Edinburgh Playhouse
3 stars
Call me just another cock-eyed optimist, but the map of American territories with full star-spangled banner façade and accompanying radio static which ushers this touring revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s World War Two romance into a dimly-lit auditorium suggests something a whole lot more serious than some work-a-day song and dance routine. While this is undoubtedly something to do with the times we live in, the beach-house tête-à-tête between Arkansas nurse Nellie and French plantation owner Emile, both washed up on some unspecified paradise, is one of the most low-key openings to a mainstream musical ever allowed space to breathe without some blaring overture marching all over it.
At least, that’s how it is in Julian Woolford’s handsome-looking and beautifully-lit production, which makes a relatively small playing area panoramic. The first half’s red and turquoise skies are perkily offset by an array of pastel-coloured outfits, while even the corrugated iron shacks that frame the Thanksgiving Day Follies of the second give roughshod ballast to its gymnastic propaganda.
The dual love stories, between Nellie and Emile – a father to bi-racial children - on one hand, and the dashing Lieutenant Cable and Polynesian teen Liat who he’s gifted by her mother Bloody Mary on the other, go some way to countering the institutionalised racism which undoubtedly existed in such adventures. In the end, though, despite its depth, it fudges on what might have happened had Cable lived long enough to leave Liat and whatever offspring was ongoing once the troops moved out. Happy talk indeed, as Dave Willetts and Helena Blackman lead a wonderfully normal-looking ensemble through an elegant, energetic night that’s drawn out rather than raced through, and is all the better for it.
The Herald, October 5th 2007
ends
3 stars
Call me just another cock-eyed optimist, but the map of American territories with full star-spangled banner façade and accompanying radio static which ushers this touring revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s World War Two romance into a dimly-lit auditorium suggests something a whole lot more serious than some work-a-day song and dance routine. While this is undoubtedly something to do with the times we live in, the beach-house tête-à-tête between Arkansas nurse Nellie and French plantation owner Emile, both washed up on some unspecified paradise, is one of the most low-key openings to a mainstream musical ever allowed space to breathe without some blaring overture marching all over it.
At least, that’s how it is in Julian Woolford’s handsome-looking and beautifully-lit production, which makes a relatively small playing area panoramic. The first half’s red and turquoise skies are perkily offset by an array of pastel-coloured outfits, while even the corrugated iron shacks that frame the Thanksgiving Day Follies of the second give roughshod ballast to its gymnastic propaganda.
The dual love stories, between Nellie and Emile – a father to bi-racial children - on one hand, and the dashing Lieutenant Cable and Polynesian teen Liat who he’s gifted by her mother Bloody Mary on the other, go some way to countering the institutionalised racism which undoubtedly existed in such adventures. In the end, though, despite its depth, it fudges on what might have happened had Cable lived long enough to leave Liat and whatever offspring was ongoing once the troops moved out. Happy talk indeed, as Dave Willetts and Helena Blackman lead a wonderfully normal-looking ensemble through an elegant, energetic night that’s drawn out rather than raced through, and is all the better for it.
The Herald, October 5th 2007
ends
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