“Parade”

Donmar Warehouse, London • 27 October 2007 • 2:30pm
Music & Lyrics by Jason Robert Brown. Book by Alfred Uhry. Co-conceived by Harold Prince.

Director & Choreographer: Rob Ashford. Musical Director: Thomas Murray. With Bertie Carvel (Leo Frank), Lara Pulver (Lucille Frank)…

I missed Parade when it originally opened on Broadway in December of 1998 because it folded after two months for lack of an audience. It was awarded two posthumous Tony Awards (one for Best Book of a Musical and another for Best Score of a Musical… although the Tony for Best Musical strangely went to Fosse). The Donmar Warehouse is giving the show its UK premiere in a production directed by Rob Ashford, who was the original production’s Assistant Choreographer.

As was already evidenced by the CD, Parade is a brilliant and deeply disturbing show. It deals with the Leo Frank case, the story of a Jewish man convicted of murdering a 13 year-old factory girl in Georgia in 1913, who was lynched by a Ku Klux Klan mob when his death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment after it surfaced that some of the evidence against him had been forged. (To this day, the controversy hasn’t ended, although there is very strong evidence pointing to Frank’s innocence, most notably the late confession of a factory worker in the 1980s.)

Parade combines a hauntingly beautiful score and a strongly built book. From the first song, “The Old Red Hills of Home,” sung magnificently by Stuart Matthew Price and Steven Page, soon joined by the entire company, it is obvious the show is going to be no ordinary experience. Rob Ashford has conceived a staging in which the story unfurls cinematically in the Donmar’s tiny but highly theatrical space. The cast is tremendously good, with glowing performances from Bertie Carvel and Lara Pulver as Leo and Lucille Frank. My only complaint is that nobody even tries to use convincing accents.

Parade is contemporary musical at its best. It is also, at times, theatre at its best. The fact that it didn’t manage to attract an audience in New York is a sad sign of the times. It is playing to sold-out houses at the Donmar, but this is only a limited run. Here’s hoping London can give this wonderful show the chance that it deserves.

“Young Frankenstein”

Hilton Theatre, New York • 20 October 2007 • 2pm [preview]
Music & Lyrics by Mel Brooks. Book by Mel Brooks & Thomas Meehan. Based on the screenplay by Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks for the eponymous movie.

Direction & Choreography by Susan Stroman. With Matthew LaBanca (Frederick Frankenstein [understudy]), Megan Mullally (Elizabeth), Sutton Foster (Inga), Shuler Hensley (The Monster), Andrea Martin (Frau Blucher), Fred Applegate (Hermit), Christopher Fitzgerald (Igor)…

Young Frankenstein is Mel Brooks’ second Broadway musical. It is sometimes so reminiscent of the first one that it feels like The Producers II: Let’s Take Transylvania. The music is good old Broadway fare, though hardly original. And there are jokes aplenty, the lewder, the better. (Inga to Frederick, as she is resting against him on a hay cart: “Don’t hold that against me.” Him: “I’ll try not to.”)

What will probably make the show a success, on top of being inspired by a cult movie, is its fantastic physical production (sets, costumes, lights) and the great work of director-choreographer Susan Stroman. Although Matthew LaBanca did a very fine job, I was quite disappointed to miss Roger Bart in the title role. There are many outstanding performances in the rest of the cast, most remarkably Andrea Martin’s Frau Blucher (the object of a hilarious recurring joke) and Christopher Fitzgerald’s excellent Igor.

“The Glorious Ones”

Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre, New York • 19 October 2007 • 8pm [preview]
Book & Lyrics: Lynn Ahrens. Music: Stephen Flaherty. Based on the novel by Francine Prose.

Direction & Choreography by Graciela Daniele. With Marc Kudisch (Flaminio Scala), Natalie Venetia Belcon (Columbina), Jeremy Webb (Francesco Andreini), Erin Davie (Isabelle Andreini), Julyana Soelistyo (Armanda Ragusa), David Patrick Kelly (Pantalone), John Kassir (Dottore).

There’s always something exciting about a Flaherty & Ahrens musical, because these two authors have a knowledge and understanding of the history of musicals that inform their work. That doesn’t mean they try to copy the musicals of the past; it means they know the territory they’re trying to expand.The Glorious Ones tells the touching story of a Commedia dell’Arte troupe in Italy at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries. While not completely conventional in form, it remains largely linear. I think it spends too much time introducing the various characters instead of finding a way for them to introduce themselves indirectly in the course of the play.

Graciela Daniele’s staging is a treat: it displays energy, inventiveness and a true sense of theatricality. The setting, of course, is the wooden stage of a travelling troupe. (I kept thinking it looked like the setting for a Schmidt & Jones musical.) The cast, led by the remarkable Marc Kudisch, give a tremendous performance.

The score is delightful but strongly reminiscent of earlier Flaherty & Ahrens musicals, especially Ragtime. There’s even a song that rhymes “silhouette” and “pirouette,” two words that stand prominently in the lyrics of Ragtime.

The Glorious Ones might not be perfect, but it’s an enjoyable and literate effort and an ode to the theatre and to comedy. It won’t open for another couple of weeks, so it’s likely to be even better then.

“Half a Sixpence”

Theatre Royal, Brighton • 6 October 2007 • 2:30pm
Music & Lyrics by David Heneker. Book by Beverley Cross, based on Kipps by H. G. Wells. New version by Warner Brown.

Directed by Bob Tomson. Musical Direction by Tom de Keyser. With Gary Wilmot (Kipps), Claire Marlowe (Ann Pornick), Zara Plessard (Helen Walsingham), James Dinsmore (Young Walsingham), Gaye Brown (Mrs. Walsingham)…

I consider myself lucky to have been able to see a production of this classic British musical, which originally opened in 1963 and was made into a movie four years later.

The title role is forever associated with Tommy Steele who, interestingly enough, is currently touring the UK in Doctor Dolittle. But Gary Wilmot makes the part his own with great finesse and panache. He is a thoroughly likeable actor, capable of conveying a broad range of emotions. His eleven o’clock number (more like five o’clock, under the circumstances), “What Should I Feel?”, was a knockout.

This touring production is far from opulent, of course, but the sets, costumes and lighting look professional and the small orchestra (six musicians) somehow manages to treat David Heneker’s score with some due respect. A score which is in turn joyous, atmospheric or sentimental.

Bob Tomson’s staging keeps the flow moving and Jason Pennycooke’s elegant choreography raises the energy level when necessary. A very enjoyable show altogether.