Now we have the latest incarnation of this production - the film of the show. The film was due to receive a royal charity premiere this week at a London cinema in the presence of HRH Princess Anne, in aid of the Home Farm Trust. The publicity for this event stated that this was likely to be the only cinema presentation of the film. On Friday evening the film was broadcast on the satellite and cable film channel Sky Premier.

The film opens with an edited version of the overture, played behind a shot of an aerial view of the River Thames.  The camera moves along the Thames towards the centre of London before focusing on the original home of the production - the Royal National Theatre on the South Bank of the Thames. We then see members of the audience in their seats inside the Olivier Theatre awaiting the start of the show. The opening titles and credits are incredibly tacky. While acknowledging that there is time to read each credit, they do seem to rush from one to the next in a rather crude way. I would have liked to have seen the original lighting and set effects of the stage version. As the curtain opens, the camera closes in above the heads of the audience to focus on Maureen Lipman as Aunt Eller.

I did not like this attempt to try to create the feeling that this was a filmed version of a live performance. The stage set was rebuilt at Shepperton Studios and the whole film was recorded there. The film needed the reaction of a live theatre audience. The large dance production numbers (Kansas City; The Farmer And The Cowman) ended in silence, unlike the live performances where both songs were greeted with wild enthusiasm by the audience. The lack of laughter and audience reaction to the humour of the show was detrimental to the overall quality of the film.

This was a film of the stage production and not a video of a live performance. This meant that the film-makers were able to use a wide variety of camera angles that members of the live audience would never have seen in the theatre, as well as close-ups of the principal characters.

There is no way that a filmed version can ever capture the mood of a live performance, but I felt that opportunities to create a worthy lasting memory of an excellent production were missed.

Mike Hatton
Email: mike@pyramus.demon.co.uk