“Saturday Night” on Sunday and other London adventures

Posted on March 29, 2009
Filed Under Personal, Professional | Leave a Comment

First, apologies to habitues of the Chazzyverse who may have wondered what ever happened to your esteemed author. Work-related duties have made it hard – nay, obviously impossible – to find even a spare minute to post. But never fear – travel has once more stirred the writer’s impulse in me!

I’ve been in the UK for the past 4 days. Thursday, Friday and Saturday I was in the lovely historic city of Bath, attending a conference entitled “‘Putting It Together’: Teaching Musical Theatre in UK Higher Education” at Bath Spa University. There, I had a chance to meet dozens of colleagues from UK musical theater training programs at conservatories and universities. I also did a demonstration of some SAVI exercises and some recruiting for another European conference, to be held in September in Denmark and Germany.

I had debated spending an extra day for an “artist’s date” in London. (The term comes from Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way,” and is a highly-recommended strategy for personal renewal.) It seemed frivolous to prolong my time away from home, and potentially risky to fly back on Monday when I’ve got an important interview back in Philly on Monday night. (Cross your fingers for me on that trip – and that interview!) But the cost to fly back on Sunday was substantially more than I wound up spending to stay in London on Saturday and Sunday night and treat myself to some downtime in one of my favorite (favourite) cities.

The morning dawned bright and sunny, and spring was clearly in the air when I left my hotel, located near the Bayswater tube station just north of Bayswater Road and Kensington Gardens. I headed for the park, and felt magically transported, as I stepped through the gate in the hedge, to an urban oasis. Lots of photos on the Flickrstream if you’re interested in the sights in the park. The Princess Diana Memorial Fountain was a particularly intriguing discovery – not like any fountain I’ve seen, to be sure.

After lunch, I hiked up Piccadilly Circus and Shaftesbury Ave. to the Arts Theatre (home to the English language premiere of Waiting for Godot and Pinter’s The Caretaker, among many others). I knew I wanted to see a show while in London, but I hadn’t bargained on the fact that so many shows take Sunday as their dark day. Nothing at the National or the RSC, and Priscilla the Queen of the Desert (the Musical) was likewise dark, so I selected “Saturday Night,” the only Sondheim musical I’ve never seen. Scholars of SS (or God, as he’s known in these circles) know this to be his earliest work, written before his collaboration with Bernstein and Laurents on West Side Story, the promising debut of a young writer in his 20’s that was never produced due to the death of its original producer. A charming story, indeed, and a very charming score, with a few numbers well known to me (including the title song, What More Do I Need, and So Many People) from jury lists and anthology revues. The songs I hadn’t heard were almost uniformly terrific, and I also loved the Epstein brothers’ smart, wise-cracking book (until the very end, when it gets very deus-ex-machinated). What I didn’t love (alas) was the production, which made two serious errors: (1) the use of a unit set and (2) the use of actor-musicians. Both these choices might be attributable to the need to do the show cheaply, but both seriously diminished the quality of the storytelling. With a single set and a bunch of sax-toting actors, the look and sound of the show lacked variety and visual nuance. The actors struggled bravely with the New York accents, but in a story that hinges on shades of class and economic background, the lead was a bit tone-deaf, a bit too posh and refined. He’s a Park Avenue wannabe, but his roots are definitely Brooklyn, and the dialect is one key to portraying that.

Traveled back to my hotel via tube – four quid, over six bucks, for a subway ride! – and took a quick nap, then decided to take in a movie at the nearby mall multiplex. (In Bayswater, a mall multiplex bears little resemblance to its equivalent in Philly.) The movie that I was most interested in was Duplicity, the thriller-romance written and directed by Tony Gilroy, whose work I enjoyed on The Bourne Identity. A crackerjack movie, full of smart dialog, terrific performances, mind-bending plot twists (I was surprised by the final resolution) and a first-rate score by James Newton Howard.

All that in a day that also provided opportunity for retrospection, and even a bit o’ blogging! Tomorrow morning I’ve just got time for a full English breakfast (rashers, baked beans, the works) then off to Heathrow for the flight home. Like I said before – let’s hope USAirways doesn’t let me down!

Comments

If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.

“Saturday Night” on Sunday and other London adventures

Comments

Leave a Comment

Recently

Categories

Archives

Recently Written

Blogroll

Find It

Admin

Design