Patrick Marmion
HOLLYWOOD COMES TO TOWN...sort of
It's A Wonderful Life (New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich)
Verdict: It's a wonderful show - 4 Stars
The Shawshank Redemption (Wyndham's Theatre, London)
Verdict: A stretch too far - 2 Stars
SUDDENLY theatre is awash with stagings of classic films.
At Leeds' West Yorkshire Playhouse there's Dial M For Murder. Ipswich are doing the James Stewart tearjerker It's A Wonderful Life and in the West End there's the Shawshank Redemption, over from Dublin's Gaiety Theatre.
But adaptations need to offer something special. Something the original couldn't manage. Otherwise, what's the point?
In Ipswich at least they've been brave and the Christmas Carol-ish
tale of the suicidal small town banker saved by the kindly angel Clarence becomes a musical with a Jaunty original score. And although Steve Brown's music owes much to Stephen Sondheim with a river of melodies that seem reluctant to climax, it thankfully lacks the clever clogs tricksiness of the arch American composer.
Why they're not saving the show for Christmas is anyone's guess, but it's charmingly performed and includes a marvellous Dickensian villain who's a singing capitalist cadaver - hair clinging to his skull, dark rings round his eyes. Children also boost the show's glycemic index and casting the angel Clarence as a black hobo (Jo Send) gets away born the Santa Claus effect of Henry Travers in the film.
It is however a bit of a thankless task for Paul Thornley in the James Stewart role of George. Far from being a skinny, stuttering and shuffling all-American nice guy, Thomley is a more stolidly Anglo- Saxon proposition. He does at least keep a straight bat and the show is, anyway, more of an ensemble effort which moves swiftly and movingly under Peter Rowe's slick, bustling direction.
Peter Sheridan's staging of the Shawshank Redemption however doesn't bring much that's new, and nothing that's better. Having recently seen the film version of Stephen King's brutal prison novel, the staging takes third place behind book and film. In fact, the film is easily the best of the three with its panoramic vision of heaven and hell.
For the most part onstage it's caged hell - served with a rancid porridge of sex and violence (although the squeamish will be relieved to know it's less violent than the film).
Kevin Anderson as the hero Andy is sound, but settles into the prison regime too easily. He lacks Tim Bobbins' repressed rage and Reg E. Cathey as the narrator lacks Morgan freeman's world-beating cool, unsurprisingly.
Audiences do enjoy the show, but for my money you're better off renting the DVD.