CAROUSEL. To 1 September.
Chichester
CAROUSEL
music by Richard Rodgers book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Chichester Festival Theatre In rep to 1 September 2006
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Wed, Thu, Sat 2pm
Audio-described 13 July 2pm, 28 July, 3 Aug 2pm, 1 Sept
Runs 2hr 50min One interval
TICKETS: 01243 781312
www.cft.org.uk
box.office@cft.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 1 July
Faithful replaying of old favourites rather than any new illumination.
If any theatre’s a feelgood place, it’s Chichester. Set between a car-park and a park, but firmly setting its face towards grass rather than tarmac, its Festival Season flourishes with the summer sun. Yet here it is pairing 2 early-summer death-related productions. In the smaller Minerva Theatre there’s Rattigan’s In Praise of Love, about a terminally-ill Estonian, while Rodgers and Hammerstein’s distinctly unmerry-go-round of a tale perhaps betrays its central-European origin in a story of wife-beating, attempted murder and suicide. All set, of course, to some delicious melodies.
Richard Rodgers contrasts the bright vivacity of the community around (emphasising the traditional clambake rather than hard graft up at the mill) in songs such as ‘June is Bustin’ Out All-Over’ with the hesitant love music for Julie Jordan and Billy Bigelow. These two improvidents, who marry as they lose their jobs, are contrasted by All-American Dream-ers Carrie and Enoch Snow. Oscar Hammerstein points the difference ‘If I Loved You’ Julie and Billy tentatively sing; ‘When I Marry Mr Snow’ announces Carrie. Yet Enoch (as Robert Irons shows) is close-on insufferable; pleased with himself and regarding Carrie as another of the production lines (they will have 9 children) which will establish his wealth.
All this needs to be made dramatically convincing, but despite director Angus Jackson’s track-record the result’s strangely hollow, full of ‘musical-comedy’ acting, which substitutes performer’s charm for character, the singing speckled by emotional clichés such as sudden short notes and the choreography efficient but lacking any surprise or sense of inevitability (a gesture of raised, floppy hands waving soon becomes irritating). Additionally, the amplification sounds tinny or in the case of Norman Bowman’s Billy encourages an initial deep-voiced stiffness at odds with the character’s looser body-language.
Only Roy Dotrice’s late cameo reminds what authoritative, deeply-considered and controlled acting can add to a musical play. But if not the roaraway success that would have made this a searing experience, there were plenty of audience-members enjoying themselves. The end (dry ice and starry heights notwithstanding) is rightly moving rather than merely sentimental. And there are all those glorious Rodgers tunes.
Carrie Pipperidge: Lydia Griffiths
Julie Jordan: Harriet Shore
Mrs Mullin: Nina French
Billy Bigelow: Norman Bowman
Policeman: Richard Kent
David Bascombe: Steve Fortune
Nettie Fowler: Jacqui Dubois
Enoch Snow: Robert Irons
Jigger Craigin: Adam Croasdell
1st Heavenly Friend: Alan Vicary
Starkeeper: Roy Dotrice
Louise: Clemmie Sveaas
Carnival Boy: Benny Maslov
Enoch Snow Jr: Tom Woods
Arminy/Dancer: Madeleine Harland
Penny: Justine Schnellbeck
Dancers: Josephine Darvill-Mills, Daniel Farrow, Helen French, Gavin Mitford, Alice Mogg, Francesca Sibthorp, Elia Lo Tauro
Children: Helena Berry, Johnny Boutwood, Charley Cunningham, Jack Everson, Ben Geering, Joe Hugh James, Winter Loseby, Isobel Miller, Felix Mosse, Edward Porter, Alice Sowden, Charlotte Titcombe, Stephanie Wilkins, Jennie Witton
Director: Angus Jackson
Designer: Robert Innes Hopkins
Lighting: Neil Austin
Sound: Matt McKenzie
Orchestrator: Jason Carr
Musical Director: Robert Scott
Choreographer: Javier de Frutos
Dialect Coach: Charmian Hoare
Fight director: Terry King
Dance Captains: Josphine Darvill-Mills, Gavin Mitford
Assistant director: Thomas Hescott
Assistant musical director: Jonathan Williams
Dance Captains: Josphine Darvill-Mills, Gavin Mitford
2006-07-02 12:21:17