I am very awake td. I shall write in more detail about "Carousel" later today.
For your consideration, the Aussie press takes on David Campbell in CAROUSEL: (part one)
THE HERALD SUN critic, Xenia Hanusiak, wrote:
There is one good reason to see the Production Company's
concert version
of Carousel. His name is David Campbell.
The moment he steps on stage as Billy Bigelow, the night
belongs to him.
Here is a 21st-century, all-Australian male taking the flesh of an
1880s New England barker on a carousel and making it his
own. There is a modernity and freshness in Campbell's
interpretation that immediately signals a vital and compelling
protagonist. On opening night when he sang the tour de force
soliloquy with its infamous "My Boy Bill", the theatre was
electrified.
A rousing applause could have lasted for five minutes had it not
been for the music that segued after him.
There is another reason to see Carousel – simply to give
yourself the opportunity to see an extraordinary musical which
has not had a professional production in
Melbourne for 40 years.
With its contemporary issues of physical abuse, frailties of
marriage and a tale of courage and hope, it would make a
welcome full-scale production. It already has a leading man. All
it needs is a producer.
THE AGE critic, Jim Murphy wrote:
CAMPBELL OUTSTANDING IN THEATRE DEBUT
High expectations of David Campbell singing the role of Billy
Bigelow are marvellously realised in this outstanding concert
staging of Rogers and Hammerstein's crowning work,
CAROUSEL, a perfect choice for concert dramatisation in the
Production Company style because music is the heart and soul
of this show, much more important than the story.
A sumptuous score by musical comedy standards is
sumptuously played by Orchestra Victoria, conducted by Guy
Simpson. It is also brilliantly sung by a talented, spirited
company, but none better than Campbell, making his first music
theatre appearance in Melbourne since his triumph as rocker
Johnny O'Keefe in SHOUT!
Campbell could not give a more intense, focused performance
as the brooding, troubled carnival barker Billy Bigelow if he were
at a Method master class.
His acting when he sings "My boy, Bill", pondering the reality of
impending fatherhood, is exceptional and brings new life to a
familiar song. And his singing is even better. His incredibly
open vocal sound and thrilling top register go straight to the
hairs on the back of your neck in this famous "Soliloquy", which
may well prove the most electric seven minutes of Melbourne
theatre this year. It is alone well worth the price of the ticket.
This is not to diminish the contribution of others in an extremely
good cast. Danielle Barnes sings and acts beautifully as Julie,
and her "If I Loved You" duet with Campbell is another highlight.
Carrie Barr is equally fine as her friend, Carrie, with Derek
Taylor's choice tenor voice an asset as Enoch Snow, as is
Melissa Langton's big mezzo in "June Is Bustin' Out All Over"
and "You'll Never Walk Alone".
Fifteen-year-old Dena Amy Kaplan's acting and dancing is wholly
delightful as Louise, Billy and Julie's daughter, and there are
strong contributions from Adam Murphy (Jigger), Terence
Donovan (Narrator/Heavenly Friend/Doctor) and Anne Wood
(Carousel proprietor Mrs Mullin).
Director Gary Young's staging is simple and honest, with
judicious touches of theatricality, and choreographer Andrew
Hallsworth does well to engineer effective dances – even a
microcosm of the lengthy fantasy ballet – in limited space.
Campbell in outstanding theatre debut
Author: Jim Murphy, Reviewer
Date: 20/08/2004
Words: 385
Publication: The Age
Section: A3
Page: 10
MUSIC/THEATRE REVIEW: CAROUSEL: A CONCERT Music by Richard Rodgers, book &
lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, directed by Gary Young. The Production
Company, State Theatre until tomorrow
High expectations of David Campbell singing the role of Billy Bigelow are
marvellously realised in this outstanding concert staging of Rodgers and
Hammerstein's crowning work, Carousel, a perfect choice for concert
dramatisation in the Production Company style because music is the heart
and soul of this show, much more important than the story.
A sumptuous score by musical comedy standards is sumptuously played by
Orchestra Victoria, conducted by Guy Simpson. It is also brilliantly sung
by a talented, spirited company, but none better than Campbell, making his
first music theatre appearance in Melbourne since his triumph as rocker
Johnny O'Keefe in Shout!
Campbell could not give a more intense, focused performance as the
brooding, troubled carnival barker Billy Bigelow if he were at a Method
master class.
His acting when he sings about "My boy, Bill", pondering the reality of
impending fatherhood, is exceptional and brings new life to a familiar
song. And his singing is even better. His incredibly open vocal sound and
thrilling top register go straight to the hairs on the back of your neck
in this famous Soliloquy, which may well prove the most electric seven
minutes of Melbourne theatre this year. It is alone well worth the price
of the ticket.
This is not to diminish the contribution of others in an extremely good
cast. Danielle Barnes sings and acts beautifully as Julie, and her If I
Loved You duet with Campbell is another highlight.
Carrie Barr is equally fine as her friend, Carrie, with Derek Taylor's
choice tenor voice an asset as Enoch Snow, as is Melissa Langton's big
mezzo in June Is Bustin' Out All Over and You'll Never Walk Alone.
Fifteen-year-old Dena Amy Kaplan's acting and dancing is wholly delightful
as Louise, Billy and Julie's daughter, and there are strong contributions
from Adam Murphy (Jigger), Terence Donovan (Narrator/Heavenly
Friend/Doctor) and Anne Wood (Carousel proprietor Mrs Mullin).
Director Gary Young's staging is simple and honest, with judicious touches
of theatricality, and choreographer Andrew Hallsworth does well to
engineer effective dances - even a microcosm of the lengthy fantasy ballet
- in limited space.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Australian
Edition 1 - All-round Country
FRI 20 AUG 2004,
Page 015
When you walk through a show
By Lee Christofis
MUSICALS
Carousel By Rodgers and Hammerstein. The Production Company. State
Theatre, The Arts Centre, Melbourne, August 18. Tickets: $32-$69.
Bookings: 1300136166. Until Saturday.
ABOUT seven years ago, at a Melbourne Festival masterclass, one of the
most famous of all Broadway musical stars, Barbara Cook, told singer David
Campbell that she had nothing to teach him, that he had it all. And he'd
sung just one song. She'd be thrilled with him now, playing the tough
talking, thin-skinned anti-hero Billy Bigelow, a fairground barker, in
Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1945 classic Carousel, a darkly romantic show in
which Cook was adored across America.
Like the people who get in Billy's way, Campbell takes the role by the
shirt front and makes it entirely his own and of today, without
undercutting Carousel's essential qualities of Middle European operetta
and American music theatre. He sweeps aside any memories of Gordon
MacRae's swooning baritone in the 1956 movie version and carries this
Production Company semi-staged show beyond the nostalgia trip it seemed to
be under Gary Young's direction.
Campbell sings Carousel's romantic melodies and ambivalent conversational
duets (there's very little speaking), investing sweep and sweetness in the
nuances evident in both words and music. These qualities surround this
cocky wife-beater with a basically good heart, who commits suicide when he
gets caught trying to kill a man for money to feed his pregnant wife,
Julie.
He's winning all the way, nowhere so visceral, so thrilling as when he
flies into the top notes of the great first act soliloquy -- the expectant
father's dreaming -- My Boy Bill. He stops the show, his tone, posture and
facial expression shifting ravishingly through the moment when he realises
that his boy Bill might be a girl. This number deserves a longer ovation
than conductor Guy Simpson allows; curtailing the applause seems somehow
ungenerous, even un-theatrical, but reflects Simpson's approach -- rather
four-squared, lacking rubato, space and subtlety, more contemporary
musical than 1940s classic.
Overall, the male parts are good, but the women don't fare well under
Young's direction; all but two (Danielle Barnes's diffident Julie and Anne
Wood's possessive carousel owner Mrs Mullin) over-act themselves into
caricatures. Worse, the overloud amplification make them sound metallic
and shrill. Even the hallowed anthem, You'll Never Walk Alone, sounds
harsh.
Fortunately, Campbell has some fine company here: veteran Terence Donovan
makes the perfect narrator and guide for Billy when he returns to earth
for a day to sort out the mess he has left behind, while Adam Murphy is a
splendid, bumptious Jigger, Billy's mate and downfall in crime.
Section: FEATURES Type: Review
(c) News Limited. All rights reserved.
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