No 41 -- Spring 1994 Edited by Michael Walters
I only found out about this production the previous day, owing to a mention on Classic FM. But otherwise publicity seemed to have been poor, as there were very few in the audience, and no sign at all of Christopher Boyd!! The perfunctory small orchestra consisted of assorted brass and woodwind, which could hardly be heard over the thunderous sound of the upright piano, pounded by a young lady, but even so, the resultant "orchestration" drowned the chorus in places, particularly the opening chorus. All three "lost" songs were included, but several other numbers, notably "now take a card" and "At the outset I may mention" were cut. The dialogue was pruned in places, and a number of Gilbert's cornier lines removed. I did not object to any of the cuts, which seemed to work well, nor with the re-positioning of the Jim Jams Song in Act 2, in an added scene for Ernest, Rudolph and Julia.
On the whole the production was conventional with embellishments. Julia did not use a German accent, but the Monte-Carlos had American accents (extremely well done) though I couldn't follow the logic behind them. The chorus singing was poor, but there were some very fine individual performances. Stuart Barker was an intense and melodramatic Rudolph. Although his facial (and particularly oral) expressions were arguably overdone, the net result was a performance of genuine feeling. When he sobbed on reading his detective's report, and screamed "Oh Caroline, Caroline" one could believe that the emotions were genuine. Christopher Cann as Ludwig was in a lower key, but equally good. He looked incredibly like a young Rutland Barrington, both facially (with the same distinctive drooping mouth) and bodily (bulky and flabby) and he flopped and bounced his relaxed way through the role. The Notary was credited to Hugh Logman, but I am convinced that this was another of the many pseudonyms of [*****]. It was played in a characteristically over-the-top way, with a ridiculous long synthetic white wig. An interesting, but not entirely successful twist was introduced at the denoument when he arrived with black eyes, blood streaming from his nose and red stains on his shirt, having evidently been beaten up by Ernest and Rudolph. The idea was that he had not actually made a mistake about Ace counting low in statutory duels. He had been tortured into saying that this was so. This made Ernest and Rudolph allies, with Ernest happily agreeing to forget about the plot.
Julia was very strongly sung and acted by Sarah Warren although deprived of the "mad scene". By contrast. Liza received a rather pallid performance by Lizzi Flint. Ernest was given a jolly hail-fellow Bill-Clinton style performance from Peter Clements. The producer Jerry Pinel took over the role of the Prince of Monte Carlo at short notice, and both he and the Princess (Elysa Engelman) played strongly.
MICHAEL WALTERS
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