So at last a new and original music that caters to a grown-up audience.
by Greg Mitchell | 25th October 2013
★★★★
From Here To Eternity marks Sir Tim Rice’s return to musical theatre after a gap of 13 years, and proves that he certainly hasn’t lost his touch as a lyricist. Having collaborated with the likes of Andrew Lloyd Webber (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita), Elton John (The Lion King, Aida), Alan Menken (Aladdin, King David, Beauty and the Beast) and Ulvaeus and Andersson, from Abba (Chess, always one of my favourites), he now joins forces with relative newcomer Stuart Brayson on this variously inventive score. The excellent book, and there is quite a lot of it (this is not a through composed musical) is by Bill Oakes, who has taken the unusual step of going from producing to writing.
The show is based on James Jones’ seminal novel, set in wartime Hawaii and culminating in the bombing of Pearl Harbour in 1941. Many will be more familiar with the 1953 multi Oscar Award winning movie, that starred Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Frank Sinatra and Deborah Kerr, but the stage show is more true to the book in making more explicit the sexual relationships of the two couples and including the scenes of gay night life in Waikiki. In fact the gay sub plot, involving the Sinatra character, Maggio working as a male hustler, was completely left out of the movie. This makes it very much an adult musical. Where, in 1953, audiences were shocked to see Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster rolling around in the surf, clad only in swimming costumes, Rebecca Thornhill goes one better in the stage show and sheds all her clothes in the powerful love scene which closes Act One.
If I were feeling picky, I might point out that Act One is slightly too long, but I honestly don’t see how you could cut anything out, and the masterly direction of Tamara Harvey and the imaginatively inventive choreography of Javier de Frutos certainly make sure that nothing drags.
But of course a musical stands or falls on its music, and here we have a masterful score that fuses elements of 1940s swing, blues and rock and roll, but somehow still manages to sound contemporary. Stand out moments for me in a score that abounds with musical highlights were the lovely wistful ballad for Lorene “Run along Joe” (beautifully and movingly sung by Suibhan Harrison), and the duet for the two men in the second act, “Ain’t where I wanna be blues”. Act Two also has one of the musical highpoints in a quintet for all five principals, but there are great ensemble set pieces too.
The cast is uniformly excellent. Relative newcomer Robert Londsale turns in a great performance as Prewett, the career soldier, a star boxer who refuses to box for the company because of having once blinded an opponent, particularly powerful in his recurring anthem, “Fight the Fight”. He is no less good in conveying the fluctuating emotions that surround his love for the call girl, Lorene and his affection for his buddy Maggio (a brilliant performance by Ryan Sampson). The performances of Rebecca Thornhill as Karen and Darius Campbell as Warden are equally strong, but their characters less well drawn, Karen’s transition from brittle indifference to passionate love less believable.
That would be my only reservation on what is a thoroughly enjoyable, brilliantly conceived and executed new show. There certainly isn’t anything else quite like it in London at the moment. Go and see for yourself.
From Here to Eternity is plating at the Shaftesbury Theatre.
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