Not many seasons ago, the West End musical appeared moribund, the glory days
of the 1980s having given way to a failure of nerve prompted by many a
high-profile flop. Even the Broadway Tony-winners — Contact, say, or
Thoroughly Modern Millie — weren’t guaranteed success in London. But what a
difference a season makes. As if to keep pace with a year that has already
hosted the return of Mack & Mabel, Broadway’s Avenue Q and the transfer
from the Menier Chocolate Factory of Sam Buntrock’s glorious production of
Sunday in the Park with George, along comes an autumn offering musicals in
abundance, from would-be crowd-pleasers (Dirty Dancing) and a genuine
Broadway behemoth (Wicked) to a trio of familiar names (Porgy and Bess, The
Sound of Music, Cabaret) that, one trusts, will look tantalisingly
unfamiliar in their latest incarnations.
What follows is a guide to the imminent glut in order of opening nights, which
comes with a caveat: with several further musicals currently orbiting London
in search of a place to land, even this list makes no claims of being
absolutely complete.
Wicked
How did the Wicked Witch of the West get that way? Why have audiences on
Broadway and across America packed out a show lacking both stars and the
in-built commercial appeal of, say, Abba? And what’s the net effect on the
American performer Idina Menzel of painting herself green eight times a
week? The answers to those questions and more can be gleaned nightly here in
London, now that Wicked has crossed the Atlantic in the busiest year for New
York-London musical migration that even those with the hardiest theatrical
memories can recall. Wicked divided the critics in New York and lost out on
the Tony for best musical to the small-scale Avenue Q. But that hasn’t
mattered one jot, as Wicked has become an apparently unstoppable juggernaut
— which should be particularly heartening to women, given that both of its
principal characters belong to the fairer sex. Menzel, who won a Tony as the
outcast Elphaba, has come to London to reprise her original role. She is
joined by a newcomer, Helen Dallimore, as the perky, “popular” (the title of
the composer Stephen Schwartz’s best number) good witch, Glinda. Nigel
Planer, Miriam Margolyes and the stage Saturday Night Fever’s erstwhile Tony
Manero, Adam Garcia, are among those along for the ride.
Apollo Victoria Theatre, SW1; now previewing, opens September 27. Box
office: 0870 400 0751
Cabaret
What good is sitting alone in your room when you could be watching Anna
Maxwell Martin and James Dreyfus play two of the most fabled characters in
all of Broadway history: the hapless Sally Bowles, the nightclub singer
struggling to find her way in 1930s Berlin, and the playful, sinister Emcee?
John Kander and Fred Ebb’s landmark musical has long been a favourite of
directorial auteurs, whether Hal Prince and Sam Mendes on stage or Bob Fosse
in the lauded 1972 film. Now the show has been given over to Rufus Norris,
who had a surprise summer hit with the National’s Market Boy and, before
that, made his name with Festen. There were early rumours that Martine
McCutcheon or even Eddie Izzard might inherit Liza Minnelli’s screen role as
Sally, notwithstanding the fact that Minnelli in some ways is all wrong for
the part: for one thing, she sings too well. But the fast-rising theatre
actress Maxwell Martin’s landing of the part suggests a production with an
eye on creative rethinking, rather than stunt casting.
And besides, isn’t Cabaret one of the small handful of musicals that, in some
subconscious way, have never really gone away?
Lyric Theatre, W1; previews September 22, opens October 10. Box office:
0870 890 1107
Spamalot
Broadway has proved a more than fertile grail for this anarchic stage version
(“lovingly ripped off”, in the creators’ own words) of the film Monty Python
and the Holy Grail, here tweaked to embrace a plot that has to do with
conquering that fabled territory, Broadway — though quite how that
particular aspect of the narrative will play on the West End is as yet
unknown. On the other hand, it seems right and fitting that this
Anglo-American concoction (the director is the Broadway and film veteran
Mike Nichols; the book-writer, lyricist and co-composer is the Python Eric
Idle) should be seen in London, a culture not exactly immune to the comic
appeal of clattering coconuts and pastiches of Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Tim Curry, New York’s original King Arthur, now leads a London cast that is
somewhat less celebrity-heavy than the first Broadway ensemble (which
included Hank Azaria, the star of Huff, and David Hyde Pierce, who played
Niles Crane in the television show Frasier). Clearly, the material is the
draw of a show that has suffered little box-office slippage during its
various cast-changes on Broadway.
Palace, W1; previews September 30, opens October 16. Box office: 0870 890
0142
Caroline, or Change
The galvanic American director George C Wolfe makes his long-awaited National
Theatre debut with Tony Kushner’s largely autobiographical musical, set in
Louisiana in 1963. Adding to the roster of visiting American talents is the
mighty Tonya Pinkins, who repeats her Broadway performance as the Caroline
of the title, the black maid to a Southern Jewish family at a time of
tumultuous social and political change. That rare musical fuelled largely by
anger, Caroline split the New York critics as few shows have, which bears
testament to a show with an unusual ability to get under the skin. But
sustained exposure (via CD) to Jeanine Tesori’s score suggests a musical
palette light years beyond her work on Thoroughly Modern Millie, here
pressed into the service of a show that features a singing dryer, as well as
the sort of larger societal resonances you don’t get at, for example, Mamma
Mia!. Clive Rowe and Anna Francolini lead the supporting cast.
Lyttelton, National Theatre, SE1; previews October 10, opens October 19.
Box office: 020 7452 3000
Dirty Dancing
The box office has been having the time of its life, gathering more than £6m
since bookings opened for the UK stage premiere of the sweaty Patrick Swayze
film, which, oddly enough, has reached London in the same season as Swayze
himself, in Guys and Dolls. The intense interest from the public renders a
critical response more or less irrelevant, which may be just as well, given
that the film didn’t exactly sweep the Academy Awards in 1988 — though (I’ve
Had the) Time of My Life did win the Oscar for best song. Georgina Rich
inherits Jennifer Grey’s screen role, with the Australian dancer Josef Brown
stepping into Swayze’s smouldering shoes. Expect lots of moist eyes and
trembling lips for what is audaciously described as “the classic story on
stage”.
Aldwych, WC2; previews September 29, opens October 24. Box office: 0870
400 0845
Porgy and Bess
The full title, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, may seem superfluous — as if
this glorious piece of the American canon could belong to anyone else. On
the other hand, this latest incarnation of George and Ira Gershwin’s
1935 collaboration with DuBose Heyward is being billed as a new
musical-theatre adaptation of a work that has, of course, played Broadway
yet is more often seen as naturally belonging in the opera house. It was two
decades ago that Trevor Nunn blazed a trail with a historic production of
Porgy at Glyndebourne (he later staged this opera at Covent Garden), so it
makes sense that Nunn should be the one to oversee the refashioning of a
three-hour repertoire mainstay into a 2-hour commercial musical. Clarke
Peters and Nicola Hughes are the lovers this time round, while a score
including Summertime and It Ain’t Necessarily So quite simply needs no
introduction.
Savoy, WC2; previews October 25, opens November 9.Box office: 0870 164 8787
The Sound of Music
How do you solve a problem called putting bums on seats in a competitive
theatrical climate? Easy: you create a high-profile reality-television
series to come up with your leading lady — in this case, the fresh-faced
Maria, immortalised at various times by Mary Martin, Julie Andrews and, let
us not forget, Petula Clark. So what if industry scuttlebutt has it that the
part has already been offered to a proven young performer (the gifted Emma
Williams), who is ready to step into the breach if Our Great Unknown can’t
cut a West End run? After all, there is no such thing as bad publicity,
right? And with Simon Shepherd on hand as co-star and the eminently capable
Jeremy Sams in the director’s chair, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s beloved 1959
musical should live to see another day in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s production,
while at the same time providing an intriguing complement to Cabaret, one of
the few other Broadway musicals to go heavy on Nazis, if less so on nuns.
The score, of course, includes Climb Ev’ry Mountain, Do-Re-Mi and Edelweiss:
expect copious portions of the audience to be singing along.
London Palladium, W1; previews November 3, opens November 14. Box office:
0870 890 1108
