Tuesday 12th February 2013 by Will Langdale
A quick pick of what’s hot in the TicketTree.com office
 |
| Romeo and Juliet (1870) by Ford Maddox Brown |
Love in the time of musicals
As an artform, musical theatre really lends itself to particular plot devices. The spectacle, for example, works extremely well when a huge cast belts out a powerful number, such as the opening of The Lion King or the barricade in Les Miserables. The sheer size of an audience and a production allows for some wildly epic staging that would otherwise seem gauche, such as Elphaba’s giant monolithic cape-flapping presence at the end of Wicked’s Defying Gravity.
But if you’re going to devise an artform around characters spontaneously springing into song, then you may as well serve it up as the food of love. Sheer, stomach-pounding, fight-or-flight devotion to someone is prolifically covered in the arts, but combining drama with music somehow manages to unearth a forgotten desire undiscovered within the depths of either form alone. There’s plenty of shows in the West End right now with a nuclear-grade love song – the kind of thing that would give even the stoniest stoic a wuvvly mushy molten heart.
As a meditation on the pain of unrequited love, On My Own from Les Miserables is an aching opening to the second act. The invocation of the listless, lonely Paris streets is played against Éponine’s earthly comfort at the mere thought of Marius in a bittersweet, plaintive, personal song bookended by the societal violence of the coming revolution. We have two very different interpretations to recommend, firstly from the 10th Anniversary concert at the Royal Albert Hall back in 1995, and a second, much more intimate clip, taken from this year’s film version.
Coming at the heated conclusion of Act 1, All I Ask of You from Phantom of the Opera illustrates Christina’s blossoming love for Raoul, despite the Phantom’s deep and jealous affections for his protégé. Taking place on the roof of the opera house, it’s an extremely challenging song for both performers as the audience can often be drawn in by the slightly more interesting, tragic character of the Phantom. However, a nuanced performance can really bring home how deeply Christina and Raoul feel for one another, and how happy they are together. Alongside the Reprise with the climactic chandelier crash, the song underscores the foundations of the relationships between the principal characters, bringing Raoul and Christina together in soppy, soaring, harmonised union. A cautionary warning for those of you about to click the link: involuntary blubbering should commence at about 3 minutes in.
Sometimes the third wheel in a love triangle is pesky old society, as in the case with our final selection. Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s West Side Story, based on Shakespeare’s own star-crossed tragedy Romeo and Juliet, moves the story to New York, where Tony and Maria are caught up in the gang violence between the Jets and Sharks. One Hand, One Heart is a tender duet as the pair appear to plan their future wedding. The bleak, inevitable end to a story that many audiences will be familiar with is foregrounded and pre-emptively defeated in the song: “only death will part us now” becomes “even death won’t part us now”, and the plan of the wedding becomes as significant as a wedding itself. The simplest of songs is transformed into a daring gesture of love, and the duet is one of enduring innocence and sweetness set against the tragedy of life.
Deal of the week
With all this lovely-dovey stuff around we think it’d be nice to offer a discount on a musical that celebrates the funny side of love, and will offer a perfect break away for any musical lover. So get thee to Mamma Mia – we’re offering 5% off packages booked throughout February. Just put together a package and enter MAMMABLOG as your voucher code to claim your discount!