Le monde des musicals

Version 1

Gone with the Wind (2008-04-New London Theatre-London)

Type de série: Original
Théâtre: Gillian Lynne Theatre (Londres - Angleterre)
Flop
Durée : 1 mois 3 semaines
Nombre : 79 représentations
Première Preview : Saturday 05 April 2008
Première : Tuesday 22 April 2008
Dernière : Saturday 14 June 2008
Mise en scène : Trevor Nunn •
Chorégraphie : David Bolger •
Producteur :
Avec : Jill Paice (Scarlett O’Hara), Darius Danesh (Rhett Butler), Edward Baker-Duly (Ashley Wilkes), Madeleine Worral (Melanie Hamitlon), Natasha Yvette Williams (Mammy), Jina Burrows (Prissy), Susan Jane Tanner (Aunt Pittypat), Jeff Shankley (Dr Meade), Julian Forsyth, Susannah Fellows, Ray Shell.
Commentaires : Based on the 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell and the subsequent film–script, the epic “Gone with the Wind” had become one of the most popular and best-remembered stories of the 20th Century. Drawing on his experience with “Nicholas Nickleby” in 1980, Trevor Nunn used the same technique to cram the 1000 page novel into three and a half hours onstage: relying heavily on multiple narrators who rattle through the plot by interspersing dialogue with large chunks of narration straight from the novel. Accordingly, the songs seem constantly to interrupt the proceedings rather than deepening or adding to the story. The production included some tentative efforts at political correctness by supplying the slaves with some attractive gospel songs and spirituals and by turning Prissy (the lazy and stupid slave-girl from the film version) into a sanitised, witty would-be teacher. However, the film’s splendid epic quality is sorely missed - the much-remembered burning of Atlanta sequence is represented by some orange lights and the burning of a Confederate flag – and with 36 actors playing over 90 parts the show often becomes a blur of activity, some of it blundering and clumsy, and some of it moving so quickly that the audience could not keep up with the plot. There was praise for the performers and the design, but, all in all, it was felt to be a self-indulgent, prolonged vanity exercise for the composer and the director, and a painfully drawn out and tedious exercise for the audience. Although initially bookings were accepted up to the end of September, the show was finally withdrawn on June 14 th after 79 performances.
Commentaires longs: Une version musicale "honnête" de 'Gone with the wind'. Les critiques ont été catatstrophiques et le spectacle a été plombé dès le début… Sans doute, de manière totalement exagérée. Le spectacle est long, il est vrai. Et alors? Les artistes sont de qualité, la mise en scène simple mais efficace. On a vu nettement pire ailleurs sans que cela déclenche une levée de bouclier pareille.
Presse : NICHOLAS DE JONGH for THE EVENING STANDARD says, "Is a small, well-placed tornado in the vicinity of the theatre too much to hope for?...I found it a cruel, unusual punishment."
PAUL TAYLOR for THE INDEPENDENT says, "The show is neither as bad as one feared nor as good as one has a right to expect."
MICHAEL BILLINGTON for THE GUARDIAN says, "The problem is structural: how do you cram a 1,000-page novel into three-and-a-half hours of stage time? The answer is "with great difficulty...there is something extravagantly pointless about the whole enterprise."
CHARLES SPENCER for THE DAILY TELEGRAPH says, "Soullessly efficient show merely feels like one damn thing after another, an endless parade of unexciting incidents that leaves the viewer feeling neither shaken nor stirred."
BENEDICT NIGHTINGALE for THE TIMES says, " It just doesn’t have the variety, the quirkiness or the moral power. And it doesn’t need the tunes."