From Here to Eternity - Charing Cross Theatre

Mr Wallacio's prediction of three star reviews may or may not come to pass, but I LOVED this tonight! If I were to predict, I'd foresee 4 star reviews, but who knows?

This is a major reworking, ruthlessly preferring story over song, so expect some marmite reactions, with negative appraisals in particular from folks who aren't too bothered about storytelling, and would prefer a reprise of some gorgeous songs that have now been cut. Personally, I loved the unfocused, melodramatic, multi-story original but I prefer this honed, focused, hard-hitting version! Casting of the principals is spot on, in my opinion! Already taken up an offer to see this again lol!

Some spoilers follow. . .

27 songs have been cut to 16, and the book significantly altered and expanded!

What used to be a lush but meandering melodrama about multiple protagonists has been condensed and refocused to make Prewitt the lead character, and the opening scene is of him in some distress, before cutting back in time to find out how he got there.

As per the original story, the antagonist of the piece is the US Army, and the structures and practices that encourage abuse of power and exploitation of everyone around it (rather than the Japanese), so songs that previously served as pure romance or fantasy have been excised in favour of songs that emphasise the central conflict between the Army Antagonist, and those abused by it, with Prewitt in the role of central A story Protagonist (with Lorene as his love interest and possibility of redemption), Maggio the B story Protagonist, and Warden the character who interacts with both stories, as the one benign figure with any power or influence, essentially a kind of witness and narrator of the whole overarching story, with his own potential love interest in Karen.

As you can imagine by the refocusing of storytelling I have described, many excellent dreamy Warden and Karen songs (Another Language, Marking Time, More than America, Maybe) have simply been axed, as they are superfluous to the new principal story intent.

Oddly, I felt touched by this, as I like the idea that those songs will always belong to Darius Campbell (such a beautiful singer, with such poise and grace, who was a bit stiff as an actor at the time, but who became truly brilliant subsequently, interacting symbiotically, romantically and hilariously with Sheridan Smith in "Funny Girl") who originated the Warden role and now will own those songs into eternity.

The new Warden, Adam Rhys-Charles is a superb actor and singer, and although short-changed of songs, he does get the one A-class new song (I would agree with Mr Wallacio that the other new songs, while successful functionally, are not top class songs), "At Ease." A pun on the military order, Rhys-Charles gets to sing of how ill AT EASE he is with his whole army set-up, and his moment to moment interpretation of the song, his sensitive expression of his discomfort, both melodic and meaningful, is a wonder to behold and listen to. He originates this exceptional song exceptionally!

In the original version, which I loved at the Shaftesbury Theatre, I recall how lush the first half was, how my highlights were Siubhan Harrison's rendition of "Run Along Joe" and Robert Lonsdale's version of "Fight the Fight." Harrison was pure yearning and Lonsdale was like a fiercely emotional, wired-up battery-charged, electric-sounding James Blunt! After all that heat, the second half was flat by comparison

Here, these two powerhouse numbers are shifted into eleven o'clock positions in the second half, which makes for a show that builds to a climax, rather than one that detonates too early. In their new positions, the songs work better than ever.

Jonathan Bentley as Prewitt proves an understated, yet subtly emotive and powerfully truthful actor, whose moment to moment life built and built. His singing is not as wired as Lonsdale, only half being like an electric James Blunt and the rest being full throated tenor.

Desmonda Cathabell rendering my favourite song, "Run Along Joe," was equally truthful and melodious, and if she injects even more power and yearning into the song as the run gets going, she looks to be every bit Harrison's equal, which is saying something because Harrison was peerless with this song.

Like Mr Wallacio suggested, Jonny Amies is terrific as Maggio, and his second half solo, "I love the Army" got a deserved ovation, featuring complimentary whoops lol.

Anyway, suffice to say, I think this first preview portends wonderful things, and I personally had a 4 and a half star experience of it!

PS: We got out at 10:10pm, but I expect the running time to contract.

PPS: This was the best traverse set-up I have seen at Charing Cross. The stage is raised so that both sides of the traverse are likely to be able to see the actors even if someone tall is sitting in front of them. Further, the side stalls looked to me to be easily able to see the actors' feet even if they have to look up to see their faces lol. All sides seemed to get decent face time with the actors, though I suspect that the traverse side with letters K - X did slightly better than the side with letters A - J, at the first preview, at least.

Surprised to hear so much of the score has been cut and it still running so long. Have they put new songs in the same place as , or have the old songs were or have new moments been musicalised? I hope they have cut the scenes in the gay bar.

Songs cut, new moments musicalised, and the scene in the gay bar altered so radically that you might like it now.

Spoiler warnings will be necessary for this bit:

It is if you view it as a completely different show. I loved the original and can see why they've made some of the changes but it lost a lot of the relationship development and edge/grit of the original for me. Plus some of the song loses are unforgivable.
I did enjoy the new one and the cast are excellent.

Poll added.

Booked to see this half-expecting to be disappointed but wow was I wrong. At Ease and Ain’t Where I Wanna Be Blues were some of the sexiest numbers I’ve seen in a long time. It’s a going cast on show here but they all more than deliver. I was really impressed by both Adam Rhys Charles and Jonathon Bentley. Desmond’s Cathabel improves each time I watch her perform and her voice has an incredible resonance to it that we really get to see shine in Run Along Joe. Having never seen the show before, I only had the original film (which I love) to compare it to and this stands very firmly on its own two feet. It was a pity to see such a small crowd in tonight though with the applause as the end of each number sounding somewhat weak compared to the emotional rawness that precedes it. The set is kept rather basic but does what it needs to. Ultimately I think people are going to enjoy this - there’s a lot to put a smile and a tear on your face.

Perhaps someone more sensitive than me will also comment, but I didn't find it excessive or gratuitous. I can mainly think of a scene where someone's getting beaten (trying to be vague here to avoid spoilers) including with the butt of a gun, but it doesn't last for that long and makes sense within the plot. It actually stood out a little as being very obviously fake hits (I know they always are but this particularly stood out, perhaps because it's early days and they're being ultra careful).

I forget which seats are on the exit side but I'd keep in mind cast enter through the doors throughout the show so they may restrict entering and exiting.

I was listening to the OLC score again today and it's really is very good. There's a lot on there to like - I'd forgotten how good 'run along joe' was. What crossed my mind today was that neither Robert Lonsdale (Prewit) or Ryan Sampson (Maggio) have traditional west end voices, but they both nail it in their delivery of the songs, putting character front and centre. I also didn't realise Ryan Sampson was also Grumio in Plebs!

Oh, I already looked up the plot so I don't mind any spoilers.

K is the front row and 1 is closest to the door. There’s nothing that I found too horrific. The suicide you can’t really avoid unless you’re in the block furthest from the door (row Z) but this is also where the arguably most frightening part happens. Again, there’s nothing here that I found too bad so hopefully youll be ok.