The Magic of the Musicals

The Magic of the Musicals

The Bangkok Symphony Orchestra's showcase event is 3,000 years in the making

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The Magic of the Musicals
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To be honest, "The Magic Of The Musicals" didn't start with The Sound Of Music or The Phantom Of The Opera or even My Fair Lady.

Musical theatre started almost 3,000 years ago, when the Greek comic writer Aristophanes dressed up his satires with solos, duets and choruses of frogs. It continued through the Middle Ages when jolly songs were performed to words of the Bible, then onto Shakespeare's songs in drama, onto the operettas of the 18th century, the musicals of Irving Berlin and Richard Rodgers -- and finally on Sept 5, when the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra and stars of the British musical theatre will perform their own "Magic Of The Musicals".

Like three previous performances, Bangkok Symphony Orchestra's "The Magic Of The Musicals", which takes place on Sept 5, will swing the whole gamut from The Lion King all the way to Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. In between, the songs chosen by conductor Michael England and sung by Robyn North and Oliver Tompsett will picture a world full of characters. Gangsters from Chicago and gamblers from New York, a chocolate-maker in a candy heaven, a French planter in the South Seas, a demon from the backstage of a theatre, and yes, that sometimes insufferable but always memorable teacher on the Austrian hillsides.

Add to that, stories from Shakespeare, Roald Dahl and even those ancient Greeks. After all, the first Greek storytellers related the myth of Pygmalion, when a beautiful statue was turned into a real woman. That was re-created by George Bernard Shaw 103 years ago. And in 1954, the team of Lerner and Lowe made it into My Fair Lady.

My Fair Lady's original star, Rex Harrison, couldn't sing. But Julie Andrews could, of course, and I Could Have Danced All Night was pure Edwardian romance (with a bit of sex). On The Street Where You Live is more conventional, but still showing the best of the composer.

Andrews was a bit humiliated when Audrey Hepburn took her original stage role for the film of The Sound Of Music, but a selection from Bangkok's favourite will be on this night. That was the last musical from perhaps America's greatest song-writing team, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Some feel that The Sound Of Music was rather saccharine. But nobody could say that about The South Pacific and its wonderful overture. Nor the other "exotic" setting, Miss Saigon, with two numbers, including Why, God, Why?

And don't forget Shakespeare. Rather the Bernstein/Sondheim version of Romeo And Juliet, here as West Side Story, with Somewhere and Something's Comin'.

Leonard Bernstein was of course the Harvard-educated classical pianist conductor, and composer, perhaps the only serious composer who could create musical theatre.

His opposite was Irving Berlin, who barely read (he left school at the age of 12), could barely play the piano (he had a special keyboard), yet for more than 90 years created America's most singable songs, from God Bless America to White Christmas to Easter Parade. He will be represented by a Broadway show taken from a 1935 film musical (starring Fred Astaire, of course), Top Hat. Among the greatest songs is Puttin' On The Ritz, but that was totally demolished when Frankenstein sung it in Mel Brooks's Young Frankenstein, so Bangkok will settle for the charming Cheek To Cheek.

And now to the gangsters. Insiders to the Broadway Musical Theatre know that -- like the real estate business and politics -- much of the money for theatre came from … er … rather questionable sources. So the musicals Chicago and Guys And Dolls were made for stardom.

Another inside story; the plot of Chicago, where the guilty triumphs, was considered far too cynical or bitter for Broadway. And then came the OJ Simpson trial -- and in America, nothing could be too cynical. The song Mister Cellophane is one of Chicago's most popular.

Guys And Dolls is -- in this writer's opinion -- one of the most glorious New York musicals ever created. It was based on the newspaper columns of Damon Runyon, who knew and admired and pictured all of New York's "low lifes". They were put together with music by the over-sophisticated Frank Loesser, an all-star cast and the story by Abe Burrows, perhaps the wittiest man ever to grace the New York stage. Luck Be A Lady Tonight is the ultimate tribute to the mind of the gambler waiting for a single roll of the dice to know if he's going to live. Close enough is Jersey Boys, with music from the kids who escaped the streets to come on stage.

These are the classic musicals -- but The Magic Of The Musicals" has far more. So it's time for an intermission, to introduce the cast.

All three of the British stars are well known indeed to Bangkok audiences, in the spotlight for the smashingly successful evening in Bangkok with the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra, where they performed the music of Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Michael England will once again conduct the orchestra, though his resume includes more than this. He is a musical director, supervisor, conductor and orchestrator. As musical director, he directed Les Misérables, The Phantom Of The Opera, Spamalot, The Producers, Jerry Springer -- The Opera and Doctor Doolittle. On tour he has been musical director for The Sound Of Music, Evita, Les Misérables, Aspects Of Love, and Grease.

More than this, Cameron Mackintosh, the legendary producer who virtually revolutionised the British musical theatre, personally chose Maestro England to conduct the opening weeks of the 25th Anniversary of Les Misérables and he subsequently conducted the new cast album.

Robyn North appeared at the same concert, with duets and solos from a wide variety of musicals. She came from a long career on the West End, perhaps best known in the role of Christine in Phantom Of The Opera. She was also in the revival of Evita and dozens of other productions.

The last of this stellar trio is Oliver Tompsett, who appeared with Michael England in Bangkok last October, though his reputation is truly international. His performance as Sky Masterson in Guys And Dolls comes naturally to him, since he played that part in the Dominion Theatre on the West End. He also starred in We Will Rock You, Mamma Mia, Kismet and The Hunt Of The Sun, as well as two other musicals to be represented here, Wicked and West Side Story.

He is a regular performer on the concert platform, including the Royal Festival Hall, Trafalgar Theatre and orchestras from Scotland to Thailand, where he starred last year with the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra in "Musicals Rock".

Back to the stage, and a list of more up-to-date music from the most contemporary shows. True, A Chorus Line is several decades old, but its conception was one of the revolutionary shows of the modern era. Blood Brothers and Charlie And The Chocolate Factory are both products of the British stage.

To quote from two of the musicals, West Side Story and Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, next week in Bangkok "something's comin' and it's gonna be"…. "Pure Imagination".


The Magic of the MusicalsDate: Sept 5Venue: 8pm at Thailand Cultural Centre, Main HallTicket prices: 500, 1,000, 1,500, 2,000 and 2,500 baht; available at Thaiticketmajor (call 02-262-3456 or www.thaiticketmajor.com) and BSO Office (call 02-255-6617-18 or visit www.bangkoksymphony.org)

20% discount for Bangkok Post readers.

Michael England. Photos courtesy of Bangkok Symphony Orchestra

Robyn North. Bangkok Symphony Orchestra

Oliver Tompsett. Bangkok Symphony Orchestra

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