defeat, shows he is as devious as Rutherford.  In the smallest role, Harry Hepple is touching as the Curate who finds himself a disappointment to family and community.

Anjana Vasan, so good in SUMMER AND SMOKE at the Almeida, here shines in the difficult role of Mary, a young girl thrown into an alien environment who finally succeeds by simply sitting and watching the power games around her, although it is intimated that in doing so, she loses something too.  As Rutherford's sister Ann who runs the household despite his many whinges, Barbara Marten is dessicated and as brittle as chalk after years of simply existing.

Lizzie Clachan's set aids the feeling of heavy claustrophobia with seemingly no natural light allowed into the fussy, genteelly cluttered living room and the lamp-lit lighting of Charles Balfour also keeps the Rutherford family trapped in glowing gloom.  I will have to ask Owen if Simon Money's vocal coaching was up to speed to a naturally north-east ear!  If I had to find fault I would suggest that the 6-women choir that opens each act doesn't quite provide the haunting aural experience that was intended.

 

RUTHERFORD AND SON is playing until 3rd August and I recommend it very much; hopefully this revival will show that Githa Sowerby's play is not just a curiosity but one of the best plays of the early 20th Century.