Audra McDonald in My Favorite Things: The Rodgers & Hammerstein 80th Anniversary Concert at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London. Picture: Tristram Kenton
My Favorite Things: The Rodgers & Hammerstein 80th Anniversary Concert at Theatre Royal Drury Lane.
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
For two live performances, prior to a 400-theatre cinematic release, a concert celebrating Rodgers and Hammerstein’s half-century collaboration, which introduced a new style combining musical comedy and operetta technique dealing with more serious subject matters than musicals previously did, was indeed a star-studded affair, featuring the best of Broadway and the West End.
Movie and Broadway star Patrick Wilson opened the first section of the concert, dedicated to the songwriting team’s first ground-breaking work Oklahoma!, with ‘Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’’ to then introduce Broadway’s biggest star Audra McDonald, who sang ‘My Favourite Things’, the song from The Sound of Music that gave the whole show its title. Marisha Wallace followed, repeating her glorious version of ‘I Cain’t Say No’ from the modern reimagining of Oklahoma!, in which she played Ado Annie. ‘Out of My Dreams’, sung by Lily K, introduced the dancers, with spectacular lifts choreographed by Christopher Gattelli, conjuring memories of the legendary dream ballets by Agnes de Mille.
The Carousel segment started with McDonald’s rendition of ‘(When I Marry) Mister Snow’ from the 1994 Lincoln Center revival (re-creating her Tony Award-winning performance as Carrie Pipperidge), followed by an impeccably choreographed ‘June is Busin’ Out All Over’, led by the vivacious Anna-Jane Casey, an emotional ‘What’s the Use of Wond’rin’’ by Lily K, and a sadly abridged ‘Soliloqu’, performed by the great Aaron Tveit.
A selection of lesser-known material followed, starting with the beautiful Lucy St Louis singing ‘It Might as Well Be Spring’ from the only original R&H movie musical score State Fair (1945), which was turned into a short-lived Broadway musical in 1996. Joanna Ampil followed with ‘Love, Look Away’, a beautiful ballad from Flower Drum Song (1958). The irrepressible Wallace returned with a spirited ‘The Gentleman is a Dope’ from the legendary flop Allegro and Jordan Shaw performed ‘No Other Love’, from R&H’s only backstage musical Me and Juliet.
Ampil’s dramatic delivery of ‘Something Wonderful’ from The King and I (1951) led on to the next section, devoted to South Pacific (1949), highlights of which were a breathtaking medley of the long censored ‘You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught’ with ‘Younger Than Springtime’, defiantly rendered by Tveit. ‘I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair’ provided perfect comic relief thanks to Wallace, and ‘I’m in Love With a Wonderful Guy’ fit St Louis like a glove, just as ‘This Nearly Was Mine’ was tailor-made for strong-voiced Julian Ovenden.
Act I ended perfectly with the anthem ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, sung by Michael Ball and the choir. The guys started out Act II with ‘There is Nothin’ Like a Dame’, leading on to the appearance of an unexpected guest, the great Rita Moreno, who amusingly reflected on her being cast as Tuptim in The King and I.
An extensive selection from The King and I followed, with Ampil movingly performing ‘I Have Dreamed’/‘We Kiss in a Shadow”, and Daniel Dae Kim talk-singing ‘A Puzzlement’ before joining Maria Friedman for the iconic duet ‘Shall We Dance?’, following her moving rendition of ‘Hello, Young Lovers’. Getting back to Carousel one more time, Wilson then returned with the famous ‘If I Loved You’ with Lily K.
The shadow of Julie Andrews hung over the last part of the concert, devoted to R&H’s first TV special Cinderella, which they wrote just for her, and The Sound of Music, their last musical before Hammerstein’s death, which, thanks to Andrews, became one of the top-grossing, best-known movies of all time. Between those, Ovenden delivered a little known but lovely ballad from Pipe Dream, another obscure R&H flop, ‘All At Once You Love Her’.
Ball performed their perhaps most famous song of all, ‘Some Enchanted Evening’ from South Pacific, and the whole ensemble presented a terrific tap number to ‘Kansas City’, showing off the talent of London’s own Harry Francis, among others.
After ‘Something Good’, the last song Hammerstein wrote lyrics for, emotionally delivered by Friedman, the whole company performed a marvellous vocal arrangement of ‘Edelweiss’, leading on to the title song from Oklahoma! The exit piece was ‘The Carousel Waltz’, played by the magnificent 40-piece orchestra directed by Simon Lee.
An unforgettable evening celebrating an enormous body of work, still relevant today in its bold subject matter, conveyed in simple, but meaningful and ultimately timeless, melodies and lyrics that go straight to the human heart and soul.
Patrick Honoré
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