I also saw this on Saturday night, and voted 4 stars in the poll, as I LOVE how brave and bonkers this is!
The marquee outside the theatre, and all the posters, are a warning, if you care to look: this isn't "Opening Night," its "JOHN CASSAVETES' OPENING NIGHT."
How many people that you know have seen a Cassavetes film? Not many, I bet, and here are some reasons:
Cassavetes doesn't do plot. He does people;
He doesn't do action. He does psychology;
He doesn't do jokes, he does serious;
He doesn't do straightforward, he does meandering;
He doesn't do clarity, he does complex.
In other words, Cassavetes hated the commercial qualities that give audiences a fun addictive rollercoaster story ride.
When financiers balked, he would frequently make movies out of his own pocket with money he made acting in stuff like "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Dirty Dozen".
His cult fan base love him for his idiosyncratic seriousness.
I had assumed Van Hove would restructure the piece to make the storytelling more commercial, more linear, cutting digressions, clarifying who the antagonists and allies are, but he doesn't. He plainly loves Cassavetes and is loyal to his vision from first to last. Cassavetes would love this show, cos it doesn't compromise his vision in the slightest.
Sheridan Smith is nothing short of magnificent, Rufus Wainwright is on top form and Ivo Van Hove comes up with some splendid ideas, but all of them are paying homage to the adult, insular, inconclusive, serious, complex, meandering, psychological plot-averse vision of John Cassavetes.
I love that they did this, as its unique and original for a West End production, but fear they'll lose their shirts.
Cassavetes had no interest in conventional entertainment, and although Wainwright's gorgeous tunes, sung by some terrific and passionate actors, with an outstanding central performance by Sheridan Smith, do in fact inject SOME fun (and clarify SOME of the intentions - it's the nature of a musical that characters sing what they're thinking) into Cassavetes's ultra serious explorations, his flabby open structure is still such that audiences attuned to being spoonfed drama, rollercoaster thrills and entertainment will feel like NOTHING IS HAPPENING.
Some spoilers follow. . .
This is like a very dark version of "42nd Street," where the psychological breakdown of the leading actress gets in the way of putting on a show, and there are no high-kicking dancers.
I thought Rufus Wainwright's songs were excellent, in 2 basic modes, with:-
(1) rousing "42nd Street" reminiscent numbers, about the sheer joy and excitement of putting on a show
at war and in opposition to
(2) equally wonderful numbers about psychological breakdown and the obstacles to creative achievement.
The first category of songs bookend the show, with the rousing excitement of the "On Broadway" (I'm guessing names) finale mirroring the excitement of the opening "One Shot to save the World" and "Magic" numbers. Along the way, Hadley Fraser's Director tries to keep the 42nd Street creative wonder rolling along with the "Pantomime" song and Sheridan Smith's Myrtle asserts that she's still "A Somebody" at the end of the first half.
But by and large, the central section of songs are all about the barriers to creative success, which barriers culminated, on Saturday, with Sheridan Smith's fierce and moving "The World is Broken." The Primary antagonist, Shira Haas' 17 year old deceased former fan, Nancy, gets a great tormenting song about Smith's actress no longer "Being Young," which Haas delivers in the manner of a fanatical sadistic imp, the secondary antagonist, Nicola Hughes' Sarah, writer of the show-within-the-show, gets a belting wonder of a song, "It's Over," and the poor loving simp of a producer, John Marquez's David, gets to ever so tenderly and sweetly try to distract Smith's Myrtle with his affectionate "Moth to a Flame."
I thought that Smith, Haas, Hughes, Marquez and Fraser were all glorious, and Wainwright's songs are a must-have for my collection, but the plot is all Cassavates, and it stubbornly and proudly won't go anywhere you want it to go lol.
I will definitely see this again as it's so rare that you get a show so distinctively and deliberately uncommercial.
I mean, you get a lot of shows desperate to be commercial, like the "X Factor" musical, but which miss the mark, but you rarely get a show that is desperate NOT to be commercial. Prepare to be confounded.
4 stars from me.
