LONDON TRIP REVIEWS

Feb 98

I would like to write down my impressions on some London shows I saw in the last week of February. Les Miserables was nice to see, I had not seen it for about three years and I was really surprised that the show was still as fresh as I remembered it. Outstanding performances were given (to my point of view) from Thenardier (who was actually understudied in the Thursday afternoon performance, my congratulations to the actor) and from Javert, played by Ethan Freeman. He gave the character a very sensitive touch, even in his final (and fatal) song one really felt he had quite a problem with Valjean's attitude towards justice and uprightness. I liked Valjean as well, however, he did not quite seem to get the high parts of his songs.

In the evening I went to see Chicago. First thing I noted was that the show was absolutely sold out, so I thought, well, there must be something special about it, maybe it's such a 'mega-show' like "Sunset Boulevard" which played the Adelphi Theatre before Chicago came in. There is nothing of a mega-show to be seen in "Chicago", I mean they don't have a changing set, they don't have musical numbers where the violins make you sob (thank God they haven't) and everything ends in a clash of the cymbals. "Chicago" has something else: originality, a cast where everybody fits into his role, two wonderful singers/actresses who lead the cast. It's a show of a kind I'd never seen before.

Let's now take a look at Beauty and the Beast. It's perfect. The set is marvellous, I wondered where they would leave all the stuff once it was off stage. The voices were good, of course, most people from the original cast still seemed to be there. And the theatre is wonderful, I mean, there is so much room to walk around during the interval, compared to other theatres.

Now comes the big BUT. In my opinion, the show sets the measure of perfectionism too high. There were a lot of children in the matinee, I wonder now if they will ever be able to appreciate 'smaller' shows like "Blood Brothers" if they are taught that musical theatre has to be like this. On the other hand, did they at all recognise that this was a kind of musical theatre? Theatre can never and should never attempt to be like a film because it has its own rules and accomplishments. I think "Beauty and the Beast" does attempt to do so.

The very final performance of Martin Guerre was also my final show in London. It really is a pity it's now closed. I had seen the show twice before, every time in a different version, and I never disliked it. I still wonder what was wrong with it that they closed it, maybe it was too simple for those people who need to see the set change once every ten minutes and who need to be able to predict the story.

The audience was great that evening, they applauded and cheered extensively after every musical number. The cast was obviously glad and a bit surprised, I think I saw it in their faces.

After the final standing ovations Hal Fowler (who played the main character) thanked the audience for their support and asked the composer and the writer onto the stage for a final bow. This was very touching. I hope they'll rewrite the show again, maybe it has a second chance in a couple of years.

(Feb 1998 / Wilke Eichler /from Germany)