I'll try a bit more of an abbreviated review of what we saw in London:
SWEENEY TODD: We had been in our flat for a half hour, before I went out the back door, crossed the street passed the Ivy, to the Ambassador Theatre and booked this.
Forget all you know about the original production. This feature eight singer/actor/musicians (and four chorus extras). There were no barber chairs. It was a coffin. There was a bigger coffin out of which Sweeney made his initial appearance. It became Mrs. Lovett's pie shop and so many other things. A ladder on which anthony swayed became the ship that he and Todd came to London in. It later served as Johanna room and window. Pirelli and Sweeney shaved wig blocks for their contest. The deaths were represented by an actor pouring blood from one bucket into another. Rather than literal, it was all very theatrical and stylized. Except the playing in more ways than one...it was more realistic. Lovett was not made up like a kewpie doll and was far less cartoonish than Lansbury (don't get me wrong...I loved Lansbury), which made her more real and more frightening tragic at the end.
What was even more amazing was that the actors also played all the accompaniment. All played mulitple instruments...there must have been four different people on the piano at various times...they also played them extremely well. When one wasn't in a scene they were playing something, sometimes they were playing an instrument while they were doing a scene. Mrs. Lovett played a muted trumpet.
I know all this sounds strange, I can see Kimmel cringing even now, but I tell you it worked, it worked and was a compelling, haunting legitimate take on the show. Sweeney Todd is probably both my and The Lovely Wife's favourite show and we adored the original production, but this just left us gob-smacked. We'd turned to each other in wide-eyed, jaw-dropping delight at the inventiveness. It was fabulous!
Next night was THE OLD MASTERS...another winner written by Simon Gray and directed by Harold Pinter. Two lovely star turns by Edward Fox and Peter Bowles ably supported by the venerable Barbara Jefford and one of my favourite actresses over there, the lovely Sally Dexter. About two figures in the art world of the early twenty century up into WWII. Fascinating and funny.
Third night: A revival of BECKET. Very disappointing. It's hard to erase the memory of O'Toole and Burton anyway, but Dougray Scott as Becket had an at times impenetrable Scottish accent beside given a rather phlegmatic performance. Jasper Britton, an actor I like, tried valiantly with Henry II but was defeated by a new translation by Frederic Raphael which may have been the biggest fault of the production. Still it was well-mounted and had a couple of worthwhile moments. And it's always nice to see something in the Haymarket.
JOURNEY'S END...a revial of Sheriff's WW I drama of the trenches was brilliant! A young cast...many making their West End debut. Olivier had originally done the lead in the initial production but when it transferred to the West End, he was stuck in a flop production of Beau Geste and director James Whale cast Colin Clive. The pair went on to do another little item in the cinema that got some attention later.
BURIED CHILD...at the National starring M. Emmett Walsh, Elizabeth Franz and some girl from SIX FEET UNDER. I usually don't go see American plays in London, but Walsh was in great form. Sam Shephard is kinda like Pinter. I don't always understand it, but I find it compelling. The cast was filled out with Brits who were terrific too. This was a matinee, that night we went to...
EARTHLY PARADISE...at the Almeida. A play about pre-Raphaelite artists and writers, William Morris and Gabriel Rosetti and their fascination with Morris' wife, Janey, played by the lovely Saffron Burrows. Not a great play, but certainly an interesting one and I love discovering history this way. The actor who played Morris was great.
And that was the first week of theatre in London.
