The Sorrows of Satan - Tristan Bates Theatre
Mar 12, 2017 19:31:19 GMT
Stasia and loureviews like this
Post by joem on Mar 12, 2017 19:31:19 GMT
The joys of Sunday theatre! This might not have been my first choice on another day but one has to be less fussy on a Sunday and I am grateful for this today.
Being more of a straight play than musical type of person, the idea of a musical based on a best-selling novel by Marie Corelli, itself loosely based on the Faust story, and set thirty years (1924) after its original publication in a small theatre with scant resources and a cast of four... wouldn't normally have rang many bells for me.
I am delighted to report that this is a potential little gem. The premise is that Geoffrey Temple (Simon Willmont), an unsuccessful writer of musical plays, has a big idea (the Faust myth) for a new work and is invited to the aristocratic home of Prince Lucio Rimanez (Dale Rapley) to put on a performance in the hope of getting backers. All is not what it seems and the charming but overbearing Prince is soon making suggestions - ie rewriting - the musical, which is just as well as Temple's songs all sound the same, and on top of that proposing to give Temple success in his career and love in exchange for his soul. Claire-Marie Hall plays the various female roles ("the Woman") with sensitivity for their similarities and differences. Stefan Bernardczyk who plays Amiel the dumb pianist and also doubles as Musical Director, is an effective lugubrious presence on sage.
The writing is witty, in many ways beguilingly retro, both in in its books and lyrics, and I got the feeling that a couple more listens would have me humming or whistling the tunes. Very good performances all round but the Devil is said to have the best tunes, and Dale Rapley's all-round performance is a master-class of comic excellence.
No disrespect to the Tristan Bates but this musical play needs a bigger stage and a bigger audience now. Whether it could ever work on a large West End stage without considerable re-working (bigger cast, more songs, more staging, perhaps a tad longer) is a moot point. But as a sort of chamber musical it is charming and very much worth checking out. All the best to the writers and cast and the whole team.
Being more of a straight play than musical type of person, the idea of a musical based on a best-selling novel by Marie Corelli, itself loosely based on the Faust story, and set thirty years (1924) after its original publication in a small theatre with scant resources and a cast of four... wouldn't normally have rang many bells for me.
I am delighted to report that this is a potential little gem. The premise is that Geoffrey Temple (Simon Willmont), an unsuccessful writer of musical plays, has a big idea (the Faust myth) for a new work and is invited to the aristocratic home of Prince Lucio Rimanez (Dale Rapley) to put on a performance in the hope of getting backers. All is not what it seems and the charming but overbearing Prince is soon making suggestions - ie rewriting - the musical, which is just as well as Temple's songs all sound the same, and on top of that proposing to give Temple success in his career and love in exchange for his soul. Claire-Marie Hall plays the various female roles ("the Woman") with sensitivity for their similarities and differences. Stefan Bernardczyk who plays Amiel the dumb pianist and also doubles as Musical Director, is an effective lugubrious presence on sage.
The writing is witty, in many ways beguilingly retro, both in in its books and lyrics, and I got the feeling that a couple more listens would have me humming or whistling the tunes. Very good performances all round but the Devil is said to have the best tunes, and Dale Rapley's all-round performance is a master-class of comic excellence.
No disrespect to the Tristan Bates but this musical play needs a bigger stage and a bigger audience now. Whether it could ever work on a large West End stage without considerable re-working (bigger cast, more songs, more staging, perhaps a tad longer) is a moot point. But as a sort of chamber musical it is charming and very much worth checking out. All the best to the writers and cast and the whole team.