There's just a few weeks left to catch director Daniel Evan’s beautiful production of classic musical SHOW BOAT at the New London Theatre.If that weren't enough it also deals with racism and addiction, both to loving the wrong guy and gambling. It does this powerfully but with a lightness of touch that doesn't detract from the show’s feel good factor.
Surprisingly, at least to me, this musical is a very old lady indeed. It was written in 1927 and has music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, based on Edna Ferber's best-selling novel of the same name. It’s the story of the folk who work in and around the Cotton Blossom, a Mississippi River boat, home to Captain Andy’s floating theatre, offering a nightly programme of melodrama and early vaudeville.
Although some of the performers are central characters it isn’t a back stage musical about putting on a show. It’s the love lives of its protagonists, spanning 40 years from 1887 to 1927 that’s the focus, especially Andy’s daughter Magnolia who falls for handsome stranger, Gaylord Ravenal and leaves the riverboat only to find herself married to a gambler who walks out on her and their daughter. Gaylord like Billy in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel never lets us despise him and we all hope for a family reunion; there’s something very touching about a meeting between a long lost father and daughter.
Many of the musical numbers will be familiar to you if you love great songs from the middle of the last century. If you don’t then get down to the New London where hearing such treats as "Ol' Man River", "Make Believe" and "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" might get you as hooked on great song writing as I am.
Staging Showboat presents a number of challenges not least how to realise a full sized, multi-layered, Mississippi paddle boat on stage and a number of unrelated other locations when the action switches to and from Chicago. Lez Brotherston’s design never feels exactly sumptuous but it’s elegant in its use of a huge sliding set of platforms adorned with festoon lights to represent the boat and fascinating back projections suggesting the Windy City.
Gina Beck as Magnolia and Chris Peluso as Gaylord have singing voices that are as beautiful as they are and they lead a formidably talented cast including Emmanuel Kojo and Sandra Marvin who bring great depth and sensitivity to the black underclass roles.
Highly recommended.
THE PLOUGH AND THE STARS by Sean O’Casey is a legendary masterpiece. With 2016 being the centenary year of the Easter Rising in Ireland it made perfect sense for The NATIONAL THEATRE to stage the final of the ‘Dublin Plays’ trilogy. Although the directors, Jeremy Herrin and Howard Davies create some compelling moments, they still fail to bring the spirit of the piece alive; resulting in the production feeling somewhat irrelevant and stale.