Camelot
Open Air Theatre Summer 2004

Never underestimate the charm of an outdoor theatre on a pleasant summer night (and yes, we do have them) in London. The Open Air's annual Shakespeare productions are always a delight, and even a not-particularly-strong musical like Camelot can be a happily satisfying rounding-off of an evening that might have begun with a picnic on the green.

Lerner and Loewe's take on the Arthur-Guinevere-Lancelot triangle story is no My Fair Lady, but it was a moderate hit in 1960 on the strength of advance sales from those who thought it would be and of its original stars, Richard Burton, Julie Andrews and Robert Goulet.

The songs are pleasant enough, though the nearest thing to a show-stopper is Lancelot's mushy ballad 'If Ever I Would Leave You', but the book famously had problems (more on that later) and was at its best a rather old-fashioned operetta even by 1960 standards. Still, if you don't expect too much, you can have a very pleasant time.

Daniel Flynn conveys the boyish idealism that is both Arthur's greatness and his fatal flaw, though he's weaker on the sense of despair and tragedy that must colour the second half of the play, when the love triangle dooms the Round Table (Burton, of course, could do despair and tragedy in his sleep).

Lauren Ward as Guenevere looks lovely and sings prettily in a generic ingenue way, but  conveys no sense of the character and no force of her own personality. And veteran comic Russ Abbott skilfully milks all the laughs out of the relatively small role of the befuddled neighbour king Pellinore.

Seriously hurting this production is the fact that Matt Rawle has bizarrely been directed to play Lancelot as a comic fool, with silly wig, silly accent, and the general air of John Cleese doing a panto Frenchman. This makes it virtually impossible to take the romance with Guenevere seriously, or any of the darker plot developments that go with it - the big dramatic turning point moment when Lancelot's piety produces a miracle raises laughs from an audience that has been primed to laugh at everything he does. (Goulet played him absolutely straight, the few hints of comedy coming from his own inescapable stiffness.)

Another slip in Ian Talbot's generally fluid direction comes in a clear misunderstanding of one of the better songs. The whole point of 'What Do The Simple Folk Do' is that Arthur and Guenevere are awkward and uncomfortable at dancing and the other time-killers they try. But Talbot has them enjoy themselves, making nonsense of the scene.

And it seriously weakens the dramatic power of the final scene, where Arthur passes the myth and ideals of Camelot on to a young boy, if you cast an adult actor in that role.

Despite the simplicity of its story, Camelot had major book problems back in 1960, running over four hours in previews (It's still very close to three), forcing drastic last-minute cuts, and the seams show. Lance and Jenny (and yes, the script's humour does descend to that level) fall in love so instantly that you'd miss it if you blinked - and another place Ian Talbot could have done better was by giving us some earlier hints of chemistry between them.

The villain - Mark Hilton as Mordred - doesn't even show up until Act Two, and whole chapters of the dramatic climax are rushed through in a single chorus song.  But by that point the show, and the evening, and the setting, and perhaps the remainders of your picnic wine may well have caught you up so that you'll be in no mood to criticise.

Gerald Berkowitz

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Review - Camelot - Open Air 2004