Catherine Bennett resumes the weekly look at the performing arts world, with the sad end of Jerusalem, the luck of a cabbie, and French revolt. Do you hear the people sing?
Adam Alcock reviews Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons and his own Four Elements at York Opera House.
Catherine Bennett highlights the trends in the performing arts world today.
Jonathan Cridford reviews 'Ghosts', one of the Freshers' plays for this year.
Hoping to get an idea of what was to come, I arrived early managed to have a chat with Gavin Whitworth, the accompanying pianist who, full of modesty, had the following take on the evening's proceedings: "Basically, we didn't have enough time to rehearse any script whatsoever, so anything interesting that happens is told by me on the piano." Clearly I was in for a treat.
For the first performance, the crowd was only slightly bigger than the cast of 11. That clearly did not put off Director Michael Slater, who appeared on stage to welcome us and formally apologise to Oliver! writer Lionel Bart for what was to be done to his musical.
The performance opened as may be expected, in the workhouse, and despite the cast struggling to remember some of the lines, there was nothing to suggest any serious mauling of the script. It was only after Oliver was put up for sale that the liberties being taken became apparent.
Whitworth, who's contribution so far consisted purely of his masterly musicianship, took on a role of narrator. "Usually at this point there's a bit with an undertaker but we're too under rehearsed to do it and it's boring anyway." This was to be a major feature of the rest of the performance and a regular source of laughs.
Overall the show was successful, making the audience feel like they were in on the joke rather than watching an unprepared cast stumbling their way through an incomplete and incoherent musical, as indeed they were.
Highlights included Slater's (as Fagin) inability to remember his lines with the narrator introducing the first song as "poorly remembered" and the second as "with minimal lyrical success" and having to sing Fagin's lines, as well as the over-dramatic death of Nancy (Charlotte Bath). As one satisfied audience member put it: "the absence of any real acting was nicely balanced by large amounts of over-acting".
Especially well received during the second performance in front of a packed house was Ben Crawley, as an obscenely tall Oliver (which was taken into account by the tongue-in-cheek narration). His high-pitched choirboy voice made the crowd laugh every time, perhaps partly due to his background as a successful choirboy in his younger days (type in Ben Crawley in YouTube, he's famous!).
Despite the complete lack of seriousness, there were also a few moments that displayed the quality of the cast, with Bath's rendition of As Long As He Needs Me (during the second performance anyway) and the ensemble's performance of Who Will Buy? being personal favourites. Furthermore, at around 40 minutes the show did not outstay its welcome while keeping the audience entertained and satisfied.
After the shows, Slater said: "It went surprisingly well, considering we only had 11 hours rehearsal. I'm really proud of the cast, not so much proud of myself. We had a little bit of dedication, we almost gave up yesterday but we carried on going and it was really worth it because we got another half of the show done. It's nice because people get to know each other before they audition for Sweet Charity and we get to raise some money for the musical."
Auditions for Sweet Charity, this year's Central Hall Musical, are going on this week with acting and singing on Wednesday and dancing on Friday. Find out more at www.sweetcharityyork.co.uk.
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