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Personally, I like my musicals to have tunes in them, ones that I can hum as I leave the theatre and recognise when I hear them on the radio. There are others of course - Andrew Lloyd Webber's for example, which veer towards light opera and in which the music is more dramatic than catchy.
THE FAR PAVILLIONS, currently at The Shaftsbury Theatre in London's West End, is one of the latter. Adapted from a novel by M. M. Kaye, it is set in India and tells the story of a young British army officer, Ashton Pelham-Martyn, who has been brought up by an Indian "mother", only to discover that his true parents were English. After an education in Britain, he returns to India to serve in the army, where his loyalties and emotions are torn in different directions. He falls in love with an English woman and proposes marriage. She rejects him because of his 'Indian' upbringing.
There's a fair bit of serious political content, covering the rights and wrongs of the British Raj at the time. There are two songs - "Dream of Me Tonight" and "Freedom and Honour" which stand out but, for the rest, the score could have been taken from any one of half a dozen similar musicals, although it does contain some Indian music, as one might expect.
The real attraction, though, is visual. The sets are stunning - particularly the royal palace and the Officers' Mess - and the costumes can only be described as sumptuous. The cast is competent rather than outstanding, with the exception of Hadley Fraser, who plays the lead with considerable charm. I think the best way to describe the show is to say it's a serious musical. ....................................
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My other choice of a musical is what can only be described as a 'family favourite', which has been pulling audiences into the London Palladium for the past three years. When CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG opened in 2002, Michael Ball took the lead along with Brian Blessed and Nichola McAuliffe, but the cast has changed a number of times since then. The choice of the current leading man, Brian Conley, seems inspired. A firm favourite in comedy roles and in pantomime, he is no stranger to the West End, having previously been seen in "Me and My Girl" and "Jolson". The glamour is supplied by Jo Gibb in the role of the divine Truly Scrumptious. She has already impressed in the London production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Cats", and seems set to do the same here. Christopher Biggins and Louise Gold play Baron and Baroness Bomburst and the former pop idol from the 1970's, Alvin Stardust, is the baddie - The Child Catcher.
The real star of the show, though, is Chitty Chitty Bang Bang itself, the magic car which flies over the Palladium stage and is a masterpiece of technical achievement, complemented by the fantastic set design. The theatre, once the home of top variety artists from both sides of the Atlantic, is intimate enough to provide the perfect setting for this charming musical, which seems set to run and run.
I had intended to include some of the 'tribute' musical shows currently on offer, but find that they are a case of "You've seen one, you've seen them all." At the moment you can find "WE WILL ROCK YOU" - a flimsy story strung around the music of the legendary band QUEEN and its equally legendary leader, Freddy Mercury. That's in its third year at The Dominion, while MAMMA MIA - based on the songs of Abba - at the Prince of Wales, is already taking advance bookings for 2006. Happy humming!
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Editor
Denise Smallwood
Tel: 07773252970
0800 1696498
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