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.
Dorothy Gale, Charlie Bucket and Alice have never met. They don’t live in the same country – or even the same continent. They have almost nothing in common except for one thing: they have all disappeared in mysterious circumstances on exactly the same day. Panorama: The Musical, a new student-written piece to be performed by the Gilbert and Sullivan Society at the end of week seven, follows the story of what happens in the real world when these three well-known children’s stories – The Wizard of Oz, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Alice in Wonderland – collide, so that all three children vanish into an unknown fantasy land, leaving authorities and news reporters both baffled and intrigued.
It’s an interesting subject matter for the society’s first original musical – especially as previous work until now has been, 19th Century Savoy operas by Gilbert and Sullivan. When I ask artistic directors Michael Houston and Morven Hamilton how the idea for this new show came about, Michael replies wryly, “Through the aid of seven boxes of wine and some friends”.
Morven, also the play’s writer, elaborates; “It’s a jukebox musical”, meaning, essentially, that the musical is made up from parodies of numbers from other musicals and pop songs. The overall tone is tongue-in-cheek and, in Morven’s words, “A wee bit of a piss-take”. One example she gives is a rendition of Wicked’s ‘Popular’, performed by an up-and-coming young journalist desperate for success, renamed ‘Pulitzer’.
It’s not easy writing a musical, even when a lot of the songs are more or less already written – as Morven was soon to discover. “I’ve written plays,” she says, which is to be expected given that she is a postgraduate at the University’s department of Theatre, Film and Television, “but never a musical”. What’s the difference? Well, the tone has to be lighter, keeping in line with the comedic productions of the society’s roots. Furthermore, in a society like G&S which holds so many close links with local communities, censorship can sometimes be an issue. “There’s a lot of swearing in my work,” Morven admits with a laugh. So when the time comes for G&S to perform for families in a church in Leeds, some heavy cutting of the play will be needed to create a more 'family friendly' production.
For now, however, with just over a week to go, I ask, have there been any witty anecdotes or interesting occurrences going on in rehearsals up until now? There is an awkward silence. “There have been a lot of injuries…” I am soon assured that these “injuries” are bruised knees stemming from a particularly enthusiastic game of Stuck in the Mud and someone cartwheeling over a chair, and not from any breath-takingly daring stunts included in the show. Overall, Morven says, “Nothing’s gone wrong”.
Finally – performing an original play is a first for Gilbert and Sullivan. Can we expect to see more student-written plays from the society in future? “It’s a big commitment,” Morven admits, “If I were to do it again I’d start writing further in advance. But it’s a good venture”. Michael agrees, “It’s feasible”. Perhaps even likely as word gets out – just this week someone has submitted a musical to the society in the hope of its being performed as part of their summer show next year. We can only wait and see.
You must log in to submit a comment.
