The Snow Queen
Chichester Festival Theatre, Tuesday 29 December 2009
Review by Emma Shane
©January 2010
What on earth have Jason
Carr and Bryony Lavery done now? Written a
sort of Youth Opera, that’s what.
The show starts with the band
striking up chirpily, as about two thirds of the cast, those playing
Grandparents, and Children come on stage. The young people playing Grandparents
did a surprisingly good job of looking old and decrepit, simply by the way they
moved. Of course it probably helped that many of them had walking sticks, two
had zimmer frames, and one was leaning on her
shopping trolley. The latter was the least convincing, because it was a
two-wheeled trolley, whereas some old folk sometimes prefer the four-wheeler as
it is more stable (I think these days it tends to be younger folk who use
two-wheel shopping baskets on wheels, but perhaps not). Led by Grandad Sun,
played so well by Sam O’Halon, they kick off
with Ask The Old Folks. A nice tuneful
piece, Jason Carr always does write such wonderful melodies. Then they
are joined by a group portraying children, for Golden Autumn. The
children are dressed in white costumes which look like furs, their appearance
being not dissimilar to the Ice-Babies in the Jason Carr & Gary Yershon musical The Water Babies, which
was performed on this very stage. Golden Autumn sets the scene,
introduces the main characters Kay and Gerda, along
with various other children (whose names all seem to rhyme). Kay and Gerda are best friends, who live in adjoining houses. Right
away the two juvenile leads, played tonight by Ben Geering
and Beatrice Holland seem to command our attention, or at least the
enthusiastic Beatrice does. I’m not so sure about Ben. But then perhaps Kay is
meant to be a bit stiff and awkward, whereas Gerda is
something of a leader among the pair. That would be plausible. Continuing with the song, we learn that in
this town because the houses are so tightly packed together instead of garden’s
they have tubs (Kay and Gerda have one between their
houses). We also learn how important honey is to this community, it’s sort
of like Manuka Honey, in other words it has
medicinal properties, this apparently trivial detail
later turns out to be absolutely key to the plot. The song is illustrated by
the arrival of some bees. Yes actors dressed up as bees, this is getting a
little fantastical (a bit like in James And The
Giant Peach, or for that matter The Water Babies). The
melody is again lovely. Carr just doesn’t write rubbish.
Nearly everyone exits, as Ice
Warriors enter, and proceed to lift a large hoop (representing The Mirror Of Reason. I got the impression these two were male,
perhaps Joe James and Jonny Boutwood. Or where they the same as
The Snow Queen’s sleigh carriers Elyssia
White and Katie Bennet? Soon the band strikes up, with a lively
march, as the rest of the Ice Warriors come tramping, or rather dancing on,
rather like a cross between Busby Berkley and St Trinians. Well costume-wise they look like a bunch
of St Trinians, especially the girls’
wigs. Soon they are joined by Professor Storm, played surprisingly commandingly
by Fleur Jefferies, who sings In The
Mirror. While ideally one might have liked a little more power with
this song, Fleur does a fine job with it. Then two Ice Warriors accidentally
drop the mirror, “Oops” they say. Surprisingly Professor Storm is not
cross about this, in fact it’s an opportunity. to use the shards of the mirror as aids in their quest for
perfection.
The regally silent Snow Queen
is escorted on too. Then on Professor’s Storm’s command, the Ice Warrior’s
fetch Kay., and are instructed to put a shard of glass
in his eye, and another in his heart. At first Kay is angry, but he soon cools
down, to the extent that Gerda witnesses him smashing
up their “garden”, because it is not perfect. Kay is given to The Snow
Queen, evidently as her potential consort. She invites him into the folds of
her cloak on her “sleigh”. Of course the Ice Warriors could not capture
Kay without using their magical powers, in fact they
create chaos by creating an unseasonably heavy Snow. the most infectiously catchy song of the entire show. Kay is
the first to sing this song. Then the chorus of Grandparents sing it, and
finally it is reprised a little later by The Snow Queen herself. The tune is an
intriguing one. Initially it sounds just a little almost familiar. This is
because it is slightly similar, to Stephen Sondheim’s Something
Just Broke. However, it soon proves itself to be very much it’s own song. , though that slight similarity does give it
a warmth of familiarity. It is also rather catchy. Certainly one the audience
can just about walk out of the theatre humming. Which is quite a feat for a
totally new song which we have never heard before, especially as thanks to Andrew
Lloyd-Webber, and, Tim Rice’s habit of releasing albums of their
shows before the show, not to mention the craze (started by Mamma Mia)
for Pop Group Back Catalogue shows, and the tendency for other back-catalogue
shows, audiences today have largely forgotten how to listen to totally new
musical theatre tunes.
The plot continues, with Beatrice
Holland as Gerda quickly emerging as very much
our leading lady. Pulling off her red kicking boots as though offering them to
Kay (to kick instead of their garden), and then following them to lead her to
Kay. Setting off on her rescue mission, she is very firm and clear when she
says that some grown up really should come with her. All the
Grandparents decline, except Granny Snow, who decides to use magic to turn into
a crow. Heidi Pointet playing her comes to the
fore as the other major figure into this afternoon’s performance. However, she
has able competition from Sam O’Halon as Grandad Sun, urging the other old folk not to use magic. Here
we can really note the cleverness of Bryony Lavery’s script, with the little asides,
like the one about each old person gets four pieces of magic, along with their
bus-passes. Bryony’s dialogue is just a clever as Jason’s lyrics.
The ice-warriors, led by
Blizzard (played commandingly by Joe James) set about disguising
themselves as some strange flowers. So that when Gerda
and her strange crow companion (Granny Snow) arrive, they no longer look like
ice-warriors (which Granny Snow might remember), and manage to persuade Gerda to take drink a mug of iced-tea, which turns out to
be drugged. Apart from the Ice-Warrior’s donning of their disguises, this
sequence of events is largely performed operatically in song. My Flowers
Are My Family. Fortunately Granny Snow, although unable to prevent Gerda from drinking the tea and falling asleep, manages to
provide an antidote in the form of honey, she also transforms into a bee in an
attempt to see off the strange flowers; and then Grandad
Sun, not using magic, but wearing a Bee disguise he’s made out of some bits and
pieces from his shed turns
up to the rescue, with The Bees who see off the Ice Warriors. Here Sam O’Halon who had a starring
role as Bob Cratchit last year, proves to be just as
commanding in the lesser role. On
learning that the weather is growing colder, Granny Snow decides to transform
again, into a husky dog.
Continuing their rescue
mission, Gerda and Granny Snow arrive ‘On the
outskirts of jealousy’ (well that’s what it says in the programme). In fact
they are on their way
to a Royal Palace, where they have been informed that a Princess
has recently chosen a consort, who is “good at algebra”, Gerda remembers that “Kay is good a algebra” and
they wonder if it might be him. However, Gerda is
clearly growing up and does not want to loose her former best friend to a
princess. She is jealous, Granny Snow has to tell her
not to succumb to The Green-eyed Monster. This song contains some
of Jason Carr’s best tunes, and lyrics, which Beatrice and Heidi do
justice to. Jason is always at his best when writing music to his own brilliant
lyrics. I’m not sure if it was the reference to a monster, or what, but
somehow, I think this was the song where the tune reminded me briefly of Portrait
Of A H.
Certainly I know one of the songs in this wonderful score put me in mind
of that particular number, as well as Lee Miller (both from Six
Pictures Of Lee Miller), but one of the problems with hearing an all
new score (and only hearing most of it once) is that it makes it harder to
remember the tunes of individual songs, however brilliant they are. In addition
to performing the songs well, in this scene Heidi also proves that as an
actress she is up there with some of the best of them, when it comes to taking
on animal characteristics, making a surprisingly convincing hound.
Proceeding to outside the royal
palace, we find a crowd of Sightseers and Paparazzi, who, along with Dorian
Open (Royal Correspondent) are all Waiting For The
Princess. This is a busy jaunty tuneful song, well emphasising that besides his
more tending towards opera Music Theatre, Jason Carr is just as capable
of writing a good old fashioned standard musical comedy number, with clever
lyrics And the cast all perform this with great enthusiasm. It’s not quite
clear whether Dorian Open was played by Felix Mosse
or Ollie Geering, but whoever played him did a
satisfactory job. The Princess and her Prince, played by Freya
Holland and Samuel Peake respectively
appear. Good though Freya is she did not appear to
come across as well as she did when she played the joyous sister Fan in
last year’s A Christmas Carol, however that could just be the
result of trying to play a much more formal character. I think she does
vivacious better than formal. On noticing Gerda,
crying (upset because she thought Kay might be the prince but he’s not and now
she’s relieved of her jealousy but she’s still anxious to find Kay), the royal
pair decide something must be done to help. They give Gerda
a green coat and a Skidoo (a sort of motorised tricycle). Gerda
climbs aboard the skidoo, and sets off again.
The act ends dramatically in
a dark dark dark forrest, where Gerda and
Granny Snow, riding on the skidoo are ambushed by robbers, and one of them is
clearly about the try and cut Gerda’s throat. What a
very dramatic ending for Act 1. Will Gerda
and Granny survive? and if so how?
Act 2 opens, surprisingly with the Ice Warriors entering
through the auditorium, yes right through the audience. Some of them have
clearly changed costumes. They are now supposedly disguised as snowflakes, to
Professor Storm’s delight they are “all the same, but all different”.
They then bring on their beautifully frozen Snow Queen and their nearly frozen Snow
Boy (the latter being Kay). Professor Storm regards these two as My
Perfect Children. The song, as best as I can remember, seemed a little
operatic. Fleur does it pretty well, but one does wonder what magic a grown up
singer-actress or opera singer might do with it.
Meanwhile The Robbers have
deposited their captives (Gerda and Granny Snow,
along with a captured Reindeer, in The Most Nightmarish Teenage Bedroom On The Planet. Where Robber Girl (was she one of The
Robbers present at the end of Act 1, it’s
possible), is “negotiating” with her parents. Bryony has clearly had a
lot of fun here. Every time Robber Mum and Dad try to lay down the law, Robber
Girl’s objects, and her demands as to what she wants
invariably seem to sway them into thinking they are being hard, or that perhaps
if they give in to one bit she’ll do as she is told, which of course she won’t.
Katie Silverson and Stevie
Jeram make a splendid couple of characters as the
parents. Amongst other things Robber Girl wants Gerda
for a “Sleepover”, she also wants the Skidoo. Gerda
is more than happy to give Robber Girl the Skidoo, and her coat (which should
keep her warm but doesn’t), if only she and her husky dog can just be let to go
on their way. Here Beatrice once again
comes to the for carrying the scene. While Victoria Spurway does a pretty good job as a
recalcitrant teenager. The next morning Robber Girl refuses to go to Robber
School (claims she has a headache). However, she evidently admires Gerda standing up to her (it’s clear that her parents are
somewhat weak when they continually give in), so she lets Gerda
and the husky dog go, giving them her captured Reindeer, and her lunch.
The Reindeer, brilliantly played by Dance
Captain Will McGovern, is delighted to be freed. Will has
had fairly notable roles in the last two Chichester Youth Theatre
Christmas Shows (he was one of James’s friends in James And The Giant
Peach, and then Antimony in A Christmas Carol). This
afternoon he proves just how skilled and adept he has become with Jason Carr’s
songs, sing and dancing King Of The Woods And
Tundra. Unfortunately I don’t remember much about how this went,
(that’s the problem with hearing a lot of new stuff for the first time, one doesn’t have a chance to fully absorb it). I do however
remember that is was very nice, and tuneful, and that
Will could dance to it, well sort of dance, he referred to it as “reindeer
running”.
This reindeer running brings
the three of them a small hut in Lapland, where Lapp Grandad
is sitting. He is played by Edward Eustace, and accomplished member of
the Chichester Youth Theatre, adept at playing classy elderly gentlemen
rather convincingly. He was excellent last year in the starring role of Ebenzeer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol (better
in fact than Peter Polycarpou – at Birmingham
Rep this year). Here in The
Snow Queen, he directs the three of them to visit Finn Granny over in
Finland.
So the trio set off again,
and soon encounter a chorus of the Northern Lights. This song is
also led by Will McGovern, with a chorus, who bring on lights and dance
around. Visually it was impressive choreography, and fortunately Jason Carr
is (as one might expect given his background) adept at writing music suitable
for dancers to dance to. On arriving at a completely different hut, in Finland,
we meet Finn Granny, played by Emily Dyble, initially
with rather less presence and clarity of speech than her Ghost Of Christmas Present last year. However, about halfway
through the scene her ability to project her performance grew,
perhaps initially she was trying too hard to capture the elderly nature of her
character. She helps them out, but then Granny Snow goes to make another
transformation, how many is that? She vanishes, Grandparents don’t last
forever. It seems she didn’t properly keep count,
her own human form should have counted as one, making the husky dog her fourth.
So Gerda has to go on alone, without a grown up, (how
commandingly Beatrice reiterates “Some grown up person really should come with
me”). Fortunately the Reindeer isn’t far behind.
In The Snow Queen’s Ice
Palace, Professor Storm is introducing Kay and The Snow Queen to their
palace, The Ice Palace. Yes Fleur sings well, but I can’t help
feeling that if this show were to get a revival it might be possible to find
even more in this song. Kay is shown the broken Mirror Of
Reason. Can he fit all the pieces back together? At this point I find
myself thinking of the film The Dark Crystal, when Jen had to
defeat the evil Skeksis by mending the Crystal with it’s missing shard. Hmmm I wonder if the writers of this
show noticed a sort of parallel here? (Interestingly
one of the puppeteers inside those Skeksis went on to
turn up in Grantham in a flop play of Bryony’s and on this very stage in a
musical of Jason’s!). Anyway back to The Snow Queen, Kay is still
not quite frozen, for he does realise that perhaps the pieces of the mirror
don’t fit, even though The Snow Queen herself says they must do because it
is the mirror of reason. Just then Gerda rushes
in to the rescue. Still rather jealous of The Snow Queen, she looses no time in
trying to wake Kay out of his icy trance. When reminding him of their past
together fails, she resorts to kissing him (even though as she remarks it seems
a bit silly at their age, implying they are a little too young for romance
yet). Finally she gets her honey (which she had carried in a pouch on her
belt), and uses that. The magic honey does the trick. Kay realises there is
something (shards of glass) in his eye and heart, but Gerda
applies the honey, to remove them. Professor Storm, along with the Ice Warriors
enters in on this scene; and try to freeze things with
snow. Just as all seems lost (for Gerda) a rescue
party arrives, in the form of The Reindeer and his fellow reindeer, along with
a contingent of Grandparents led by Grandad Sun. King
Of The Woods (reprise), how lovely to have a reprise of a fine song. At
about this moment Gerda realises that “this snow
is warm”. It seems that Granny Snow may have had one last piece of magic
after all. Then Grandad Sun recognises The Snow
Queen. She is his own daughter who went missing,
dragged under the ice many years ago. Of course he applies his honey and
gradually she beings to thaw too, realising there is something in her eye and
her heart, and eventually she recognises her Grandad.
Life’s Meaning. – this seems, as far as
I can remember (and it’s difficult having only heard the song once) that it
might have been one of the more operatic-tending numbers, but I am not totally
certain. Grandad
Sun also recognises Professor Storm, she was once the
town’s school teacher. Who disappeared with a bunch of the town’s children,
around about the same time that his granddaughter went under the ice. The
Professor calmly explains she just wanted to seek perfection. Again I found
myself reminded of the fantasy film The Dark Crystal (how the UrSkeks in their quest to perfect themselves tore
themselves apart into Good and Evil). Only Professor
Storm’s quest for frozen perfection does not seem to have had much if anything
in the way of good. The Ice Warriors, are of course the children who once left
with her, now their memories stir they recall their old names. They ask if they
can come home, but might they be allowed to keep their Ice Warrior names.
So all
return home. Gerda
and the Grandparents sing Bottled Memories, as a way of conveying
the fact that one should not try to forget the past, even when it is terrible,
it might be relevant to preventing something terrible from happening
again. The song is up to Jason Carr’s
usual high standard, even if I don’t remember much about it. Professor Storm is
sentenced to running an Adult Education Centre (something she will not
enjoy) And so all ends happily, with families
reunited, and Gerda and Kay reunited too. The entire
company reprises Snow, so sending the audience out probably
humming the catchiest tune in the entire score. I’m sure there are many other
tunes in this lovely score which could become relatively catchy. One of the
problems with listening to a truly new piece, is that
the music, however good it is, does not yet had a chance to fully work itself
way into the audience’s mind. Snow, besides being pretty catchy
in itself, has a passing similarity to a Sondheim song (familiarity with
something similar can be an aid in getting to know a song – although in the end
it isn’t that much of a help in getting to know the piece on it’s own account),
and of course Snow is sung a lot in the show, including a reprise
at the very end. The fact that this is more of a through sung piece, with a
score tending more towards operetta, whereas A Christmas Carol was very much a
Musical, also seems to make it harder for the tunes to stick. Or maybe that
perception could be partly based on having seen A Christmas Carol
a second time (the Birmingham revival). Perhaps given have a chance songs such as Waiting
For The Princess, or, The Green Eyed
Monster, or for that matter The King Of The Woods or My
Flowers Are My Family could stick, who knows?
All in all the
production an outstanding performance from the very talented and hard working Chichester
Youth Theatre. How they ever
managed to tackle so complex a piece and put it across with such
professionalism is well amazing, even if the piece was written for them.
Of the individual performers
some had certainly been in last year’s A Christmas Carol, while a
few had also been in the year before’s James And The Giant Peach. Obviously individual
performances do vary, some better than last year, some perhaps not quite as
good.
Of the less good ones: Freya Holland who was so wonderful as Fran
seemed less sparkling this year, but that could just be the effect of playing
the rather more formal character of a princess. Similarly Emily Dyble who played The Ghost Of
Christmas Present with such authority last year seemed initially less
commanding, but again this was probably due to attempting a different and more
difficult character. Edward Eustace who was outstanding as Scrooge last
year made the most of his parts this year, though he had rather fewer
opportunities to shine. Sam O’Halon who last
year was so splendid as Bob Cratchit
again does an excellent job as Grandad Sun,
demonstrating an incredible range as an actor. Another very accomplished
performer is Will McGovern. This is the third Jason Carr musical
he has had a major role in on this stage (having had major roles in both James
And The Giant Peach and A Christmas Carol), and as ever he
demonstrates just how well he connects with Carr’s music, singing and dancing
so brilliantly to it. I really hope he keeps this tradition up. Two performers who really improved on their performances last
year, were Joe James and Heidi Pointet
(Mr and Mrs Old Joe in A Christmas Carol). Then they had been pretty
good (singing the lyrics with feeling), but not quite as well developed as
charismatic performers, who could really stand out. Now as Blizzard one of the
leading ice-warriors Joe James comes into his own, holding command of
the stage and at times the other Ice Scholars/Ice Warriors. While
Heidi Pointet was quite amazing. Far better than when she had played Mrs Old Joe last year.
This time her comedy talent and characterisation is superb, both as a leading character,
and getting right into the animal personas of her transformations. In fact I
can think of several West End performers who will have to look to their laurels
if this girl ever goes professional. Ben Geering
now promoted to a major role did at times seem awkward and a little less sure
of himself than as The Ghost Of Christmas Past.
However again this could be as much due to the character. After all Kay can’t
have too much charisma, or Professor Storm could never
have got a hold on him. It also makes a sharp contrast with the vivacious Gerda. Also making this sort of contrast is Lucy Baldwin
in the title role, which she plays with stiff reserve, with the audience only
really understanding why at the very end. She’s so frozen into a trance she
doesn’t know what she is doing. Somehow Lucy does ultimately succeed in putting
this across. It’s absolutely clear that despite being the title character, and
the one our heroine is trying to rescue Kay from, she is not the villain of the
piece. That title falls to Professor Storm. Fleur Jeffries has a tough
task commanding the stage and all the Ice Scholars. Generally she rises well to
the challenge, though I think this role could be even better if it were played
by an experienced grown up performer.
The true star of this show is
Gerda, played this afternoon by Beatrice Holland. She soon proves to have the sort of sparky vivacious charisma needed to carry the show. I
wonder if she is any relation to Freya who was so good as Scrooge’s sister Fan last year? Beatrice’s
performance gives Gerda a command of the stage that
puts her up there with some of Carr’s other glorious leading lady roles. Thus
in a way Beatrice Holland (and possibly her alternate Alice O’Hanlon)
are in a sense following in the footsteps of such notable actresses as Anita
Dobson (Eurovision), Louise Gold (The WaterBabies
– on this very stage), and, Anna Francolini (Six
Pictures Of Lee Miller –across the way in the Minerva),
among others in brilliantly originating a plum role.
Overall this is a great
musical for the young actresses in The Chichester Youth Theatre. There
are four very powerful female characters in this play, Bryony Lavery (as one might expect given her reputation as a
playwright) seems to have had some fun creating them. While musically Jason
Carr has created an amazingly complex piece full of high quality music,
more of an operetta than a musical. Last year’s production of A Christmas
Carol was good fun, and filled with a tuneful score. But this year’s
production of The Snow Queen is even better. I think what makes a
big difference is that Bryony and Jason have had so much more freedom to adapt
the tale as they wish. With A Christmas Carol, although any
writers will make it their own, there are very clearly set scenes which
convention dictates just have to be played out, and
more or less in the conventional way. Although some variations on A
Christmas Carol (particularly those on television) have managed to
tinker with it, generally it does follow a fairly set pattern, with set
characters and more or less set characterisations. Whereas the advantage of
adapting an fantasy folk tale such as this one, that
has already had a variety of different incarnations, is that the adaptors have
much more freedom. They do not have to stick to rigidly to one text, but can truly
adapt the story, changing characters, and particularly characters motivations,
to whatever works best dramatically on the stage, or what they feel the story
should be. They can (as Jason Carr and Gary Yershon
did with The Waterbabies) “Throw the
book up in the air and see where the pieces land”. Minor characters can
easily take on a different gender, if that seems appropriate to the given
company. A Troll in one version of the story may be a Professor in another, or
a Coach may become a Skidoo. (Or as in The Waterbabies
a character given a ticket of leave from jail to work out his time doing a
menial job, is in the stage version fully forgiven and allowed to enter
paradise). As long as their version of the story hangs together it doesn’t
matter whether or not they stick rigidly to the original text. In fact with Hans
Christian Anderson it’s possible some of his tales might have had earlier
origins in folk tales anyway. Who knows?
Certainly tales of this nature stand up well to many different adaptations. This
freedom to adapt means the writers have fewer constraints, and therefore can
fit the story to their work rather than their work to the story. Jason Carr’s
work always seems to benefit from this sort of freedom. Carr is a fine orchestrator and arranger (as some of his recent Sondheim
orchestrations for the Menier Chocolate
Factory prove). Yet good though he is at arranging other people’s music, in
a way his best orchestrations are of his own music. While Jason Carr never
writes rubbish. His own music is generally so much better when he is writing
music for his own lyrics. In Born Again the lyrics were by Peter
Hall, while in James And The Giant Peach
the lyrics were so constrained by being based on Dahl’s book, that it affected
the music. Whereas with last year’s A Christmas Carol, as with The
Waterbabies and Six Pictures Of Lee Miller, we see the real quality that comes
when Jason Carr is truly writing music for his own lyrics. Besides which
he is a truly marvellous lyricist anyway. I can’t think of anyone else these
days whose lyrics are to the sort of standards we would have expected from say Ira
Gershwin or Dick Vosburgh. But of course
Carr is first and foremost a composer, one who just happens to write brilliant
lyrics, to the sort of standard we might have expected from Cole Porter
or Noel Coward, and still expect from Stephen Sondheim. It’s
worth noting Porter and Sondheim hardly ever seem to
have written music for anyone’s lyrics but their own (though Porter did once
adapt Shakespeare). But the greatest freedom of all comes as in this
musical (it also occurred in Six Pictures Of Lee Miller), when
the book writer too has few constraints on them, and thus although they may be
adapting a classic tale, in the end Bryony Lavery
and Jason Carr have created a piece that is very much their own work. It
is a masterpiece, and one which I think truly deserves to be seen by a wider
audience, either in a theatre, or possibly perhaps an opera house? (well it could fit very nicely onto somewhere like the Linbury, couldn’t it?)
If it were to be done on a
musical theatre stage, I can think of at least two actresses who might do
something impressive with Professor Storm, provided her songs are keyed right.
While if it were done on the opera stage, wouldn’t that character be just right
for a really good menacing mezzo? (I don’t know if the songs would fit
key-wise, but is it a possibility?).
Perhaps what really stands
out about this piece, is the high quality, and
semi-classical quality of Jason Carr’s music. He is one of those
composers, like Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin, Stephen
Sondheim, Arthur Sullivan, and, Kurt Weill
whose Music Theatre work seems to transcend the boundaries between Light
Opera and Musical Theatre. All of them have written pieces which
could work in either context (as long as the performers are capable, and the
musical direction is spot on). As a British composer it is my humble opinion
that Jason Carr belongs up there with greats such as: Arthur Bliss,
Howard Goodall, John Lanchbery,
and, Arthur Sullivan amongst others. In fact I think Carr is perhaps a
better composer than Lanchbery (on account of being
more original), but just as good an arranger. Perhaps The Royal Opera House
should take note!
Walking back to the railway
station, though I dropped into very few shops on the way, I still couldn’t help
noticing that any music I heard playing over the speaker systems generally
seemed so much untuneful noise, after having heard
the glorious quality of The Snow Queen’s marvellous score. It’s just a
shame, living in London, that one always has to travel
to places such as Chichester and Birmingham to hear music of this standard. Why
is Jason Carr’s best music so little heard in the captial?
(True his incidental music for plays are often
performed in London, but his best work never seems to see the bright lights of
the capital).
Indeed the only down side to
this entire production is having to travel to Chichester to experience it. True
The Chichester Festival Theatre is a lovely venue, and a very
welcoming one. However, Chichester itself seems to be becoming rather less
attractive to outsiders. The little city still has its variety of decent and
unusual shops (which you just don’t find in mainstream conurbations). However,
travelling there is becoming a hassle. I suppose most outsiders come by motor
car. Now that is all very well in it’s way, but one can’t enjoy a drink at the
theatre if one is driving, and secondly in my experience driving here is not
like in London, the local drivers aren’t like London ones. Train travel is
complicated by no longer being able to purchase a return ticket from London to
Chichester, except at East Croydon (though visitors
from Chichester to London can still purchase return tickets). It feels as
though the city of Chichester does not want tourists. Yet The Chichester
Festival Theatre puts on such wonderful work. While as for The Chichester Youth Theatre.
Well firstly they have the good sense in having such excellent pieces
commissioned for them, and, secondly they actually have the talent and high
standard of performance to be able to perform them. In a world that seems
cluttered with so much musical trash, that passes itself off as popular
culture, it’s so refreshing to find one little corner of Sussex where really
high standard music theatre seems to be flourishing. With Jason Carr to write
for them Christmas (theatre music) is new once more.
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Off Site Links:
The Chichester Festival Theatre’s Official Website: http://www.cft.org.uk/
Composer Jason Carr’s Official Website: http://www.jasoncarr.org.uk/
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