Kieran Brown and Charlotte Scott in Pipe Dream at the Union Theatre, London. Picture: Kay Young Photography
Pipe Dream continues at the Union Theatre, London until 31 August.
Pipe Dream was the seventh musical to be created by the legendary partnership of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammersmith II. Amongst their large canon of Broadway classics, such as Oklahoma!, Carousel and South Pacific, it was to be their biggest flop.
John Steinbeck, the great American author of The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden and Of Mice and Men, wrote Sweet Tuesday as a sequel to his successful novel Cannery Row for the sole purpose of having it turned into a musical. Frank Loesser was the original choice to write it, but was unavailable as he was busy working on The Most Happy Fella. So the Broadway producers Cy Feuer and Ernie Martin who owned the rights approached Rodgers and Hammerstein instead.
Set in Monterey, California, Pipe Dream tells the story of marine biologist Doc (Kieran Brown) and Suzy (Charlotte Scott) the new girl in town. Doc, a character from Steinbeck’s previous novel, returns after the Second World War to find that Cannery Row, a small coastal village, has become run-down and almost deserted after the closure of the local canning factory. Mac (David Haydn) and his simple sidekick Hazel (Nick Martland) are two of Doc’s old friends from before. They reside with the other down and outs in the Palace Flophouse, an old storage shed, which apparently unbeknownst to Joe (John Hicks), the new owner of the General Store, also belongs to him.
Doc throws himself into his work, studying starfish in the nearby tide pool, on which he is writing a scientific paper. But his world is turned upside down when Mac brings Suzy to him after she cuts her hand, when attempting to steal donuts from a shop window. To save her from being run out of town by Jim (Shane Landers) the town’s law enforcer, she is taken in by Fauna (Virge Gilchrist) the owner of the bordello across the street, The Bear Flag Cafe (the original title for the show).
Due to Rodgers and Hammerstein’s prudishness, it is never fully explained in the show what Suzy does in the whorehouse, as she is dressed like a tom-boy, unlike the scantily attired ladies of the chorus. Fauna tries to play matchmaker by getting Doc to ask Suzy out on a date and the rest of the story is taken up with Mac attempting to rig a raffle where the prize is the ownership of the Flophouse. And with the money raised he intends to buy Doc a microscope to help with his studies.
With a simple stage design by Elle-Rose Hughes of three tall wooden flats, director Sasha Regan and choreographer Lizzie Gee have done an excellent job with this odd piece. Gee’s choreography is especially effective when Doc sings ‘The Man I Used To Be’, having Joshua Lovell dancing around him as his younger self. And in the company number ‘The Party That We’re Gonna Have Tomorrow Night’, Rebecca Fennelly – sitting on Christopher Connor’s shoulder – does a spectacular back-bend, somehow ending up on the floor without breaking her neck. It literally made me gasp.
When you think of any Rodgers and Hammerstein show, you can usually pick at least five or six famous songs from the scores, but in Pipe Dream there is really only one stand-out song, the beautiful ‘All At Once You Love Her’. The script is peppered with a number of amusing malapropisms, but considering its content is so sanitised, there is no real drama.
If you are a true musical theatre connoisseur then you should see this R&H rarity and tick it off your list. You can see why the show never reached the West End or the silver screen, but Regan should be congratulated for bringing us this forgotten musical which is performed by a talented and energetic young cast.
Peter St James
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