Chichester 2008 – Preview
Preview by David Munro
THIS year Chichester is offering a mixture of the old and new – two musicals, four revivals and three new plays with casts that include Diana Rigg, Robert Lindsay, Maureen Lipman, Brian Conley, Susan Hampshire, Michael Pennington and Jemma Redgrave.
The musicals are Funny Girl and The Music Man; the revivals are The Circle, The Cherry Orchard and Six Characters In Search Of An Author and Taking Sides, with the new plays being The Calendar Girls, Aristo and Collaboration, a companion play to Taking Sides.
FUNNY GIRL
Music by Jule Styne and Lyrics by Bob Merrill; book by Isobel Lennart.
April 28 – June 14, Minerva Theatre
Commissioned by American agent/producer Ray Stark to glorify his mother-in-law, Fanny Brice, the famous American comedienne, Funny Girl opened on Broadway on March 26, 1964 with Barbra Streisand in the name part and ran for 1,346 performances, making Miss Streisand a star. It was seen in London, again with Miss Streisand in the title role, in 1966 but it only ran for 112 performances as Miss Streisand’s pregnancy forced her to leave the cast and the show could not survive without her.
A film version with Miss Streisand was made in 1968 and there was sequel, Funny Lady, in 1975 dealing with Fanny Brice’s later life, also with Miss Streisand, but with a score by Kander and Ebb (Cabaret and Chicago).
The songs include Don’t Rain On My Parade, People and The Music That Makes Me Dance. The composer, Jules Styne, has been responsible for many popular songs and film and theatre scores, including Gypsy and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
Bob Merrill, the lyricist, is probably best known for the popular song How Much Is That Doggy In The Window although he also wrote scores for other Broadway musicals including Take Me Along (a musical version of Anna Christie) and Carnival (a dramatisation of the film Lili).
In this production (which I think is the first major revival since 1966), Samantha Spiro, who won the Olivier award for her performance in the Donmar’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along, plays Fanny Brice and the director is Angus Jackson, who was responsible for Chichester’s outstanding production of Carousel a couple of years ago.
THE MUSIC MAN
Book, Music and Lyrics by Meredith Willson. Story by Meredith Willson and Franklin Lacey.
June 23 – August 30, Festival Theatre
The Music Man, which opened in New York in 1957, made a musical star out of a minor Hollywood actor – Robert Preston – who played the lead not only in the show but also in the film version (1962). The show played 1,375 performances on Broadway, although the English production in 1961 with Hollywood star, Van Johnson, only clocked up 395 (playing the principal child role was a young Dennis Waterman!).
The principal character, “Professor” Harold Hill, is a fraudulent travelling salesman who uses his skills to sell musical instruments to the citizens of a small mid west town for their children but is redeemed by his love for the local librarian.
The most famous number is Seventy-six Trombones, a rousing anthem from a composer who started his career in Sousa’s band! There are also more romantic numbers including My White Knight and Goodnight My Someone (although the latter has the same tune as Trombones, only at a slower tempo!).
Brian Conley plays “the Professor” and Scarlet Strallen (sister of Summer Strallen, now Maria in The Sound of Music) is Marian the librarian. The director is Rachel Kavanaugh from the Birmingham Rep.
THE CHERRY ORCHARD by Anton Chekhov
May 15 – June 7, Festival Theatre
Diana Rigg plays Mme Ranevskaya in Mike Poulton’s version of Anton Chekhov’s masterpiece in the opening production in the Festival Theatre. Still locked in grief, Ranyevskaya returns for the first time to the country estate where her young son drowned. The cherry trees, the pride of the province, are in glorious blossom but the estate is now neglected and mortgaged to the hilt. The cherry orchard must be sold and the trees cut down.
Also in the cast are William Gaunt, Jemma Redgrave and Maureen Lipman and the director is Philip Franks, who last year directed Twelfth Night and co-directed The Life & Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.
THE CIRCLE by Somerset Maugham
July 22 – August 29, Festival Theatre
Written in 1919 and produced in 1921, The Circle is considered one of Maugham’s better comedies. It has been revived on many occasions and I remember a memorable production in Chichester with Googie Withers and John MacCallum with a cast including Susan Hampshire (who this year plays the leading role of Lady Kitty) as the young wife, Elizabeth, on whose decision whether or not to leave her husband the plot of the play revolves.
It’s an elegant and entertaining social satire on the compromises and bargains of married life and the conflict between romance and responsibility.
The director is Jonathan Church, an artistic director at Chichester Festival Theatre who last year directed Hobson’s Choice and co-directed The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.
SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF AN AUTHOR by Luigi Pirandello. A new version by Rupert Goold and Ben Power
June June – August 23, Minerva Theatre (Press Night: 8 July)
A bold re-imagining of a masterpiece, Six Characters blurs the border between fiction and life, between the stage and the world outside. Updated and re-conceptualised, it’s a dark parable for a media-obsessed age and an exhilarating exploration of how we define ourselves, and what we call ‘reality’, in the 21st Century.
Following the success of last year’s production of Macbeth, Rupert Goold returns to Chichester to direct the play.
TAKING SIDES and COLLABORATION by Ronald Harwood
July 16 – August 30, Minerva Theatre
Taking Sides focuses in on conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler. Prized by Hitler as the cultural jewel in the crown of the Third Reich, he became the perfect post-war target for interrogation as a Nazi sympathizer. In Harwood’s play, Major Steve Arnold, who has witnessed the horrors of Belsen, is about to cross-examine the conductor.
Collaboration begins in 1931 in a spirit of optimism as composer Richard Strauss and writer Stephan Zweig embark on an invigorating artistic partnership. However, Zweig is a Jew and the Nazis are on the march…
Taking Sides premiered in the Minerva Theatre in 1995 and is revived here with a world premiere of Harwood’s new play Collaboration. After playing Major Arnold in 1995 at Chichester, Michael Pennington returns to play both Furtwängler and Strauss.
Philip Franks directs Ronald Harwood’s two companion plays.
CALENDAR GIRLS by Tim Firth
September 5 – 27, Festival Theatre
Tim Firth’s brand new adaptation of the Miramax film Calendar Girls follows the fortunes of a group of extraordinary women, all members of a very ordinary Yorkshire Women’s Institute, who persuade each other to pose for a charity calendar with a difference. A hit film in 2003, the story is based upon true-life events.
ARISTO by Martin Sherman
September 11 – October 11, Minerva Theatre
Martin Sherman’s new play Aristo completes the festival. Robert Lindsay plays tycoon Aristotle Onassis in a world premiere based on the last years of his life, including his complex connections and interwoven relationships with Jackie Kennedy and Maria Callas, and his son Alexandros.