June 3, 2005

London - This trip has turned into a lesson in the wins and losses of casting...

Closing night of the trip was Guys & Dolls, a show that is pretty tough to screw up. But Michael Grandage found a way. It's not screwed up enough to unenjoyable. Frank Loesser's score for this show is one of the best ever for a musical comedy. The book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows by way of Damon Runyon is undeniable.

But the first big mistake - and it keeps this from being one of the most memorable productions of the show - is in the casting. It's not that Ewan McGregor's small voice is too small. It's that he is in the wrong role. He is surely seen as a sex symbol, but for the purposes of this show, he is 100% Nathan Detroit, not Sky Masterson. Ewan is a charming rascal, not a smoldering playboy.

It gets worse... because Jane Krakowski is so good as Adelaide. She suffers Grandage however, in that he has her singing and talking through her nose through most of the show... which inhibits the tonality of her lovely, deeper singing voice and makes her feel too much like she is trying to fill the squeaky charms of Vivian Blaine and Faith Prince. But what Krakowski brings to the role more than anyone else has is her relentless sensuality. When her Adelaide worries about getting the fish-eye from the hotel clerk, you also get the feeling that she is willing to put up with it - as much as she wants to marry Nathan - because she likes those trips to the hotel room. It's as though Ms. Krakowski just can't help herself. Even during the closing number, as they hold for applause, her leg finds its way snaking around "Nathan's." When she stands by her man, she subtly pushes her tush into his crotch. (That said, I think that Grandage's choice to have Adelaide and the dancers go topless in their second number - back to the audience - is too much and too outside the truth of the period. It just doesn't work and just isn't necessary.)

And while Douglas Hodge is an utter disaster for this show as Nathan - he just isn't meant to be trying a New York accent or to be singing big, non-Lloyd Webber ballads - the bigger loss is that you just know that McGregor would be completely believable as the man who has been able to keep Adelaide satisfied in every way but one for 14 years

Without the benefit of having seen it on stage, I would imagine that McGregor and a free-to-sing-like-herself Krakowski could be the best Adelaide and Nathan pairing in the history of Guys & Dolls... and that is saying a whole lot.

There is nothing wrong with Jenna Russell as Sgt. Sarah... nothing that's her fault.

Getting past the casting issues, Michael Grandage directs the show like a 6-year-old who doesn't want his peas and carrots to touch. There are four big dance numbers... and only one ("Sit Down, You're Rockin' The Boat") is actually part of a song being sung. He does, with choreographer Rob Ashford, a big chorus dance thing over the overture. ("Blasphemy!") Then, he barely has anyone or anything on stage, except for the actual singers, for the first number ("Can Do"). And on and on, we get dance numbers separate from the singing. It's bizarre, really. And with a set that is mostly empty all the time (the mission gets a back wall and some furniture), you end up with one or two actors singing alone on a big stage. It's not magical. It almost feels like a reactive choice, desperate to find originality in what has been done so well so many times.

And it's not just Krakowski that Grandage leaves tonally challenged. Douglas Hodge sounds like a British guy trying to do a bad New York accent. And almost all the supporting players are working so hard on the accent that they sound like unintelligible cartoons. In order to sing in Krakowski's exaggeratedly high/nasal key, the nightclub act ends up sounding like Betty Boop and The Boopettes.

I can't say that I am a fan of Martyn Ellis as Nicely Nicely. He doesn't embarrass himself or anything. But he is not a great personality. He is a good actor with a decent singing voice who happens to be the "right shape" to fill our memories of Stubby Kaye. Still, "Sit Down, You're Rocking The Boat" is a winner... there's no slowing that roll.

Anwyay... this is a show that I know and love quite well. So I am demanding. It was good fun, no matter what the mistakes. But I pray... pray... pray... that some night, someone will say, "Let's let Ewan try Nathan tonight... and let Jane sing in her full range." And keep the fire hose nearby.

Yesterday's experience of Billy Elliot was a last minute decision on my part. And getting that ticket wasn't easy. Long queues with lots of people trying to get the returns for this sold out musical.

Guys & Dolls is a crowd pleaser. The Big Life is a crowd pleaser. Billy Elliot... my God... it was a frenzy.

And I enjoyed seeing a show that called for no second guessing on my part. Not only is this the original cast, but it is not driven by celebrity... outside of the film and Elton John as the songwriter.

The biggest surprise was how bloody British this show was. What I remember - apparently incorrectly - as background for Billy's story is very much in the foreground here... that would be the coal strike, Maggie Thatcher, and unemployment. The show opens with a number about the strike, includes a wonderful et piece around a rousing song that wishes Maggie Thatcher a happy birthday, because it means she's "one day closer to death." And on and on... as a dumb old American, I really needed a guidebook.

That said, the show was still a deep, deep home run ball. Interestingly, Stephen Daldry and choreographer Peter Darling use the wide expanse of the empty stage to all the effect that Michael Grandage fails to in G&D. Billy has two dance numbers virtually by himself on stage that are the true showstoppers of this musical. The songs are good, but not classically catchy show tunes... though there are a few magical song moments through the course of the show, usually down tempo. For me, the high point was Ann Emery as Grandma singing about her dead husband, who she loved and hated. The song is funny and poignant and just near perfect. Ryan Longbottom as Billy's sexually ambiguous best friend is the scene stealer extraordinaire.

Daldry is shameless (and very smart) in using the young girls of the dance class Billy joins. It's hard to resist a bunch of cute little girls in tutus.

This show will be a smash anywhere... but there is a real problem in translating it from the very specific U.K. story it now tells to other cultures. It could be set in any small town filled with struggling workers... but it is not. And while I loved the Maggie Thatcher song, I don't see it selling as well in New York. It's just not our history.

So Billy Elliot could be the first hit musical to travel to Broadway with significant changes as part of the move... not for improvement, but for clarity and accessibility. Still... the clearest winner I saw in the West End on this trip.

E-ME. More on Monday, including my comments on Cinderella Man... how is your movie weekend going?