The Wind Blows Hot and Cold
The opening of Trevor Nunn's version of Gone With the Wind last week has to go down as one of the most talked about events in West End history. We sent one of our writers to see what all the fuss was about
You certainly don't need a degree in Computer Science to be able to see that, of late, the internet has been positively swimming with reviews and criticisms about the new musical version of Gone With the Wind. Reports of an epic running time, illnesses in the cast and last minute cancellations have had the more spiteful critics sharpening their knives, salivating and queuing up right around the block.
If anyone had tried that last night outside the New London Theatre however, they would have got pretty darn wet. Yes, our dash from the delightful Bertorelli's in Covent Garden was certainly hampered by April's most famous meteorological feature. Suitably dried off in the welcoming foyer though, we made our way through the modern concrete and glass halls of the New London Theatre to the fully decked out auditorium. Huge wooden facades, aged boards and countless flags of the Confederate were there to meet us; right from the off there was no mistaking the historical atmosphere that hung about the thrust stage. The lights dimmed, the band flared up and there we were met by the ensemble for the first time.
Due to the complexities of the huge plot, Margaret Martin employs the use of many shifting narrators to tell the story. Each step forward to deliver a sentence or two and then the spotlight shifts over to the next person. This was a little confusing at first (especially when actors start narrating about their own characters in the third person) but everyone soon got used to it. Suitably enough it was Danesh's Rhett Butler that opened the play. "Eighteeeen siiixty one" he bellows in a bassy Southern drawl before the narration swiftly moves on to another actor. Hold the phone! A perceptible murmur flitted around the audience: that's not Darius 'hit me baby one more time' Danesh is it? The transformation is amazing. It's not that he looks very different at all, but it feels like you're watching a complete stranger. He's tall (very tall actually), elegant and debonair and every inch the Southern gent. No one can quite believe it. It's a few scenes before he comes back on again to reaffirm our suspicions. Yes, it's him, definitely, but not quite as we know him. Striking and dignified, Danesh glides through the Wilkes' BBQ as though the critical twitterings surrounding the show's opening are nothing more than silly hearsay. His voice, a deep and rich Southern baritone, is flawless; the accent is effortless and the singing feels just as easy. Clearly the man cuts quite the first impression. Now, if I may break off for a second here, between you, me and the proverbial gatepost, I am not the biggest fan of pop reality TV shows. No sirree! (I think all those Confederate accents have got to me) Then, when I heard that Danesh was booked for Rhett Butler over Hollywood stars like Hugh Jackman, I did question whether or not Sir Trevor Nunn had started drinking or something. I have to admit however, that (unsurprisingly) I was wrong and he was right. Musical theatre is Darius's calling; he is simply outstanding.
Now, that's quite enough of that, back to the plot.
Scarlett O' Hara, played tirelessly by Jill Plaice, finds out that her childhood favourite Ashley is to be married to his cousin Melanie and the whole tangled love story is kicked off. Cue the onslaught of the bloody Civil War, the odd roll on the military snare and some pretty liberal Yankee-bashing and there's no mistaking we're watching Gone With the Wind except, of course, there's quite a lot of singing
The vocal performances are all strong, Natasha Evette Williams, who plays Scarlett's slave Mammy, is literally stunning. When she finally gets to open up in the second half she totally brought the house down.
Unfortunately, this is also where it would seem Gone With the Wind's biggest shortfall is. Some of Margaret Martin's music and lyrics are just, well, silly. Moments before the burning of Atlanta, the frustrated Scarlett, in reference to the male wounded soldiers, completes the couplet "they might be wrecks" with "at least they're members of the opposite sex". Ouch. Once might be forgivable, but after reminiscing that the unmarried Scarlett "had it all", it seems quite a cruel move for Martin to have her conclude "Like Humpty Dumpty I had a great fall". A few seething winces shot around the stalls at moments like that but, as the night wore on, it would appear that this delicate balance of the serious and the comical is a shift that the production plays with and plays with very well. For example, echoes of those immortal closing lines pop up from time to time in the action and they receive half-cheers every time they do.
That, perhaps, is where all the critical buzz comes from, the fact that the show straddles comedy and tragedy so freely. There are genuinely fantastic moments in Gone With the Wind, heartfelt and brave performances, intelligently poised cultural references and honest characterisation. There are, of course, problematic moments too. Some of the dialogue seems forced and stretched and the unpleasant attitudes to slavery in the original film and novel are roughly sanitised by the fact that the characters, without exception, condemn the practice. Even when Ashley briefly joins the Klu Klux Klan we are decidedly shown very little. Obviously we are not trusted with actually seeing one of the romantic heroes draped in the white sheets of the Klan as this would compromise our sympathies towards him. Also, Rhett is a far more likeable chap than Mitchell's novel ever really permitted him to be.
In short, Gone With the Wind is quite the mixed bag. At times some of the dialogue and music falls short but, crucially, far more often the brilliantly worked set pieces and fantastic performances over shadow the failings. Clearly Nunn's version of Gone With the Wind is causing quite a stir in the West End at the moment so the only way to judge it is to see it for yourself. And, with such a huge buzz swarming around the whole thing, who wouldn't want to see what all the fuss was about?
Published by: Nathan Brooker
