THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
There is a moment, whilst watching a musical in the Open Air Theatre in Regents Park, as the sun sets and the volume of the chirping birds overhead increases, where it appears as if the birds are almost in communion with the musical score and you wonder what they make of this annual intrusion. It's part of what makes a visit there so special, even if, on this first opening night of the season, the air was still quite chilly.
First seen in London in 1994 (when it won the Olivier for Best Musical) this season opener, by the successful Broadway duo of Ahrens and Flaherty, who gave us such hits as Ragtime and A Man of No Importance, is an odd choice for revival.
Premiered in 1990 it is not one of their best. Based on a novel by the Trinidadian writer Rosa Guy, it's a reworking of Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tale The Little Mermaid about a peasant girl, in this version in Haiti, who falls in love with a rich boy and makes a deal with the gods to save his life.
While director Ola Ince does a great job of interweaving the troubling themes of race and class division that are here, she grounds it firmly as a simple family entertainment. Compared to Ragtime this seems like a school play, and one with a pastiche Caribbean score added.
Following on from Get Up Stand Up the Bob Marley Musical Gabrielle Brooks gives another belter of a performance as the central protagonist, Ti Moune, who falls for Daniel (Stephenson Ardern-Sodje), scion of a wealthy colonial family after he is injured in a car crash. Although she makes her way into his family, she can't overcome their ancestral prejudice against her, and of course his weakness. In this Haiti, gradations of color and class prejudice count for everything among these (half) French ex-colonials. Brooks' powerful vocals and commanding presence elevates an under-written role and her voice too eclipses that of Ardern-Sodje.
Designer Georgia Lowe has done one of the best stagings in the Park in a long time, incorporating Carnival costumes, puppetry, fire, water, and billowing drapes. The piece is framed in the present day with the main story having a 1940s look, all sharp suits and Panama hats. She's aided by recent Olivier winner Jessica Hung Han Yun's great lighting designs, which give it the slickness it needs.
Ti Moune is beset by deities, both encouraging and malign, as well as by Vodou doctors, but in a large company, and in a 90 minute straight running time, these roles are underwritten. This results in sketchy characterizations which sometimes descend into a distracting and over emphatic acting style.
The core of it though is the central love story arc, driven by a few musical standouts including a rousing Calypso number 'Mama Will Provide' and a killer love duet 'The Human Heart'.
