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London Review
London ReviewGone With the Wind the Musical
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Frankly my dear I don’t give a damn!— Rhett
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Jill Paice as Scarlett and Darius Danesh as Rhett
(Photo: Geraint Lewis) |
Expectations may have a lot to do with enjoyment but I also subscribe to the body of opinion that says that the newspapers should send people who love musicals to review musicals. Most theatre critics will admit to being lovers of plays but how many of them would pay, and that is the real criteria, to see a musical? I remember enjoying We Will Rock You after a universal panning from the critics, and I know that longevity and critical acclaim are never the same thing, but that show is this month celebrating its sixth birthday.
The other uphill climb that Gone With the Wind the musical has to make is the revered nature of the film which many critics are old enough to have fallen in love with in their youth (well maybe not in 1939, but at one of the two further relaunches of a film, which has to be in the top ten movies of all time). So if you have bought tickets for the musical in advance of the critical notices, despair not. Yes the show was long, coming in at three hours twenty five but the seats in the New London are so comfortable that the time for me did not drag.
Darius Danesh is magnificent. He is handsome, can both sing and act and his speaking voice is in the deep registers and is very sexy and commanding. His singing voice, essentially a baritone, did seem to have a higher range as well. In his opening scene he is well groomed and every other male member of the cast (with the exception of Edward Baker-Duly as Ashley Wilkes) is having a bad wig day so that Rhett stands out for his height, his wonderful tailoring, his hair cut and his gorgeous sense of style and wry humour.
I liked Jill Paice as well. She captures the desperation of Scarlett, sings feistily but is perhaps light on Scarlett’s ruthless, nasty streak. Scarlett gets an ensemble song about how much she is disapproved of , with "She’s No Lady" while she flirts with all the men in an attempt to make Ashley jealous.
Natsha Yvette Williams as the capacious Mammy is sensational as is the musically experienced Ray Shell as Pork. Julian Forsyth as Scarlett’s father Gerald underlines the importance of land to his family, and his wife Ellen (Susannah Fellowes) leads the Catholic O’Hara family prayers. Madeleine Worral plays plain but good Melanie who marries plain but good Ashley (Edward Baker-Duly). Susan Jane Tanner as Aunt Pittypat looks like a Dickensian aunt and lends character.
The songs are pretty enough, maybe a tad derivative (but derivation has never stopped ALW having hits!) and some familiarisation would obviously increase one’s enjoyment. The songs from the black slaves and ex-slaves are tremendous in power and evocation; for example, the opening "Born to be Free" and, after they have achieved their freedom, the soulful, soaring "Wings of a Dove". I also liked some of the jaunty upbeat numbers, like the one set after the Civil War where "Reconstruction Planning" is the theme and there is some dramatic and fun choreography as everyone pulls together for the rebuilding effort although we know the South never really recovers.
Other critics have focussed on a few silly lyrics but there are many that are sensible and any lyricist who can fit in "to claim that war is deleterious to trade" into a song is doing well! There are some good contrasts between the society ladies of Atlanta with their silver tea services before the war "The Very Best People" and after the defeat of the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysberg, where as widows, the women face the poignant prospect of bringing up their children alone, "The cost is more than I can bear" The main love duet, "Gently, Softly, Deeply" smacks a little of "Truly, Madly, Deeply" but gives us the opportunity to see Scarlett and Ashley observed, from where he is lying on a sofa, by the amused Rhett.
This isn’t a show that you see for the choreography much of which concentrates on the period dances which were a part of society then, but the crinolines are spectacular and no cost has been spared on costume including Scarlett’s famous red silk frock and Rhett’s snakeskin shoes. If I have a design criticism, it isn’t the atmospheric auditorium decorated with Southern flags and old Slave auction posters but the lack of grandeur of the ante-bellum southern plantation mansions, which a little more investment could easily improve. The burning of Atlanta is very well staged with real flames and collapsing "masonry", the whole stage lit red and here we see Trevor Nunn at his dramatic best. The circular space at the New London is used well by Nunn to give the audience plenty of involvement with the cast as they pop up all over the place.
Bringing vast pages of descriptive text from novel to stage is always a problem and Nunn uses the whole cast (I counted 33) narrative style he developed years ago for Nicholas Nickleby where each cast member delivers a little gobbet of the story. It is quite a rapid delivery but should serve to fill in those who are hazy about the story, without creating tedium for those who know it all. The awkward Klu Klux Klan incident is glossed over with Scarlett being attacked by some white men rather than ex-slaves but it cannot be cut altogether because it features Rhett’s ingenious rescue of Ashley from the army and Scarlett’s re-entry into widowhood. I’m sure Rhett must have so enjoyed explaining his alibi ruse that the well behaved Ashley was drunk and had been frequenting a brothel. We see the tragic side when Rhett cannot give up the body of his beloved daughter Bonny.
As far as I can remember the story has been true to the book. The author of the music and the lyrics is Margaret Martin, a Californian lecturer in Health Education, although she has studied music, and her remarkable achievement is developing this musical on her own. She identified with Scarlett whose life reflects her own as a single parent looking after two children. Nunn applies what he calls the Volvo test to sample CDs sent to him. He plays the tunes to his children in the car and sees if they are catchy and popular and Ms Martin’s tunes passed first time!
The night I saw GWTW there was a good reaction from the audience and no obvious gaps in the audience of those disappearing in the interval. I was fortunate enough to speak with a lady from Georgia who had liked it and was looking forward to seeing the show in New York. I am confident that many people who love musicals will enjoy Gone With the Wind and Darius Danesh’s all round performance is very memorable —and yes, you may well give a damn!
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Gone With the Wind, the Musical
Music by Margaret Martin Book and lyrics by Margaret Martin adapted by Trevor Nunn Based on the novel by Margaret Mitchell Directed by Trevor Nunn Starring: Darius Danesh, Jill Paice, Natasha Yvette Williams, Ray Shell, Edward Baker-Duly, Madeleine Worrall With: Jina Burrows, Julian Forsyth, Susannah Fellows, Jacqueline Boatswain, Leon Herbert, Chris Jarman, Susan Tracy, Jeff Shankley, Kathryn Akin, Susan Jane Tanner, Alan Vicary, David Roberts, Alan Winner, Gareth Chart, Tom Sellwood, Emily Bryant, Gemma Sutton, Kirsty Hoiles, Laura Checkley, Lorraine Chappell, Savannah Stevenson, Jenessa Qua, Derek Hagen, Tober Reilly, Iam Conningham, Horace Oliver, Chloe-Jean Bishop, Nolan Frederick, Rosalind James, Christopher Ragland Movement Director: David Bolger Musical Director: David White Orchestrations: William David Brohn Musical Supervision and Arrangements: Gareth Valentine Design: John Napier Costume Design: Andreanne Neofitou Lighting: Neil Austin Sound: Paul Groothuis Producer: Aldo Scrofani and Colin Ingram Running time: Three hours 25 minutes with one interval Box Office: 0844 412 4654 Booking to 27th September 2008 Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge based on 29th April 2008 performance at The New London Theatre, Drury Lane London WC2 (Tube: Holborn) |
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Musical Numbers
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Act One
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Act Two
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