After a sell-out run in 2008, this award-winning musical makes a triumphant return to the stage with its only Scottish dates. Share 24 hours in the life of a 1940’s New York City tenement on a hot summer’s day with an eighty-strong cast, full choir and orchestra.
A glorious blend of Broadway musical and American opera, Street Scene won the first ever Tony Award for Weill, confirming him as one of the 20th Century’s most original and popular composers. His score features scintillating show tunes, operatic arias, jazz, the blues and spirituals. Adapted by Elmer Rice from his own Pulitzer Prize-winning play, with lyrics by the great poet of Harlem, Langston Hughes.
This may be a flawed musical, but at its best the power and dramatic sweep of Street Scene prove irresistible.
Despite a full orchestra and 80-plus singers, John Fulljames's revival doesn't quite deliver the sizzle the show requires, so it sometimes feels more heavy-going than it should, given the soaring sumptuousness of the score and the wittiness of a piece that offers a peon to ice-cream and a lament about domestic chores.
I’m not convinced Street Scene a masterpiece to rival The Threepenny Opera, and I freely admit that at times my eyes drifted to study the countless chalk scribblings adorning the stage rather than the action on it. But it’s an epic revival that Weill fans will not want to miss.
Musical director Keith Lockhart masters the richly textured score and the BBC Concert Orchestra are a joy to hear at work, whilst John Fulljames’ direction brings the pace of the Lower East Side to life with a large ensemble cast.
It would be unfair to call this production bad but its weaknesses far outweigh its strengths, making it feel like a lost opportunity. In the end, this New York tale is more of the lemon than the big apple about it.
Although there were some early audibility problems on Friday, Fulljames’s cast also hit exactly the right tone of vocal and acting performance, embracing a melodramatic, soap opera style and relishing the show-tunes as they appear, with Elena Ferrari as Anna and Paul Curievici’s Sam Kaplan particularly outstanding.
This is a fine story, though, told with great commitment and energy by a cast which includes a large, impressive chorus of local children; and Elena Ferrari’s beautiful central performance as Anna, the housewife and mother with the soaring romantic soul, offers some magnificent moments, as she delivers the finest songs in Weill’s score, with a passion that sears the heart.
Street Scene
Festival Theatre, Edinburgh from Friday October 7, 2011, until Saturday October 8, 2011. More info: http://www.edtheatres.com/festival
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