Rebecca Trehearn and Rosalie Craig in City of Angels at the Donmar Warehouse, London. Picture: Johan Persson
City of Angels continues at the Donmar Warehouse, London until 7 February 2015.
While it was obvious that many people in the Donmar Warehouse audience were seeing librettist Larry Gelbart, composer Cy Coleman and lyricist David Zippel’s City of Angels for the first time, it is a show which always remains in my musical theatre Top Ten, worthy of its position next to more familiar titles like Oklahoma! and My Fair Lady.
The main reason City of Angels holds such a high place in my affections is due to happy memories of the 1993 West End production, one of the best theatrical experiences I have ever had. Sadly, the general public did not follow me in droves and the show closed after an eight-month run.
It was therefore with great anticipation that I approached director Josie Rourke’s fresh interpretation. While I couldn’t wait to see the show again, would it be as good as I remembered, and would this production live up to expectations?
There are only positive answers to these questions. Rourke’s wonderfully vibrant staging injects a whole new lease of life into a show that has never received the recognition it deserves. To create the worlds of our two heroes (colour for the author turned Hollywood screenwriter Stine; black and white for his fictional film noir detective Stone) would on paper seem like quite a challenge, but Rourke and a first-class design team – Robert Jones, Howard Harrison (lighting), Duncan Mclean (video and projection) – make it look incredibly easy.
In fact the two-level set, with piles of paper stacked up high hinting at every writer’s struggle with a blank canvas, doesn’t just add an exciting cinematic quality to the proceedings – it becomes part of the narrative too.
Hadley Fraser’s Stine, who is adapting his book City of Angels for the big screen, has made so many compromises to producer/director Buddy Fidler (a deliciously manipulative Peter Polycarpou) by the end of Act I that private investigator Stone (Tam Mutu) is forced to step out of the fiction to take the author to task. As the brilliantly cast Fraser and Mutu sing for their lives, the use of projections enables the audience to become part of this battle of wills. Performance, direction, choreography (Stephen Mear) and design create something very special in the number ‘You’re Nothing Without Me’.
Despite making all kinds of professional and personal blunders, it is still impossible not to root for Fraser’s Stine, and the actor sings up a storm, especially in ‘Double Talk’. While still a sucker for a pretty face, Mutu gives a sexy, worldly-wise, tough-talking air to Stone and is truly convincing as the flawed detective.
And there is plenty of fine support of note as well. In addition to Tim Walton’s sickly sweet crooner Jimmy Powers and Marc Elliott’s revenge-obsessed Munoz, the female protagonists – Rebecca Trehearn, Katherine Kelly, Rosalie Craig and Samantha Barks – are on top form vocally as they step from fact to fiction and back again in their double roles.
Trehearn shines as the put-upon Donna/Oolie (“I crashed the junior prom, and met the only married man”) and Craig packs an emotional punch as Gabby/Bobbi – the soulmate in both Stine’s and Stone’s stories. The musical flourishes in the latter’s rendition of ‘It Needs Work’ are just one example of the hugely talented orchestra led by musical director Gareth Valentine, as well as Billy Byers and Larry Blank’s orchestrations.
Finally, Sandra Marvin, Jennifer Saayeng, Kadiff Kirwan and Jo Servi do an excellent job as the Greek Chorus-like Angel City Four who sing superbly and tie all the action together – and there’s lots of it.
I sensed that the odd female in the audience cringed a little at some of the references to women in the dialogue and lyrics, but this is 1940s Hollywood comedy and a Raymond Chandler-style detective drama – neither is necessarily known for its political correctness. Plus the show has more than its fair share of strong, independent female characters.
There are already rumours that this stunning production with its fabulous jazz score is going to transfer, although it is hard to imagine it working so well in a considerably larger space. For now, though, let’s enjoy this slick, sophisticated and sublime production at the Donmar for a little while longer.
Lisa Martland
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