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The Merry Widow

Author: Julie Petrucci

Information

Date
23rd February 2018
Society
Girton Musical Theatre
Venue
Girton Glebe School
Type of Production
Musical
Director
Helen Wilson
Musical Director
Patricia Davies
Choreographer
Helen Wilson

It is a good few years since I saw a production of The Merry Widow so I was much looking forward to this production which contains such lovely music by Franz Lehár.  This is the first time Girton Musical Theatre has moved away from a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta so the production was a new challenge for them.

Written around the turn of the twentieth century the extravagance of the French diplomatic life with its intrigues and extra marital shenanigans, was brought out in the set and costumes.  Helen Wilson’s set designs were brought to life by some wonderful scenic painting attributed in the programme to “cast and production team”.  It is obvious there is a tremendous amount of talented people within this society.  The set for Ambassador’s home in Act 1 was amazing but Anna’s Villa in Act II was incredibly impressive receiving a spontaneous round of applause.  It was fabulous and cleverly adapted to represent Maxim’s with the addition of various curtains and dressing.  The costumes in the charge of Maggie Phillips were splendid too but it would have been nice if all the gents had worn braces on their dinner suits.  It does make so much difference.  However, the costumes and settings were an ocular feast.

Sound balance was a problem with some of the vocals and dialogue occasionally disappearing beneath Musical Director Patricia Davies’ talented and enthusiastic orchestra.  I wonder whether it would have been possible for there to be a small webcam on the MD projected on a screen directly in the sightline of the singers.  The fact the orchestra is placed to one side beyond the sightline of the cast meant the singers had to turn their heads or keep glancing round.  I think this caused an apparent lack of empathy between couples who “lost touch”.

Typical of such stories we find intrigue and flirtations in the Embassy.  Baron Zeta (played by Roger Few)  caused problems as he demands that Danilo returns to marry Anna thus keeping her fortune in the Fatherland. Then he fails to realise that his wife Valencienne is flirting with Count Camille (Steven Aronson), whilst the Baron’s factotum Njenus (Simon Fitch) tries hard to protect members of the Embassy from discovering who is unfaithful or not.  Things become even more awkward when Danilo is endeavouring to find out to whom the mystery fan belongs and to avoid problems for themselves St Brioche and Cascada disappear in disguise.  George Thorpe (St Brioche) and Jerry Harrison (Cascada) sparked off each other well and brought out the humour of their characters. A fine performance came from Øistein Andersen as Danilo the permanent bachelor who is loath to voice his love for Anna.  I thought “Driving in the Park with You” was lovely. 

As Anna, the Merry Widow, Jara Brasa Trancón was outstanding. All her words were clear as her operatic voice rang through the auditorium.  Her impressive singing was a joy to listen to.  Equally impressive was Nirupa Desai (Valencienne) who looked stunning coupled with a lovely voice.  These two leading ladies were superb.

As with all things musical the ladies and gentlemen of the chorus are all important.  The chorus sang very well throughout, however some members appeared rather unsure when it came to the movement, but all worked hard with total concentration.  I was looking forward to “Women! Women!” but was left somewhat disappointed with the rendition in this case.  There were a good number of men involved but it lacked volume and energy. Pace is so important and between the musical numbers cue bite was sometimes slow which made things appear ponderous at times. 

It was obvious a huge effort had gone into this production.  Much of the humour was brought out and it was visually stunning but for me The Merry Widow of Girton was not quite as merry as I would have liked her to be.

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