This is an intelligent and sophisticated musical: from the outset we are dealing with issues of marital breakdown and bereavement. The lyrics blend seamlessly with the book in developing the show’s themes and both are an impressive piece of craftsmanship. The show held my attention entirely from start to finish and that is a credit to the quality of the writing.
Ostensibly, it doesn’t seem to be a show for children at all but maybe I am underestimating them as the child-packed matinee yesterday had a very well behaved audience, the main problems coming from old biddies rattling sweet-wrappers.
The sets are also superb (and what a varied international CV the set designer Scott Pask has) complementing the action but never dominating it, whilst providing spectacular theatrical moments without ever being a substitute for the quality of the writing. Mr Pask’s impressive Tudorbethan Drawing Room/Study/Library at Barrie’s home would have earned him a pat on the back from Anthony Salvin. In fact he can come and redecorate Scripps Towers.
Perhaps the weakest link is the score, which seemed technically clever but never reached in to my soul nor stirred my emotions. It may well be one of those scores that needs repeated listening to fully appreciate. With David Charles Abell conducting it is obviously being given high calibre treatment.
There is still room for improvement before it goes on the next stage of its journey: the show gets off to a slow start with two similar songs for JM Barrie; there is a cringe inducing scene where Barrie and cohorts perform a Highland fling; and quite early on, in reference to J M Barrie’s nationality, there’s the all too frequent American assumption that English and Scottish are the same thing. Clare Foster as Mrs Barrie seems to have to make a lot of awkward faces to show her marriage is breaking down and, when it eventually does, it seems sudden and too matter of fact – the one big glitch in an admirable script. The scenes between Barrie and Mrs du Maurier (Liz Robertson, who is capable of more) play out two dimensionally even though they are written in three.
In the programme it stated that PG Wodehouse was to have been played by Norman Bowman but it was definitely not Mr Bowman on stage and, since Wodehouse had nothing of interest to do, I wonder if Norman has taken his talents elsewhere?!
Despite my reservations I enjoyed this much more than I enjoyed Matilda (but that may have something to do with my dislike of Dahl) and hope that it goes on to great success, in which case I shall happily retract my above comment about Book of Mormon.
Updated On: 10/7/12 at 02:49 PM
