On the Town at the BBC Proms was performed at the Royal Albert Hall, London.
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
There was a buzz in the air at the Royal Albert Hall because the audience attending a John Wilson concert know what’s in store and they were not disappointed. It was a celebratory performance of Bernstein’s On the Town to mark what would have been his 100th birthday.
On the Town (1944) has really only come into its own in recent times. The film version from MGM, released in 1949, brilliantly directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, is one of the greats of the canon, but it omitted much of Bernstein’s score, and so is a different affair altogether.
London first saw this show in 1963 but it was a flop, critical opinion dismissing it along with The Boys From Syracuse (1938) and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949), both produced in London at that time, as passé.
In the UK the tide turned with the starry concert version, narrated by Comden and Green and Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the LSO at the Barbican in 1992.
Jude Kelly’s ENO production in 2005 was another landmark, then last year the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park put on a terrific production, brilliantly choreographed by Drew McOnie.
Now on the composer’s birthday, comes this concert version conducted by John Wilson, with the LSO, and who better than this conductor to deliver Bernstein’s joyous score, a cascade of mid-20th century dance styles allied to the classical ballet tradition of Stravinsky and Prokofiev.
Yet there’s nothing forbidding about this music, indeed it has a humanity and a sense of well being that one longs for and so seldom hears in much contemporary music.
From the opening ‘New York, New York’ to ‘Some Other Time’, the touching quartet that closes the show, the cast and orchestra did it proud.
There is, of course, a lot of dance music in this score so to stage it without a dance step insight might be cause for concern. But when the singing stopped there was the orchestra to listen to, each instrumentalist adding chiaroscuro to the overall picture of New York, from the humming of the subway to the brash nightclubs of Broadway.
Martin Duncan, the stage director, with only a small platform space, seemingly had little to do, but there were a few distinctive touches, the framing by spotlight of Ivy Smith, Siena Kelly, in a bright yellow outfit, striking various poses as Miss Turnstiles, was one such.
So it was over to the singers to flesh out their characters which they did with elan. Barnaby Rea filled the RAH with the amplitude of his sonorous bass as dawn broke over the city. He doubled too as Judge Pitkin, a Gilbertian figure, always in the right place at the wrong time.
Of the three sailors, Nathaniel Hackmann, an unpretentious baritone, sang the role of Gabey (in search of his Miss Turnstiles, aided and abetted by his fellow sailors) in a lovely, warm relaxed style. His first ballad ‘Lonely Town’, along with the pas de deux that follows, is one of those heart-stopping moments in Broadway musicals.
Fellow sailor Chip, Fra Fee, sporting a haircut surely off-limits for the US Navy, was partnered by Louise Dearman’s man-mad taxi driver Hildy, “stick with me kid, I’ll show you plenty”.
At the anthropological museum, Celinde Schoenmaker threw herself at Ozzie (Nadim Naaman) in ‘Carried Away’. A projected image of a dinosaur skeleton collapsing on cue to glissandi from the percussion was a sure touch. This eager lass looked smart and had a great top note.
Bernstein came up with an early precursor of rock‘n’roll for ‘I Can Cook Too’, Hildy’s solo, that offered a brilliant turn for Dearman.
It is not advisable to say too much about the sound projection in this difficult acoustic but seated in stalls J it did take a while for this ear to settle or do I mean for the amplification to be adjusted?
Initially, the sailors were a mite out of focus, the orchestra over inflated. All was well on the later broadcast on BBC4 which brought with it details of Duncan’s stage direction not apparent to the eye in the hall.
The students from ArtsEd looked great in their colourful outfits, their youthful voices most appealing in some neat close harmony work. Narrator Kerry Shale relished telling the story and setting the scene in the absence of the book.
Many in the audience will have noticed that the LSO number several players who double in the John Wilson Orchestra. Some might note that the string players have to try a bit harder to bring a shine to their string tone, that the wind and brass are a fraction less at ease with the swing style, in comparison, these are things a reviewer is obliged to note.
But overall theirs was an outstanding contribution to an evening of unadulterated joy under a conductor who is the consummate master of the medium.
Adrian Edwards
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