It sometimes surprises people to find out that the opening night of a new play or musical, isn’t actually it’s first night, and that it’s been preceded by a number of preview performances where tweaks are still being made. It’s not until ‘opening night’ that the final version is presented to critics, who will declare it a hit, or a flop.
Well, opening night has arrived at the Gielgud Theatre for…Opening Night, the world premiere of this new musical based on the John Cassavetes film of the same name. With a book by theatrical heavyweight Ivo van Hove and music and lyrics by Rufus Wainwright. Cassavetes’ film has become something of a cult classic, but it wasn’t particularly well received on release. It also wasn’t a musical.
This stage version makes only minor changes to the original story. Revered actress Myrtle Gordon is in previews for a new Broadway Play – ‘The Second Woman’, in which she stars alongside her ex-husband, Maurice (Benjamin Walker). The death of a young fan outside the theatre unsettles Myrtle and results in erratic behaviour during the subsequent performances, much to the frustration of the writer, Sarah Goode and Director, Manny.
There’s a film crew following the production through previews to opening night. This allows for a typical Ivo van Hove cinema/theatre crossover which sees camera operators on stage and the live feed being projected onto a large screen. It works in the context of the documentary makers, but we’ve seen quite a lot of this recently (Sunset Boulevard, Oklahoma et al) so it ends up feeling more gimmicky than it should, especially as some of it happens outside the theatre.
Myrtle’s erratic behaviour appears to be down to more than the death of Nancy. She drinks too much, is obsessed with her age, what that means for an actress, and can’t identify with the role she’s supposed to be playing. We never really get to the bottom of why Myrtle behaves the way she does, and that was the same in the film, but it doesn’t make trying to understand the character any easier. Whether it’s deliberate or not, it’s striking how many of the complaints Myrtle makes about ‘The Second Woman’, can also be levelled against Opening Night itself; the characters just don’t resonate and a lot of their decisions don’t make any sense.
Rufus Wainwright’s music is fine up to a point, but the songs are largely forgettable and seem to focus too strongly on making sure the lines rhyme. With a few exceptions, the music and story are tonally at odds with each other. Perhaps it’s supposed to be a commentary on ‘the show must go on’ mantra, but the happy-clappy post curtain call number is completely out of step with what we’ve just watched.
“Why has she started singing?” Asks Sarah in one scene, and the whole audience seem to be asking the same question. In reality, Opening Night doesn’t need to be a musical, in fact it shouldn’t be a musical, as a straight play it might just have worked and allowed us to get under the character’s skins.
But it is a musical, and one where everyone is angry, characters shout at each other constantly and it very quickly becomes irritating. Sarah Goode, played by Nicola Hughes is in a permanent state of bad temper, so much so, that by the act one finale the character comes across more like an embittered villain in a Disney movie, ‘is it supposed to be like pantomime? Should we be booing?’ asked the lady sitting next to me when the interval eventually arrived.
In fairness, the cast is the only good thing about Opening Night, Sheridan Smith demonstrates again her incredible talents as a performer, while the likes of Hadley Fraser, Shira Haas and Amy Lennox make the best of their poorly written characters.
So now that the previews are over, Opening Night is ‘open’ in the West End, and on almost every front it’s a major disappointment. Nothing about this musical works, the script is bad and the music is worse, not even Sheridan Smith can save Opening Night from needing to close tomorrow.
