One of my favourite times to visit New York – where I am heading again tomorrow – is when Fleet Week occurs (this year’s dates are May 23-30, so I’m too early), and the entire city is invaded by sailors, which is a bit like On the Town coming to 3D life! All those boys in sailor uniforms! All that testosterone! The town virtually burns up… or at least I do.
The next best thing, of course, is a production of On the Town itself – and ENO have just obliged by bringing back their hit 2005 production, though the sailors here are, on the whole, rather less butch than the ones you see on the streets in New York. But if ENO’s production of OTT is not exactly OTT in the scenic department – could there be a less New York-like realisation of the city than the few steel girders that are pressed into service here as everything from subway car to apartments and nightclub? – it doesn’t stint, of course, on the music, and its amazing to hear a full 40-something orchestra giving a score like this the full whelly.
These days, you’re lucky if you get a dozen players in the pit – I interviewed Henry Goodman yesterday, soon to play Tevye in the West End transfer of Fiddler on the Roof that was first seen at Sheffield Crucible last Christmas, and he spoke proudly of how the “village band” that creates the music is being supplemented for the West End, so they now have 12 musicians!
Sure, technology has changed since the days these shows were written, and you can get more with less – it was intriguing, watching the two-man orchestra of the Adam Guettel show Myths and Hymns (ravishingly receiving its British premiere at the Finborough for Sunday and Monday performances only, which I reviewed in The Stage on Monday), to note that there were times when neither of them were actually playing at all – the electronics were doing the work!
But there’s something about a live orchestral sound that can’t be faked. Nor the passion, vigour and rigour that a musical director like Simon Lee, yesterday holding the baton at the Coli, brings to their playing. It’s what makes live theatre alive – and lets it live!
