Afgelopen woensdag was de premiere in Norwich. De recensies die ik tot dusverre gelezen heb zijn erg positief. Hieronder de recensies van The Stage en Whatsonstage.
There was always a vibrant, sexy and witty musical waiting to burst out of The Witches of Eastwick. But when this smart, clever theatrical adaptation of the John Updike novel and 1987 Warner film was originally premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 2000, its alternately affectionate and stinging satire on small-town values was fatally over-inflated and drowned out by big-time production values.
It was subsequently scaled back a bit and moved to the Prince of Wales, but by then the die was cast - or the witches’ spell was broken - and it couldn’t be saved. Yet here was a show from the Cameron Mackintosh stable that put the through-sung musical drama that he pioneered behind it and restored the values of a strongly characterised book by John Dempsey that pulsed with comic life, and even a seriously provocative sexual edge - it is distinctly not family fodder. And it is lovingly propelled by a quirkily exuberant musical score by composer Dana P Rowe that bursts with melody and musical wit.
Now with the bright, young director Nikolai Foster at the helm and a cast punchily led by Marti Pellow, who brings an insinuatingly creepy charisma to the central role of Darryl van Horne, a new touring production finally releases the potential that was always there - just as van Horne’s arrival in the fictional town does the same thing for three lonely women as they encounter a life force bigger than any of them have experienced before.
Pellow brings a slinky, serpentine, medallion-wearing grace to the stage. And the trio of Ria Jones as sculptor mother Alexandra Spofford, Rebecca Thornhill as aspiring writer Sukie Rougemont, who finds herself constantly lost for words, and Poppy Tierney as teacher and cellist Jane Smart, project their characters’ vulnerabilities with strength and confidence.
Peter McKintosh’s design deftly flies in a series of the interiors for each of their clapboard houses, as well as a more solidly realised mansion for van Horne. Geoffrey Garrett, who worked with Bob Avian and Stephen Mear on the original choreography, smartly recreates their work as well as introducing some smooth transitions of his own.
This is a first-class touring production that may have cut the fat from the musical, but hasn’t cut corners in revealing its strengths at last.
Mark Shenton voor http://www.thestage.co.uk
This new production of the musical version of John Updike’s novel The Witches of Eastwick is a tauter, sharper-focused variation on the original London production eight years ago. Although greater weight is now laid on the individual characters, it is lavishly and very effectively staged.
We’re in a close-knit New England town some fifty-odd years ago. Its mother hen is briskly freezing out any non-conformists — and that includes three women whose lives don’t quite fit her idea of normal. Enter a raffish wealthy stranger, and the scene is set for a diabolical upset.
It’s all beautifully designed by Peter McKintosh with two-dimensional clapboard houses, deceptively bright costumes for the townsfolk and some brilliant lighting effects from Guy Hoare. Choreographer Geoffrey Garrett has a field-day with dances varying from hoe-down to boogie with an archetypical dream ballet sequence thrown in for good measure.
Marti Pellow as Darryl Van Horne draws the audience as well as the women on stage under his spell with a finely-balanced performance which seems quite deliberately to not-quite hide the horns and cloven hooves under the lively gyrations and come-hither charm. It’s a characterisation which brims over with diabolical energy.
That’s matched by the performances of the three women he draws into his poisoned web. Ria Jones as Alex, lone mother obsessed by her imagined unattractiveness, Rebecca Thornhill as Sukie, the cub reporter with little future, and Poppy Tierney as Jane, the musically frustrated schoolmarm all-but dominate the action. Their transformation first into seductive objects of male desire, then into avenging harpies and lastly into accepted members of the community ring true.
Director Nikolai Foster gives a proper space to the townsfolk as well. Joanna Kirkland and Chris Thatcher are charming as the young love interests while Rachel Izen’s domineering Felicia and James Graeme as the worm of a husband who turns give something better than mere cameo performances. It is when their relationship finally breaks that the darkness to which the witch games have led finally breaks in.
This a show with real tunes by Dana P Rowe as well as action and mystery. Musical director Tom Deering keeps the balance between letting us hear the words and just sitting back to enjoy the sound very skilfully; the performers are exceptionally well mic’d. All in all, it’s an evening of pleasure, a real sweet-and-sour confection.
En 5 sterren van Anne Morley-Priestman voor http://www.whatsonstage.com
