ENGLISH NATIONAL OPERA, THE LONDON COLISEUM – UNTIL 8th JUNE 2019
Reviewed by Serena Norgren
3***
Man of La Mancha, the 1965 musical by Dale Wasserman is a classic inspired by Miguel de Cervantes’s masterpiece novel Don Quixote. Back at the Coliseum for the first time in 50 years with the ENO’s fantastic 30 piece orchestra and a splash of Hollywood stardom in the form of Kelsey Grammer, expectations were running high.
The premise is a play within a play. Bumbling Cervantes (Kelsey Grammer) and his man servant are awaiting trial in a grim basement prison. The inmates are a tough bunch and, one of the prisoners, “The Governor” (Nicholas Lyndhurst), threateningly suggests a mock trial. Cervantes, by way of his defence and in a bid to save his prize manuscript, proposes a play acted out by himself and the other prisoners. The story is complicated but in essence is a love story as we follow Don Quixote on his quest to reinstate chivalry, battle right from wrong to get himself dubbed a knight; fighting windmills that he sees as dragons all to save a prostitute, his Dulcinea (Cassidy Janson), with whom he has fallen in love.
The anthemic numbers To Dream the Impossible Dream and The Man of La Mancha still have the capacity to raise the hairs on the back of the neck and there can be no denying the fabulousness of the ENO orchestra, conducted and orchestrated by David White. The opening medley was just lovely.
Cassidy Janson was a wonderfully voiced Dulcinea, with a physical energy that was magnetic. Nicholas Lyndhurst ably flipped between the gestapo-esque leader of the prisoners, “the Governor”, and a drunken innkeeper with alacrity but somehow felt underutilised. Peter Polycarpou, as Cervantes manservant and Quixote’s side kick, injected humour and a bit of slapstick and was often the foil for the comic misunderstandings.
The lesser characters and the ensemble added a vocal depth and richness to a score (which in parts is really dated) but again they seemed underutilised and often redundant on stage. In particular, Rakesh Boury as both muslim prisoner Durga and the bishop Paco with his beautiful voice was a show stealer and deserves a mention.
Director Lonny Price has effectively updated some of the scenes to the present day, with hints of refugees and fascistic clothing amongst the prisoners while keeping the Don Quixote story totally in period. This is underscored by James Noone’s set design with an ominous metal staircase that brings the prisoners down and ultimately takes Cervantes away to meet his unknown fate.
In the end, the spotlight is very much on the main protagonist. Kelsey Grammer however, with all his experience on Broadway, felt like he was somehow still playing Frasier Crane. His vocal was slightly overwhelmed and his breathless delivery not quite up to scratch to deliver the endless marvellous proverbs: “a man who has moonlight in his hands, has nothing in his hands at all”, “a knight with no lady is like a body without a soul”, etc. with the unabashed naivete that is Don Quixote. His pathos is more moving than his comedy is hilarious but the audience loved him and were on their feet for a really enthusiastic standing ovation.
The whole may have somehow been less than the sum of the parts but as a Michael Linnit/Michael Grade piece for the Coliseum, Man from La Mancha has high production values: a couple of spine-tingling numbers, a fabulous orchestra and oodles of talented performers, such that even this slightly dated piece makes for a marvellous night out.