Theatreguide.London
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The Theatreguide.London Review
In March 2020 the covid-19 epidemic
forced the closure of all British theatres. Some companies adapted
by putting archive recordings of past productions online, others
by streaming new shows. And we take the opportunity to explore
other vintage productions preserved online. Until things return to
normal we review the experience of watching live theatre onscreen.
The
Music Man
Winter
Garden Theater and YouTube February 2023
I have to start by saying I am morally offended by the existence of this video. It was made by an audience member during three separate performances in New York's Winter Garden Theater in January 2023 – much to the annoyance, I am sure, of all those sitting around him.
On the other hand, it is a record of a major Broadway musical revival with an unquestioned star at its centre, and if you can quiet your conscience and put up with the inevitable technical limitations, you do get some sense of the fun to be had.
The 1957 every-Tony-available-winning musical by Meredith Willson (music, lyrics, most of the book) is about an early-twentieth-century conman who sells a small American town on the idea of a boys' band, planning to skip town with the money collected for instruments, uniforms and lessons. But there's a pretty local librarian. . . .
Star Hugh Jackman (in Greatest Showman, not Wolverine mode) is an actor-who-sings more than a singer, which is sufficient, and a singer-who-moves more than a dancer, which is fine. And he is a performer of immense charm, which is essential.
If you can see past his one great handicap – that he is not Robert Preston – he is pretty darn good. He holds the stage with no evident effort, moves with a fluid ease, and dances well enough to get the musical numbers going before moving aside and letting the chorus dancers take over.
His big numbers – Trouble, 76 Trombones and Marion – all work, and choreographer Warren Carlyle gives us a bonus by inserting Jackman into Shipoopi as well. (And, in keeping with current practice, the biggest and best dance number is reserved for a post-curtain-calls encore.)
Jackman's boyish smile and quiet sexiness carry much of his characterisation, and if he does not entirely resist the temptation to flirt with the audience (making a moment less about the conman's cleverness than the actor's cuteness), his fans don't complain.
(I'll complain about one thing, and scold director Jerry Zaks for allowing it. Despite a song that repeatedly stresses the rhyme, Jackman persists on not matching Marion – marry-yon – and librarian – lie-bray-ree-ann)
Co-star Sutton Foster does not register quite as strongly – the show is not about her – but she brings some fresh colours to her role, giving Marion a little harder edge than you might expect.
Her singing voice is forceful rather than sweet, and there is just the hint of the sadder-but-wiser girl in her playing – might it be that this is not the librarian's first ever travelling salesman?
Oddly for such an experienced master designer, Santo Loquasto seems bothered by the Winter Garden's very wide stage, and a mix of painted backgrounds, front-of-curtain numbers and empty space around the performers gives the production an underfunded air.
But everyone is there to see the big star and the big numbers, and they do not disappoint.
Gerald
Berkowitz
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