Steve On Broadway (SOB)

Brief Encounter (The SOB Review)

Rice's ingenious adaptation of Noël Coward's screenplay cleverly punctuates live action -- often breaking the fourth wall -- with some of Coward's signature tunes. Before the show even begins, Rice sets the mood as her supporting players are out in the orchestra section of the theatre, serenading the audience as it playfully interacts with them as movie theater ushers from a bygone era. However, what they're really ushering in, quite simultaneously, are two distinct eras.

The first era harkens back to that pre-World War II time when Coward was in his prime. Brief Encounter is nothing if not a truly cinematic melodrama in which two lovers first meet by complete happenstance in a train depot restaurant. Laura (Hannah Yelland) gets a speck of dirt caught in her eye. Having already caught the eye of a doctor, Alec (Tristan Sturrock), she receives immediate attention from him.

But because this is England, circa 1930s, and these are English characters replete with the proverbial "stiff upper lip," the inhabitants of Brief Encounter are quite proper, if not repressed, in expressing themselves and their feelings. Compounding the matter for Laura is that she's a married mother of two who has settled into a humdrum life. As much as the spark of love from Alec appeals to her, she's reticent in allowing herself to be completely swept away.

Which leads to the second era that those Brief Encounter ushers have shown our way to -- a new era in theatre that seamlessly blends the live action on (and off) the stage with silver screen images and Gemma Carrington and Jon Driscoll's Tony-worthy projection design (if there actually were such a category). The result is a theatrical experience unlike any other -- theatre of the future. That experience allows unfettered access into the hearts and minds of Laura and Alec as love's crashing waves wash over them, almost quite literally.

Yelland and Sturrock are picture perfect as the two lovers. While Alec may go overboard for Laura in more than the figurative sense, neither Yelland or Sturrock overplay their hands into anything resembling camp -- a decidedly difficult task when doing melodrama.

Rice's supporting cast is equally superb, including Annette McLaughlin as Myrtle, the restaurant proprietor, and Joseph Alessi in the dual roles as Myrtle's suitor and Laura's husband. Gabriel Ebert and Adam Pleeth will melt your heart with their splendid renditions of some of Coward's most tuneful songs.

The magnificent Brief Encounter succeeds on so many levels, but particularly because it dares to be different. It'll have you swooning, too.

This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).


In keeping with the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations that unfairly discriminate against bloggers, who are now required by law to disclose when they have received anything of value they might write about, please note that I have received nothing of value in exchange for this post.

Labels: Annette McLaughlin, Brief Encounter, Broadway, Emma Rice, Gemma Carrington, Hannah Yelland, Jon Driscoll, Joseph Alessi, Noel Coward, Play, The SOB Review, Tristan Sturrock

posted by Steve On Broadway (SOB) @ Wednesday, September 29, 2010 5 comments

Love Never Dies (The SOB Review)

Love Never Dies (The SOB Review) – Adelphi Theatre, London, United Kingdom

*1/2 (out of ****)

Eternal optimists often say, “Never say never.”

Legions of optimistic Phantom Of The Opera fans aside, Andrew Lloyd Webber would have been well-served not only to say “no,” but “never again” after his cat reportedly destroyed his first draft of his score for this deadly dull sequel with not much to love, including its ridiculous opera meets vaudeville vibe. While the show has been dubbed "Paint Never Dries," I dare say I've had more fun watching paint dry -- and it's faster, too.

That Love Never Dies is merely a shameless rip-off of the original becomes painfully clear after Christine (Sierra Boggess) arrives at New York’s Coney Island to perform a new aria she and Raoul (Joseph Millson) discover has been written by her rejected and disfigured suitor (Ramin Karimloo) from the Paris Opera House. When the words, “We’re just in this for the money” is spoken, the jig is up for all involved.

To Love Never Dies’ credit, both Karimloo and Boggess are in exceptional voice. And there’s a visually arresting projection design from Jon Driscoll. But with the exception of a first act tune “Beauty Underneath” in which director Jack O’Brien must have decided that the time had come to show at least a little money up on the stage, Love Never Dies comes up short in terms of spectacle for which the first show is known.

Instead, this sequel is mostly overwrought that's overdone. (Also overdone the night I attended was the incessant fog machine, which obscured all action on the stage for at least three or four minutes of the climax, making the unintended disembodied voices seem like the true phantoms. It left me thinking "Fog Never Dies.")

This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).

In keeping with the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations that unfairly discriminate against bloggers, who are now required by law to disclose when they have received anything of value they might write about, please note that I have received nothing of value in exchange for this post.

Labels: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jack O'Brien, Jon Driscoll, Joseph Millson, Love Never Dies, Musical, Ramin Karimloo, Sequel, Sierra Boggess, The Phantom Of The Opera, The SOB Review

posted by Steve On Broadway (SOB) @ Sunday, May 16, 2010 4 comments