MUSIC THEATRE
Book by Carolyn Burns, Music by Tim Finn, Lyrics by Tim Finn & Simon Phillips
Based on the story by Kazuo Ishiguro
By Melbourne Theatre Company
MTC Southbank Theatre, until July 23 |
| Angus Grant, Gillian Cosgriff, Pic Jeff Busby |
New stage musicals are rare, and many recent offerings are based on existing source material or utilise a catalogue of well-known songs. A new, totally original and successful Australian musical is a unicorn. Come Rain or Come Shine is new and Australian, but a unicorn it is not; it is adapted from Kazuo Ishiguro’s short story and incorporates snatches of classic tunes – including Ray Charles’ poignant Come Rain or Come Shine – that eclipse the original songs.
This “boutique” musical, with book by Carolyn Burns, music by Tim Finn and lyrics by Finn and director, Simon Phillips, has a cast of only three, along with four musicians.
Ishiguro’s comic tale lends itself to scenes and songs expressing romance and pathos, outpourings of unrequited love and farcical comedy. The beginning of this musical has promise. Ray (Angus Grant), living a shabby life as an underpaid language teacher in Spain, pines for the golden days at university in England with Emily (Gillian Cosgriff) and Charlie (Chris Ryan), who remain his “best” friends. At uni, Emily and Ray share a passion for great, American classic songs by the likes of Ray Charles, Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan and others. Literature graduate Ray is silently in love with economics student Emily, but she marries chaotic Charlie, and both become corporate high-fliers.
Twenty years later, Ray accepts Charlie’s invitation to visit Charlie and Emily in their sophisticated, but cold (possibly loveless) Bayswater home (designer, Dale Ferguson), only to discover that he is only there to make Charlie look good. Things unravel when Charlie leaves and Ray messes up – literally.
The versatile cast handles both comedy and pathos, but their talents are not shown to advantage in this show. Grant plays Ray as a Hugh Grant-type of floppy-haired, self-deprecating, socially incompetent Brit who never reached his potential. Ryan is suitably smarmy and duplicitous, while Cosgriff is cool and charming as ambitious Emily. Cosgriff and Ryan’s fine singing voices deserve to be showcased by more vocally challenging songs.
Angus Grant and Gillian Cosgriff.Credit:Jeff Busby
The
beginning swerves into the hysteria and slapstick of an overly long
middle-section. The title, and Ray and Emily’s early fascination with
fine American songs, promise something the show fails to deliver –
excellent tunes. Characters launch into song in musicals when emotions
cannot be contained, but the Finn-Phillips songs, although they advance
story and illuminate characters, are like sung dialogue or “recitative”,
with repetitive melodies and unvarying style and tone that make them
unmemorable, even pallid alongside the classics.
This production cries out for a repertoire of exceptional, 20th century tunes such as Come Rain or Come Shine. It is a courageous, but ultimately unsatisfying show that, with more development, could reach its potential.
- Reviewed by Kate Herbert
This review first published in The Age Arts. See details and link to The Age at top of this post. KH
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| Chris Ryan, Gillian Cosgriff, Pic Jeff Busby |
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