Royal Academy of Music – The Sweet Smell of Success

The Sweet Smell of Success is performed by the Royal Academy of Music’s Musical Theatre Company at the Susie Sainsbury Theatre, London.

Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩

The musical The Sweet Smell of Success is based on a story by Ernest Lehman who wrote the screenplay with Clifford Odets for the film of the same name which was released in 1957. It starred Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis as the two protagonists JJ Hunsecker and his side-kick Sidney Falcone.

The film wasn’t an immediate success and nor was this Broadway musical version back in 2002 when it ran just 107 performances. So hats off to the RAM’s Musical Theatre Company for giving it a second chance (this was the UK premiere) and giving it their best shot. Any misgivings I have about the piece are about the musical treatment, rather than the game manner in which it is executed.

As Sidney Falcone in Cast A, the RAM has discovered a future star in Thomas Grant. His performance is exceptional, the pivot of our attention. After selling his soul to his corrupt boss Hunsecker, Grant’s Falcone became wounded, courageous and resentful by turn, in fact the only character in this musical adaptation about whom one really cares.

The other characters, alas, are little more than cyphers, and they are not helped by the disappointing score by Marvin Hamlisch, which sounds as though he’d laboured too long scoring motion pictures and lost the knack of writing for character.

It’s a shame because this was his last and musically most ambitious piece for the theatre. His jaunty ensemble ‘Dirt’(gossip), which harks back to A Chorus Line, with sharp lyrics by Craig Carnelia, makes a mark. Falcone’s ‘At the Fountain’is a tour-de-force. But these are exceptions in a score that often makes the right gestures (‘Rita’s Tune’and Hunsecker’s song-and-dance ‘Don’t Look Now’), but fails to strike a memorable note.

The evening has a promising beginning with JJ dictating notes to his secretary Madge, Sinead Alari, a scene reprised at the end.

Then Act I hangs fire for much of the time. Despite some frenetic and rather repetitious choreography, it seems much longer than the playing time of an hour and a quarter, taking too long to acquaint the audience with the background of the characters before that crucial point where Falcone sells his soul to the devil, a dramatic scene well played by James Penniston and Grant.

Penniston conveys some of the menace of the heartless tycoon that is Hunsecker, without the weight of authority age would have brought. The romance played out between his sister, Susan (Camille Rieu) and Dallas (Jeremy Sartori), has no spark and their bland balladsare of no help. I couldn’t help wondering why Susan wore the same dress morning, noon and night?

The director, Hannah Chissick, works hard to paper over the cracks, likewise her talented ensemble. I felt sorry for the well-drilled chorus often attired in hats and raincoats, shifting stacks of newspapers, though these made a handy prop in the adeptly handled staging of the shooting at the end.

The production design highlightsthe archetypal features of the era with a neon sign and a larger than life blonde, all toothpaste smiles, grinning down from the stage. The early 1950s are ever present too in the book with JJ’s endless namedropping of stars and political figures that pepperis dialogue.

The orchestra, conducted by Leo Munby, has the measure of the jazzy nature of the music, much of it instrumental, which they deliver with youthful enthusiasm. This show is a courageous choice, played and sung for more than its worth.

Adrian Edwards