OneTouch Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 12 June 2009

Inverness Opera Company

ONE OF the facts of life is that musical theatre is popular, to the extent that at times musicals can dominate both the West End of London and Broadway in New York, leaving conventional theatre to pick up the remains of the available audience.

During the second week of June Inverness’s Eden Court offered a microcosm of that reality. In the OneTouch Theatre Inverness Opera Company presented the third act of their successful “songs from the shows” format to good audiences; while next door in the Empire Theatre the joint production by two of the most respected companies in the country, Dundee Rep and the National Theatre of Scotland, played to modest numbers with a version of Ibsen’s masterpiece, Peer Gynt, that I found so bad and disgusting that, to my mind, it should never have seen the light of day.

At least I assume that the second half was as awful as the first as I could not bear to stay after the interval [see John Burns review for a different response to the controversial award-winning play – Ed.]

So, hats off to Inverness Opera Company for maintaining standards and putting so much hard work into their latest presentation that I am almost tempted to overlook the niggly bits. I say “almost” as I am told that I have ruffled one or two feathers in the past for judging Inverness Opera on the same standards as a professional company. But they charge a commercial rate for tickets and they perform in a professional venue, so that is the basis on which I will treat them.

In a nutshell, the parts of the show between the long dark pauses were very good. Without exception all thirty-three of the cast sang well to the accompaniment of a most impressive, but nameless, on-stage orchestra. And whoever made the inspired decision to recruit the estimable Claire Morris as choreographer deserves a medal, as her stylish imprimatur really lifted the performance into something special, resulting in the cast singing with their bodies as well as their voices.

However, before I go into more detail on the performances, let’s get the niggles out of the way. Essentially the show was twenty-three disconnected excerpts from twenty-one musicals with nothing to put the songs into context. The programme sheet was no more than a list of the songs, which musicals they came from and who was singing them, but that’s not a lot of help in a dark auditorium.

Which brings me back to my main niggle, the long dark pauses that made up 9% of the total time of the show (Yes, I timed them. How anal is that?). While the changes are taking place, would it not be possible to have one of the cast introduce each song with no more than a few lines about the musical involved and how the characters and the song fit into the plot? That would alleviate the audience sitting in the dark like numpties, and give the whole show continuity and pace.

West End to Broadway Act III opened with the overture to Wicked!, the must-see show about the Witches of Oz that is packing them in at the Apollo Victoria in London.

Dark pause 22 secs

The whole company set the mood for the evening with a boisterous and enthusiastic rendition of Money, Money, Money from Mamma Mia, the Abba tribute show, and one of the few songs to have also appeared in West End to Broadway Act II a couple of years ago.

Dark pause 32 secs

Then it was debut time for one of the fresh leads of Inverness Opera, Lea MacLaughlin singing Another Suitcase from the Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Evita. While the movie may have associated this number with Madonna, Lea’s delivery was much more akin to the original by Julie Covington. It is never an easy song to get right, but Lea had the measure of it.

Dark pause 27 secs

Staying with Rice and Lloyd Webber, Garry Black had just the right level of anguish in the Gethsemane solo as Christ queries his impending death in the musical Jesus Christ Superstar.

Dark pause 20 secs

Maureen Westley, Margaret Hadnett, Gail Turner and Anne Hughes kept the religious theme going as the group of nuns in The Sound of Music who try to solve the problem called Maria, full of humour and exasperation.

Dark pause 27 secs

Popular stalwart Charlie Sinclair then sang the solo Some Enchanted Evening from another great Rogers and Hammerstein musical, South Pacific. A warm deep voice that had no trouble filling the OneTouch Theatre with every word clearly defined.

Dark pause 25 secs

Eddie Docherty and Lorna Lumsden took the stage suitably attired to sing Chim Chiminee from Mary Poppins, and thank goodness Eddie decided not to try and emulate the execrable Cockney accent that Dick Van Dyke employed in the movie as a loveable chimney sweep.

Dark pause 14 secs

Avenue Q is one of those unlikely successes that has been playing on Broadway for a decade and in the West End for four years, having just transferred to the Geilgud Theatre. Mixing humans and puppets, it is set in a very down-at-heel part of New York, and has a decidedly seedy theme, but some wonderful songs from the pens of Robert Marx and Jeff Lopez, of which maybe the best known is Fine Fine Line, sung beautifully here by Sasha Devine.

Dark pause 22 secs

Rent is a rock musical written by Jonathan Larson based on Puccini’s La Boheme, but set in New York with all the main characters infected with AIDS. It was a success in America, possibly because of Larson’s sudden death from an aortic aneurysm just as the show was about to open on Broadway. However a West End version called Rent Remixed ran for only three months and was critically vilified. Seasons of Love opens the second act as the whole cast contemplate what can happen in a whole year.

Dark pause 38 secs

Inverness Opera’s next full scale production is Titanic – The Musical, and we were treated to a taster with a medley of four of the numbers from the entire company under the direction of Bob Garrity. Some lovely songs, including the toe-tapping The Latest Rag, to look forward to, but let’s hope they get the scene changes speeded up or global warming will have melted the iceberg and Titanic will reach New York safely.

The second half began with, yes, you’ve guessed it!

Dark pause 31 secs

The full company returned to the fun and frolics of Mamma Mia with a unison rendition of the title song.

Dark pause 23 secs

In her first lead for the company a few months ago in Anything Goes, Nicola Macaskill gave an excellent performance as Reno Sweeney. In her cameo as Diana in A Chorus Line, she confirmed that her success as Reno was not a one-off, singing the number Nothing, a recollection of horrible high school acting classes.

Dark pause 18 secs

And so the show continued, with everyone playing their parts to the hilt. Aileen Hendry and Andy Warburton as the Couple of Swells from Easter Parade, Stephanie Smart sending in the clowns from A Little Night Music, a quintet of the ladies for Suddenly Seymour from The Little Shop of Horrors, Helen Barron, Lea MacLaughlan and Clare Nicholson sweeping the floor in Matchmaker from Fiddler on The Roof.

Inverness Opera’s principal male, Des Devine performed an impressive title song from Starlight Express (how about roller skates next time, Des?) with the only slick change of the evening as he slipped on a jacket to go straight into the Jets’ song, Officer Krupke from West Side Story. Margaret Aburn got her turn in the spotlight in front of a semi-chorus for Tell Me It’s Not True from Blood Brothers. Gerry Sutton made a suitably sad and forlorn Mr Cellophane from Chicago before Miriam Crabtree upped the ante as the taxi dancer Charity Hope Valentine singing Big Spender from Sweet Charity and putting the frighteners on her client, Eddie Docherty.

From there to the end it was the full company all the way, with a selection of numbers including a gooseskin-inducing Do You Hear The People Sing? from Les Miserables and culminating in another visit to Sweet Charity for The Rhythm of Life.

A most entertaining evening which everyone enjoyed and left them looking forward to West End to Broadway Act IV. Inverness Opera have got the semi-staged format right; the energy and enthusiasm is impressive; the singing is good, a lot of the time very good; the movement is a massive improvement. Get the continuity sorted and next time there will be an outstanding show.

© James Munro, 2009

Links

• Inverness Opera Company