Caroline or Change: Playhouse Theatre

Yes, tmesis, that rather describes how I too felt about the piece, which I also saw this afternoon. Wonderful performances from all the cast as well as a great orchestra but I wasn't particularly moved as I was expecting to be.

I think the thing with this musical is that it's not of the same ilk as your standard West End Musical. It's more operatic crossed with a play or some such thing. In the same way that all of Kushner's work is this melting pot (reference intended) of theatrical styles that are for once very much uniquely him.

And love it or loathe it (and the latter is totally fine) I just think it doesn't make for comparisons with 'normal' musicals. 

I haven't seen this one yet, and likewise have very little memory of the NT production. But I think describing the plot as 'lame' does somewhat undersell the subtitles but also the power in the story told. 

As someone said on Twitter yesterday imagine being so famous for your writing that Caroline or Change is the one you're least known for...

Indeed Parsley- it's got so much richness, and a shame if it is being lost in the production. Conversely I saw someone who hated the NT staging raving about this one. I shall make up my own mind on Friday!

Such a valuable
Contribution

It’s so witty

You can perhaps stage a one person show

I wouldn't say lavish but they were definitely much more clever and worked more! I cannot get over how the moon in this production is literally a woman sat in a chair!

I personally love the set pictured above, it was used for the Roundhouse production of the show with Novah as Caroline.

Heres another well-working set:


Although not lavish, they are definitely luxury compared to what Chichester have prepared - which I can understand as Minerva is a tiny theatre, but this show could have been staged effectively in the main one.

I saw the show this afternoon. I'm sure I'll eventually write a blog post... but it won't be tomorrow.

In terms of the writing, I think it's a masterpiece (I was familiar with the recording, which is complete, but I'd never seen it before), and Jeanine Tesori's gorgeous music is even better than Tony Kushner's libretto - as it should be, because this is a show where the music, more often than not, is the element that carries the drama, rather than the words. I think this is a very, very strong production indeed, albeit done on a more intimate scale, and there's something to be gained from seeing these characters up close. I thought the design elements worked well, and the moon and the radio were terrific. Superb performances, and it was a very nice surprise, in such a relatively small theatre, to get a full-size band delivering the original orchestratons. I mean, "full-size" in this case isn't huge - I think 11 musicians plus a conductor - but I wouldn't have been shocked if they'd trimmed the budget there too, and I actually appreciate that they spent less on the set and more on the music, because usually the orchestra is the first thing that gets cut back. The show is, after all, basically an opera, and Tesori and Kushner describe it as such in the programme. Sharon D. Clarke very, very good indeed, but so was everyone else.

Whether it's a sure bet for the West End is another question. It's hard work, you can't sit back and let it wash over you, and while I did find the last ten minutes of the show extremely moving, up until that point it's a slow burner. The reviews are very strong, though, and that could be enough to make it viable for a limited run... but whether it's good (it is) and whether it will sell are two very different questions.

Oh yes, and my seat. I've sat in row Q in the circle in the Hampstead Theatre before, but only on the very outermost seat at the end of the row. This time, I was in one of the innermost seats, next to the booth. I expect my knees and ankles to have recovered by the weekend, and I am very grateful for the miracle that is ibuprofen.

Really? I know, because I have friends who saw it, that the Canadian premiere of the show - a professional production at CanStage in Toronto - used a band of five, with new orchestrations by the musical director.

In November? Did I miss a transfer announcement?

Well. I'm afraid this left me so cold I spent the whole show thinking about doing my own washing. Not that I do my own washing of course. And I don't think Mrs Char would have appreciated me calling her at 11:00pm but even still, it made me think of it.

That's not to say that the cast didn't give it some wellie. They all have big ranges and liked to show 'em off. Even Whitney Houston (God rest her soul) might have suggested they toned it down a bit. Sharon D. Clarke was very good as you would expect (although I did think she struggled with the higher range a touch) but the show was stolen by the little boy playing Noah. He was wonderful. I think it was Charlie Gallacher.

Oh, and I just adored Angela Caesar as The Moon in her variety of headdresses clinging onto her swing for dear life while belting out a couple of big notes. Also liked how Ako Mitchell manfully carried on as The Dryer while no doubt experiencing second degree burns from having a glow stick wrapped around his neck. Alastair Brookshaw with a lovely voice was also very good as Acker Bilk. And we had a smashing moment (literally) when Lauren Ward (playing Rose) stumbled up the stairs and smashed the lid of her casserole dish, meaning that we were treated to the sight of a stage hand crawling around the back of the stage clearing it up while the show continued like Mica Paris searching for a paracetamol at 'Starlight Express'.

Don't know if I'd have like to have been the person charged with keeping Sharon D. Clarke's outfit so pristine though. I didn't spot a single smudge.

Oh and the line about where Jews go when they die raised a few gasps in the audience. Standing ovation at the end of course. I don't think they get out much in Swiss Cottage.

Saw this on Friday, from front row 'restricted' seats that were barely restricted (just missed a bit of the moon and Noah upstairs, but still a bargain). I'll write a proper review at some point but for now.

I saw this 10 years ago at the NT and remember shockingly little. I do remember appreciating the lyrical and storytelling elements but not feeling terribly emotionally involved. And when listening to the music in subsequent years I did think in passing that I'd probably get a lot more from it today. Thankfully that was the case. Not only did my now more evolved musical palate appreciate the orchestrations and lyrics more, but also the nuances of the story.

It's not a traditional musical, and as I said further up the thread, Kushner in this and in his other work really does make it a style all his own (for better or worse depending on whether you take to it). It's not the kind of score to have you humming the hits, but i guess that's really not the point. Would I want all musicals like this? no but likewise I wouldn't want all musicals to be Bat Out Of Hell, but I very much appreciate that for it's existence also, in another way.

Back to the production and the staging and intimate venue really added to it as well- I do feel that it gets a bit 'lost' in larger venues like the Olivier. But being in there did feel like being inside the house with them. I loved the realism of that setting against the surreal fantasy segments. Which I also thought were staged really effectively.

This time around I was particularly struck by the Dad's story- and that he barely speaks except 'through' his clarinet. A lovely detail, and a really moving one.

A lot of people have said that they aren't moved by this-which I can fully see, it's the intellectual hangover (as I like to call it) that Kushner's work leaves you with, mulling over it days later. Which I'm certainly still doing. That said though, I bawled through 'Lot's Wife' and it's been years since a single number in a musical did that to me. I don't even quite know why- and perhaps it was just one of those nights i was inclined to cry at something but it really was a sensational performance of that number.

Shallow shout out to the Kelly Rowland circa 2003 wigs that The Radio wear though.

My heart was broken not once, but twice.

Some spoilers follow. . .

The last Kushner to play the Hampstead, iHo, struck me as overly intellectual, and apart from David Calder and Sara Kestleman eliciting a twinge of emotion, the clever debates left me cold and a little confused.

This was the polar opposite for me: flawed people, trying their best to control their anger at others and at themselves, failing and falling into dysfunction at every turn; characters as complex as iHo, but so comprehensibly real and heartfelt that every plot progression and twist felt utterly earned, such that I liked EVERY character (including the least likeable of all, Alastair Brookshaw's negligent and withdrawn Stuart Gellman), and had my heart broken by two, perhaps predictably, Sharon D. Clarke's raging Caroline, but less predictably Lauren Ward's apparently meek, yet equally emotionally wrecked, Rose Stopnick Gellman.

Unlike in iHo, political debate here was anything but dry, wherein the discussion between Grandpa Gelman and Caroline flowed so directly from the dramatic setup, with regard to class and money and race and circumstance, that I was on tenterhooks.

The songs were operatic, and sometimes alienating, in the sense that they were closer to sing-speaking, than traditional musical theatre songs, but they were so intrinsically tied to the emotions and drama of every moment, that I was transfixed, and broke down myself when Rose and Caroline broke down.

For me, a masterpiece of writing and production, with the only drawback being that audiences, unfamiliar with the show, might lack clarity as to what and who all the non-human characters are.

I'm overjoyed the show is transferring and will definitely book to see this again.

5 stars.