Although it is hard to imagine a radical production of The Merry Widow, the heart does rather sink at the ENO’s artistic director John Berry’s reassurance in the programme that “this will be a production of The Merry Widow you will recognise.”

Still, Saturday night’s opening was full of pleasures and I found my eyes filling with tears of joy on at least three occasions, one of them when the orchestra and chorus crept up sensuously on the widow’s song about the unrequited love of a huntsman for a wood spirit, or Vilja.  

This is one of the most glorious melodies ever written and partly explains why Franz Lehar’s operetta went global a century ago, long before Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh started flooding the international market.

My piano teacher always sang Vilja at our annual pupils’ concert, as well as Softly Awakes My Heart from Saint-Saens’ Samson and Delilah, and I used to accompany her, not even knowing what the words were about but unaccountably moved by the music.

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The Lord may have regretted moonlighting on American Idol last week, as he was left with a bottom two which did not make him happy. In fact he looked like he was positively fuming. Could it be that all is not happy in camp, following his u-turn with Ashley last week and the panel’s dislike of Keisha which clearly clashed with his own views?

When asked who did well in the group song, DVO said Jodie and Andrew was mightily impressed with Keisha, which explains his temper tantrum later on. The panel were then asked who was NOT Nancy. Barry said Keisha, DVO said Ashley and John said Keisha. This is where I believe the rot had set in, as Andrew is clearly not agreeing with the panel and either expects them to tow the line or is thinking that he is on the wrong show. Read the rest of this entry »

With it being week 5, some of these wannabe Nancys are now giving lacklustre performances, with some of the favourites clearly running out of steam. We are now down to eight girls and after Fran’s departure, it’s proof that anyone could go. So, this means they all step it up a gear, right? Wrong, as Saturday saw some really bad performances.

Niamh was first up with her version of “Valerie” and it was awful. Her diction was all over the place and her dance routines were embarassing. You could argue that the song was clearly unsuitable. But, let’s face it…. this young lass is not Nancy. She is a nice performer but she has had better weeks and is now turning in distinctly average performances.

Rachel was next with “I’m With You” and she gave a much better performance. This girl is reliable and certainly has less work to do than the others. Apart from a few tuning problems, she could take the part tomorrow. Week in, week out she pleases the judges and wins over the public. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s odd how once a bad show opens — like Gone with the Wind — all people seem to want to do is jump up and down on its corpse. The gloating of the gossips is deeply repellent,  much more so than the sad sack of a mediocre show itself. I’ve found myself defending Trevor Nunn’s staging way beyond its virtues just to be cantankerous.

I certainly think Trevor Nunn is a genius whose work is wildly uneven and not even predictable these days. He can console himself with the fact that he should have two much better received productions up and running in London before the end of the year, both of them coincidentally based on Ingmar Bergman movies.

The West End transfer of his Coventry production of Scenes from a Marriage starring his wife Imogen Stubbs and Iain Glen, is well in hand; and his Menier Chocolate Factory revival of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music should be a treat for Christmas.   
 
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The great film critic Philip French, whose columns have been the best reason for buying The Observer for the last thirty years, was honoured with a Life Membership award at BAFTA last night, only the fifty-eighth such award in BAFTA’s history, and the only critical recipient since Dilys Powell. 

Friends and colleagues thronged the reception in Piccadilly — Michael Frayn and Claire Tomalin, Hugh Hudson, Fenella Fielding, Anthony Howard, Gillian Reynolds, Christopher Frayling, John Gross and a multitude of critics both major and minor — and Philip conducted a fascinating one-way two-hour conversation with David Puttnam on the stage. 

The chat was punctuated with a Desert Island Clips of ten key French movies: The Four Feathers, The Servant, Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierrot le Fou, The Quiet Man, High Noon, Singin’ in the Rain, Bad Day at Black Rock, Kind Hearts and Coronets, one of Satyajit Ray’s masterpieces and Mike Leigh’s Vera Drake.

When asked if he had ever wanted to make a film, French replied magnificently: “”I couldn’t make a film as good as one I would want to see,” adding that he’d rather see five films in a week than make one film every five years. 

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The best bits of I’d Do Anything are the cutaways to Andrew’s frowning face as one of the girls hits a bum note. He looked totally blank as Francesca sang, smiling like a five year old opening birthday presents as Niamh did her number, and sighed as Ashley walked across the stage. A hint of things to come later?

Kerry Ellis from the hit show Wicked helped the Nancys get ready to perform in front of the show’s matinee audience. The audience (well, the producers really) pointed out Keisha, Rachel and Jessie. Jodie and Francesca both received mixed comments. Jodie mentioned that this was a “snippet of my dream!” She really should jump ship to X Factor!

Cut to Andrew in zany sunglasses looking like a blue-bottle fly, as the girls sing an awful “Viva Las Vegas” looking like flowery ironing boards in their hideous costumes! ‘The fly’ singles Sarah out as impressive. John says Ashley and Barry likes Jessie and Samantha. DVO agrees and says Samantha. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s already Week 4 and the competition is hotting up. Unlike many of these shows, there are a few contestants who could nail this part and be a huge success. But there are others who could not carry it off in month of Sundays and that is becoming apparent week on week.

The Lord was on “other business” - according to Head-Prefect, Graham Norton. Of course, we all know why he isn’t in the Studio, as he is moonlighting on the show American Idol. Really Cameron Mackintosh should have been there instead. But by having an empty chair and a live link up, instead of the real thing means that you are left thinking that this show does not have the life or death decision at the end that the hype dictates it is!

Anyway, with or without the Phantom, the Nancys were on form and ready to battle on.

First up was the ‘people’s’ Nancy, Jodie from Blackpool. She delivered a really breathy version of Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5.” It was full of life but she looked out of breath to me. I know that there is a big swell of support behind this lass. But to me, she is like a loyal St Bernard but with no teeth. I want to see some bite to her performance. At the minute, she would be great in C Beebies; The Musical, as she is too twee to be Nancy! Read the rest of this entry »

Anyone can see that the most appealing and most talented candidates to play Nancy in the upcoming production of Oliver! are both Irish: my money’s on Rachel, but I’m totally smitten by Niamh.

You can see why the BBC television audition show I’d Do Anything is so popular: it plugs straight into the nation’s enthusiasm for musical theatre in a way that musical theatre itself doesn’t, quite.

What do I mean? The people who love I’d Do Anything — despite the bumbling, off-colour remarks of panellist Barry Humphries and the nauseating cuteness of the Oliver boys — are left stone cold by Lord of the Rings and just about make do with Wicked. And they won’t even know about a delightful pocket-size production of The Pajama Game in the Union at Southwark.

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You know many of the judges on these reality singing shows say: “That was very Cruise-Ship in style.” Well, I went to review John Barrowman’s gig at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester on Tuesday. And guess what? It was very Cruise-Ship!

To read the full review, click here.

For me, it’s just the theatre down the road, but for most of the seven hundred plus audience in the Roundhouse — formerly the Round House –for yesterday’s ten hour RSC marathon of the two parts of Henry IV and Henry V it was a bit of an outing. Nicholas de Jongh went so far as to buy a pair of cheap blue sunglasses in Sainsbury’s during one of the meal breaks.

He probably needed them later on when producer Thelma Holt passed him a bright pink peppermill after the siege of Harfleur. “Why are you giving me this?” exclaimed Nick, “Is it a dildo?” On stage, the peppermill-do was obviously transformed into Fluellen’s leek, which Jonathan Slinger — is he the best Fluellen ever? — crammed down Pistol’s gullet.

We measure out our theatre-going lives on days like these. I met a man from Aberdeen who had come down to London just to be there, really, and incidentally try and buy tickets. He had gone across the road for lunch because the service was so slow in the venue itself. He had already seen Henry V and thought the French were rather sent up. To which I replied, “Jolly good.” 

Nick Allott, Cameron Mackintosh’s right hand man, breezed by in a pink sweater; not another gift from Thelma, surely.

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