Showing posts with label Road Show. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Road Show. Show all posts

Friday, 3 December 2021

Sondheim(s) of the Day - Into The Woods, Road Show

I have no clue what drugs they were on at the time, but somewhere down the line The Maestro got together with screenwriter/librettist James Lapine (with whom he worked on Sunday in the Park With George) and together they conjured up - erm - a mash-up of Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel and Cinderella, with parodic lyrics and a plethora of rollicking tunes, that could be interpreted as a parable about AIDS at the height of that deadly pandemic! Gulp.

Yet. It. Works.

Here are just some of the marvellous, sometimes sinister - and often very funny - numbers from the show...

The "weepie"...

[see also Cleo Laine's version]

We went to see this masterpiece in the perfect surroundings of the wind-swept Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park, surrounded by nature's own addition to the plot, trees, way back in 2010. With a cast that featured Hannah Waddingham (as above), Michael Xavier, Jenna Russell, and a giant voiced by Dame Judi Dench, needless to say it was utterly stunning - and won a well-deserved Olivier Award. We never bothered to go and see the film with Meryl Streep and Johnny Depp, however - maybe one day...

All about Into the Woods at The Guide to Musical theatre.

In contrast to Into The Woods, Sondheim's third collaboration with librettist John Weidman (after Pacific Overtures and Assassins), Road Show is a far more pragmatic affair, if (typically) not-as-straightforward-as-it-first-appears. It also had a long and painful gestation - The Maestro first sketched some ideas for a musical based upon the (glamourised) lives of a real-life pair of pioneering brothers Addison and Wilson Mizner, whose multiple busness ventures and adventures in early 20th century America had been captured in two best-selling (and partly fictitious) books by Cleveland Amory and Alva Johnston, in the early 1950s. The ideas didn't even begin to take shape properly, however, until 1999, when it first premiered as Wise Guys. It was re-written and appeared re-titled as Bounce in 2003, then finally (again tweaked) as Road Show in 2008.

The first of Sondheim's musicals to feature a homosexual relationship at the core of the story, the plot was summed up by Mark Shenton in Playbill thus: "...the boom-and-bust true story of ... "two of the most colourful and outrageous fortune-seekers in American history.” From panning for gold in Alaska to building the city of Boca Raton in Florida, both were driven by the need to succeed – at whatever cost. Unfortunately, this left them with a trail of debts, disastrous relationships (including their own as brothers) and unfulfilled dreams." We went to see it at its UK premiere, starring David Bedella, Michael Jibson and Jon Robyns, at The Menier Chocolate Factory (again) in 2011 - and loved it. I still have (somewhere) one of the prop "dollar bills" that "the brothers" ostentatiously scattered all over the theatre at the end! Here are just some of the show's great numbers:

I adore that song...

Road Show on Wikipedia.

RIP, Stephen Joshua Sondheim (22nd March 1930 – 26th November 2021)

[One of a series of tributes I will be posting to Mr Sondheim this week.]
Previous "Sondheim of the Day" entries:

Posted by Jon at 13:07 8 comments
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Saturday, 27 August 2011

Isn't It Something?



We went to see the much-vaunted new Sondheim musical Road Show at the fabulous Menier Chocolate Factory on Thursday. Mere words cannot sum up what a magnificent and breathtaking evening's entertainment it was!

The product of more than a decade's unsuccessful tinkering (the show was originally conceived in 1999, and first produced as Bounce way back in 2003), the indefatigable combination of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman have finally let the acclaimed British director John Doyle (he of the award-winning productions of Sweeney Todd, Company and Mack and Mabel) loose on it. Unusual amongst musicals, he decided to let it run seamlessly (without an interval, a prospect we were originally a bit uncomfortable with) for ninety minutes, and, in the spirit of its new title Road Show, every scene runs into the next with very little time even for applause...

The story is based on the true lives of the pioneering entrepreneur brothers Addison and Wilson Mizner,who grabbed hold of the concept of "The American Dream" and shook it for all it was worth in a succession of crazy (and often shady) money-making deals that drew the attention of the rich, the famous and the media of the early 20th century.

From the early scene of Papa on his death bed singing to his sons about the prospects the new century could hold for them (It's In Your Hands Now), through the wild adventures of the Yukon Gold Rush (Gold!), gambling, fixed boxing matches and horse races (The Game), and travels across the world (Addison's Trip), the pair (and their dying but extravagant mother) finally reunite in the middle of the property boom in Florida where all the billionaires are vying for the bigger and better houses that architect Addison can offer them (You!).



En route Addison falls in love with Hollis, the wealthy son of an industrial magnate, and there is a glimmer of hope that this "wild child" may find a more settled existence, but soon the brothers begin to "revert to type" with the next big scam (Boca Raton) and everyone begins to realise that the real thing that drives the brothers is not their ability to help build America, but their insatiable and selfish desire for wealth. The show closes as it opens, with Addison on his own death bed being visited by the spirit of the dead Wilson.

With all these death-bed scenes you'd think Road Show would be really dark and gloomy, but it is far from it! The breakneck speed of the whole thing perfectly captures the energy of the brothers in the style of the Vaudeville/silent movie acts of the time. The cast of David Bedella (as Wilson), Michael Jibson (as Addison), the gorgeous John Robyns (as Hollis), Gillian Bevan (as Mama) and Glyn Kerslake (as Papa) - and the whole supporting ensemble - were outstanding.

The humour and the pathos are beautifully balanced, and the choreography and staging (in the round) is simply genius. We were in the third row - just in front of actor Scott Bakula and across from Michael Cashman, incidentally - and it was almost like being inside the show at times. Throughout the performance the audience is showered with handfuls of hundred-dollar bills, and we had laps full by the end!



Some of the showpiece numbers are absolutely stunning - most notably Mama singing about the (by now on the run) Wilson Isn't He Something?, and Addison and Hollis's love duet The Best Thing That Ever Happened.
[Both songs were originally written as "straight" love songs between a man and a woman in the original incarnation, which gives them much more of a typically Sondheim-esque twist in this production.]

So, just one word - BRILLIANT! We couldn't stop enthusing about it...




You really must see this show!

It runs until 17 September 2011 at the Menier Chocolate Factory. Book your tickets here. I rather hope it will follow the lead of the Menier's previous productions and get its transfer to the West End!
Posted by Jon at 12:55 7 comments
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