From Here To Eternity – Charing Cross Theatre

Pictures: Roy Tan

From Here To Eternity continues at the Charing Cross Theatre, London until 17 December 2022.

Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

This outstanding revival of the 2013 Tim Rice-Stuart Brayson musical is not an easy watch with its themes of illicit love, queer-bashing in the US Army, prostitution, racism, bullying and brutality – if you’re expecting high-kicking chorus girls and plenty of laughs you’ve gone to the wrong show.

But for a bold piece of storytelling with a load of terrific songs thrillingly sung, From Here To Eternity, based on the powerful novel of the same name by James Jones, is a massively rewarding experience.

Given a hard time by the critics when it premiered at the Shaftesbury nine years ago, it closed early. I liked it enough to go twice but was in the minority and I love this new version with several new songs by Rice, all worth hearing more than once, and new arrangements by Nick Barstow of Brayson’s attractive score, a mix of swing, blues – ‘Ain’t Where I Wanna Be Blues’ is a corker to open Act II – jazz, military march and rock with just a flavour of country as well.

We’re in Hawaii and the days preceding 7 December 1941, a date indelibly writ in the history books when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, more than 2,000 Americans were killed, the life-changing day that brought the up-till-then neutral USA into the Second World War.

The story takes us to G Company, the lads are itching for a fight but two love affairs are getting in the way of normal army life: First Sergeant Warden is romantically involved with his superior’s wife Karen and Private Prewitt, a career soldier (‘Thirty-Year Man’) from Kentucky with a big reputation as a boxer, falls in love with Lorene, the most popular girl in Mrs Kipfer’s stable of prostitutes at the local bordello.

Prewitt has been brought in by Captain Holmes specifically to represent the Company in a big regimental competition but has vowed never to box again after blinding his last opponent. How far will they go to get him to change his mind?

The script, by Donald Rice and Bill Oakes, never shies away from showing the violence inflicted by bullying superiors or the vicious beatings his wisecracking Italian-American pal Maggio must endure until he can take no more for doing tricks at the gay bar to supplement his private’s pay. It is not for the faint-hearted.

If there’s a better-sung musical in London, I have yet to see it. The harmonies of Jonathon Bentley as Prewitt and Desmonda Cathabel as Lorene in their ‘Love Me Forever Today’ duet are quite beautiful, Adam Rhys-Charles’ rich voice as Warden delivers a gorgeous ‘At Ease’, Carley Stenson gets the most out of another new composition ‘More to Life Than This’ and later ‘I’ll Remember the Day’, while Jonny Amies as Maggio (the role Frank Sinatra plays in the movie) gives the bitterly sarcastic ‘I Love the Army’ the full treatment in a stunning performance.

The best of the 16 songs, the one I remember most from the original, is ‘Fight the Fight’, which shows Bentley’s range again and newcomer Cathabel, the reigning Sondheim Society Student Performer of the Year, confirms first impressions with her fine Act II solo ‘Run Along Joe’. Methinks a star is born.

Supporting roles are nicely cast: Eve Polycarpou as the rapacious Mrs Kipfer, Leonard Cook as the brutal ‘Fatso’ Judson, Rhys Nuttall as the equally nasty Galovitch, Alan Turkington as the cuckolded Holmes, Jack Ofrecio as Bloom, Callum Henderson as Clark, Cassius Hackforth as Montello, Dominic Adam Griffin as Riggs, Kyerron Dixon-Bassey as Williams, Robin Hayward as Tucker, James Mateo-Salt as Anderson, Jaden Oshenye as Byrd and Joseph Vella as Ruiz. A fine team effort.

It helps when performers get good songs to sing and Rice is showbiz royalty for a reason. These may not be his best work but they still leave most of today’s generation of songwriters for dead. It was Brayson’s idea to make a musical out of Jones’ much-praised (but heavily censored) novel which also spawned a famous Oscar-winning movie. His idea too to get Rice to write the lyrics and now I think they’ve got it almost right although the female roles are sketchily written.

Of course they can’t replicate that unforgettable love scene on the beach from the movie with Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr but video projections give us a sense of the lapping ocean waves and the horrific climax with the bombs falling has an almost balletic feel thanks to a clever mix of sound, light and shade.

Simply staged with the audience either side of the action, minimal props and with five musicians multi-tasking on at least ten instruments, the amplification is perfect. Full credit to director Brett Smock and his team for a job well done. I’m already looking forward to seeing it again.

Jeremy Chapman