As Dogberry famously says in Much Ado About Nothing, comparisons are odorous; but it never stops critics making them. Last night a new production of Carousel opened at the Savoy Theatre, and in Benedict Nightingale’s review in The Times this morning, he begins by stating, “Some productions stick in the mind for aeons, which is bad news for revivals of the same show that are unlucky enough to follow them. And I must confess that, despite the soaring notes that came from Lesley Garrett last night, I spent much of Lindsay Posner’s staging of Carousel nostalgically recalling Nicholas Hytner’s great production at the National a decade ago. Not the details. Just the overall feel, which was simple yet sad and, in its unpretentiously solemn way, as deep as a Broadway musical could be.”
Actually, and not to press those details, Hytner’s admittedly great production opened at the National on December 10, 1992, so almost exactly 16 years ago. But yes, it does linger inevitably in the memory of those who saw it; and when I suggested as much to Kim Poster, lead producer of this new production when I saw it at Monday’s final preview, she was right to reply that she wants to be judged on this production, not on the memory of previous ones. Besides, there’s a whole new generation of audience out there who couldn’t have, or didn’t, see that earlier production.
Yet Benedict is hardly alone in wanting to reach for the comparative ruler, and this is hardly the first production to suffer as a result. Two summers ago Chichester revived the show, too, and in Charles Spencer’s Daily Telegraph review, he declared, “I usually try to avoid the boring compare-and-contrast school of criticism but Nicholas Hytner’s superb production at the National Theatre in 1992 is still so fresh in my memory that I can’t help myself. Angus Jackson’s staging at Chichester isn’t in the same league, and in particular, Javier De Frutos’s choreography isn’t a patch on the stunning work of Kenneth MacMillan, who died just as he was completing his contribution to Carousel at the National. Hytner and co brought a whole community to thrilling life in the opening Carousel Waltz. Jackson, in contrast has a few people riding on a very slow roundabout to an underpowered band. And in the famous dream ballet, originally choreographed by Agnes de Mille, the dancing rarely catches fire and the lifts seem awkward.”
So how can critics - and the creative team of a new production - hope to come to an old show afresh? The truth is it is impossible to discount the great productions that have made a big impact on one - and Hytner’s is one of those landmark stagings in my life that will be forever etched in my heart and soul. But just as we routinely accept a constant round of Hamlet’s and King Lear’s and accept that each may have something new to tell us about the play in question and enjoy different actors stepping up to the challenges of their title roles, we have to both absorb what we have seen before and simultaneously wipe the slate clean as we try to approach it new.
Theatre is, of course, a living, breathing art, not a museum artefact frozen forever in time; it’s one of the reasons foreign language plays are constantly re-translated, since they need to be re-made for new ages and stages. And great musicals deserve the same kind of attention.
In fact, it’s a legacy that the British theatre is particularly strong on accommodating. Until this year’s Lincoln Center staging of South Pacific, it had not previously had a major Broadway revival since its original 1949 production; yet London has offered it twice in the last twenty years alone, first at the Prince of Wales in 1988, then at the National in 2001. And it was the National, of course, who took coals to Newcastle, too, when both its revivals of Carousel and Oklahoma! subsequently travelled to Broadway.
We’ve also given Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd far more outings in London than it has ever had in New York - even though the import of the original Broadway production to Drury Lane in 1980 quickly floundered, we’ve more than made up for it in the years since, and John Doyle’s Newbury production that ended up at the Trafalgar Studios in 2004 was responsible for taking the show back to Broadway, too. (The only pity is that that production is so recent in the memory that another, far better studio interpretation currently at Southwark’s tiny Union Theatre won’t be able to do the same thing; I went again on Sunday, and was blown away all over again by its intensity and integrity, qualities that Doyle’s production constantly missed).
And it’s not just the great musicals like these that can benefit from reinterpretation, but also some of the flawed ones, too, so it’s good to see Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1993 Sunset Boulevard coming back - again, via Newbury, where it was staged earlier this summer - as it does to the Comedy this week, beginning previews on Friday. But once again, comparisons will be inevitable with the original….
Oh enough with this crap about South Pacific not being given a Broadway revival since 1949. If by Broadway one means Tony eligible yes, then its technically true but the fact is that South Pacific was seen several times at City Center, a major production at the New York State Theatre with Giorgo Tozzi and Florence Henderson that ran for an entire summer , a different production in the early 80s at New York City Opera, a concert version at Lincoln Center Theatre with Patti LuPone and another concert version at Carnegie Hall with Reba McIntire and Brian Stokes Mitchell. And these were just the ones that I remember. The State Theatre and Carnegie Hall productions both had recordings made of them. The very fine production that is on right now at Lincoln Center was not well received because the critics and audiences had been deprived of a South Pacific since 1949 but because it's just a great production. If this current production of Carousel is good then it will be able to stand against the memory of other productions of carousel - and if it isn't, well then it won't.
Comparisons to productions from the early 90s - Carousel in '92 and Sunset Boulevard in '93 - are extremely dull for those of us in our early twenties and below (which includes the hundreds of students studying musical theatre at drama school). It's comparing productions like this that actually hinders major revivals; producers are too afraid to revive shows if there's been a well-reviewed, etched-on-the-memory production before - and saying so face-to-face to producers like Kim Poster is unlikely to help buck this trend.
We really shouldn't be waiting 15 years plus to see a revival of Sunset or Carousel. That, in my mind, is as ridiculous an idea as comparing these incomparable productions. Are you going to miss the 'details' of the multi-million pound Sunset set in the transfer from the tiny budgeted Watermill? I hope not!
"Sunset Boulevard coming back....... as it does to the Comedy this week, beginning previews on Friday."
I hope they are perfoming tomorrow night (Thursday) since I plan to go along and have tickets. I think somewhere along the process of starting performances they changed the date since I have seen both the 4th and the 5th advertised in separate places.
"Oh enough with this crap about South Pacific not being given a Broadway revival since 1949"
Chill out, he said a "Major" Broadway production which is true.
City Center,New York State Theater and Carnegie Hall are none of them "Broadway"!
Lee, the State Theatre Revival with Florence Henderson & Giorgo Tozzi was a MAJOR revival produced by Rodgers himself. The City Opera production was a major revival in that it was newly designed, directed and choreographed by a major resident opera company in New York City. My point is not the word major, nor is it their's, my the implication of the sentence is that New York aka Broadway has been without South Pacific for 50 years - it hasn't. Its just a PR lie. Like theone in front of Buddy at the Duchess which says now in our 20th Year , where it should say now in our 20th year with a few years off for good behavior. Now I'll chill.
Funny, I took the first preview date for SUNSET BOULEVARD off the ATG website -- http://www.theambassadors.com/comedy/ -- but in fact if you try to book, there is indeed a performance tomorrow (Thursday), so one side of the website doesn't know what another side is doing....!