SWEETHEARTS and THE ZOO. To 8 April.
London
SWEETHEARTS THE ZOO
by W S Gilbert by Bolton Rowe music by Arthur Sullivan
Finborough Theatre Finborough Pub 118 Finborough Road SW10 9ED 8 April
8pm
Runs 1hr 50min One interval
TICKETS: 0870 4000 838
www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 1 April
You can have one without the other.
Described as ‘A “Gilbert and Sullivan” Double Bill’ this latest in the Finborough Gaieties revives the twosome in turn. Sweethearts shows the growling satirist turning romantically sentimental in surveying middle-class young things too nervous or defensive to declare their love before he’s carted off to India.
30 years later they meet, neither married, the once-devoted Spreadbrow (Gilbert was a comic dramatist) forgetting the intimate detail young Jenny (now a more mature Jane) fondly remembers. The play appeared in 1874 at the Prince of Wales Theatre where, presumably, its star Lady Bancroft didn’t have to age a generation on a set for another play within a few feet of the audience.
Staging limitations and a passing century or more disguise Gilbert’s tribute to innovative playwright Tom Robertson (also remembered in Pinero’s Trelawney of the Wells). Robertson brought realism to the 1860’s melodrama-laden stage. What’s left is a piece hanging between sentiment and the possibility of parody.
More interesting is Arthur Sullivan’s score for The Zoo by B C Stephenson (librettoing under the pseudonym Bolton Rowe). Despite signs pointing to Lions and Bear Pit, animals are only referred to in a late song; the piece could as well be set in a park or pleasure-ground. Its story of sopranos in love involves a delightfully unconvincing mix of a disguised aristocrat with stomach-ache, a lovelorn suicidal pharmacist and his beloved’s father only too happy to help him on his way.
Sullivan is said to have aspired to composing operas instead of tum-ti-ti-ing tunes for Gilbert’s rhymes. He enjoys parodying the real thing in this 1875 score. But nothing’s truly memorable and it takes only a few bars of the same year’s Trial by Jury to make clear the difference a first-rate libretto would make.
Still, it’s energetically performed with an accomplished 5-strong instrumental ensemble, while Nina Brazier manages a surprisingly full production in Victorian costume on the postage-stamp space. There are fine young singers here, David Menezes also providing a sweat-dripping picture of lover’s angst, contrasting Donald Maxwell, a major singer who brings a bonus in his comic dismissal of youthful ardour.
Sweethearts
Wilcox: Martin Johnston
Jenny Northcott: Marianne Oldham
Henry Spreadbrow: Robert Curtis
Ruth: Jane Lawson
Director: Kate Golledge
Designer: Morgan Large
Lighting: Janmes Whiteside
Sound: David Gregory
Costume: Nell Knudsen
The Zoo
Aesculapius Carboy: David Menezes
Eliza Smith: Myra Sands
Thomas Brown: John Savournin
Laetitia: Fabienne Wood
Mr Grinder: Donald Maxwell
Director: Nina Brazier
Designer: Anna Bliss-Scully
Lighting: James Whiteside
Sound: David Gregory
Orchestration/Arrangements Timothy Henty
Musical Director: David Eaton
Choreographer: Julie Hope
Costume: Nell Knudsen
2007-04-02 12:40:03