Reviews 2005
Reviews 2005
✭✭✭✩✩
by Bertolt Brecht & Kurt Weill, directed by Tadeusz Bradecki
Shaw Festival, Royal George Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake
May 28-Oct 8, 2005
"A Duller Cutting Edge"
In 2003 the Shaw Festival’s production of Brecht and Weill's 1929 musical "Happy End" was a great success for everyone involved. While the current remount lacks some of the precision and fire of the original, it is still one of the smartest productions of Brecht and Weill to come along in Ontario in quite some time.
Beyond Michael Feingold’s clever adaptation of the book and lyrics, most of the credit for the show’s success must go to Polish director Tadeusz Bradecki. Too many North American directors get tangled up in Brecht’s theory of the “alienation effect” and forget that its point is not to obscure the story being told but to make us look at more rationally. Bradecki comes from a European tradition where Brechtian techniques have long been integrated into mainstream productions. Thus, rather than battering us with an array of these “V-Effekte”, Bradecki has subtly integrated them into the production itself.
Peter Hartwell’s set has wooden wings that serve for both the gang’s hangout and for the Salvation Army mission. The backdrop is a black cloth with a moveable platform in front that shows it is a “set as set”. A rectangle of cloth, not a cyclorama, with an etching of a big city is the symbolic clue that we are in Chicago. A fore-curtain has the Salvation Army shield and “S” on it, but streaks through the “S” also make it look like a dollar sign. Teresa Przybylski’s period costumes are naturalistic enough, though she gives the Lillian Holiday, the main character, a tunic of a brighter blue to make her stand out from her Sally Ann colleagues. Bradecki demonstrates the “costume as costume” in the simplest possible way by having the actors start to take off their costumes after the finale as the walk away from the audience. They then turn back to the front to sing a reprise of the “Bilbao Song” half divested of their costumes. Jeff Logue’s lighting, appropriately enough, tends toward the expressionistic and theatrical rather than the naturalistic.
More important than the physical production is the stylized acting technique that Bradecki has had the cast adopt. For this to be effective the style must be uniform across the board and that’s exactly what the Shaw company, so used to ensemble work, achieves. The style Bradecki has chosen is, suitably enough, the slightly exaggerated mode of Hollywood gangster movies of the 1930s with its accentuated sudden physical shifts to signal changes in mood and attitude. The result is that the whole work not just the songs and dance numbers appears minutely choreographed. Jane Johanson’s precise, angular choreography for the musical numbers bursts with wit and humour.
The difference in this remount is that a certain jokiness has crept into the production blunting the razor sharp edge of the original. Bradecki had kept the stylized acting from becoming cartoonish in 2003, but that is not always true now. There have also been some significant changes of cast. The most important of these is the replacement of Blythe Wilson with Glynis Ranney in the role of Lillian Holiday. Ranney is a fine performer whose work I have enjoyed on many occasions. It’s interesting to see how differently Ranney interprets the role from Wilson, but ultimately it has to be admitted that Wilson’s approach not only better suited Bradecki’s overall view of the work but also made it much more exciting.
Wilson presented the Salvation Army Lieutenant Lillian as person as tough and fanatical as her gangster nemesis Bill Cracker. Wilson sang Weill’s marvellous signature hits, “The Sailors’ Tango” and “Surabaya Johnny”, with an unbeatable mixture of pain and derision, iciness and seduction. This made created an intriguing dynamism between Bill and Lillian that drove the action. Ranney plays Lillian as a waifish young woman who forces herself to stand up to Bill. She relates the songs more closely to operetta than cabaret and brings out their emotion more than their satire. As a result Bill always seems more powerful and the struggle lacking in energy.
Otherwise, the performances are excellent. Benedict Campbell reprises his role as the swaggering Bill Cracker full of sneering menace. Neil Barclay returns as the improbably cross-dressing Sammy Wurlitzer as does Jay Turvey as the fear-mongering Asian caricature that is Dr. Nakamura. Turvey’s punchy rendition of the “Song of the Big Shot” is still a showstopper. Jeff Madden is a likeable innocent as Baby Face Flint. It’s fun to see Patty Jamieson dig into an evil character like the gang’s mysterious ringleader “The Fly”, though Glynis Ranney gave the role a more pathological edge in 2003.
On the side of good, Donna Belleville is very funny as the stolid Major Stone, who can’t conceal her attraction to Sammy Wurlitzer and his organ. Jenny L. Wright is the easily censorious Sister Mary and Julie Martell has a delightful moment as a quivering Sister Jane singing “Don’t be Afraid”. David Leyshon reprises his role as Captain Hannibal Jackson, who has the unfortunate habit of blacking out and falling full-length to the floor.
While it’s a pity the remount has lost its edge, the work itself is as transgressive as ever. In the present political climate it’s exhilarating to hear big business demonized in song, sanctimonious religiosity shredded and the goals of gangsters equated with those of charities. This is definitely a red musical not a “red state” musical. Paul Sportelli, for once conducting a band the same size that the composer intended, brings out all the humour and anger in Weill’s music. It may not be as perfect as it was in 2003, but the show still has enough kick and style to demonstrate why Brecht and Weill’s aggressively subversive art is so appealing.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photo: Neil Barclay, Jay Turvey, Jeff Madden and Peter Millard. ©2005 David Cooper.
2005-08-08
Happy End