TROY THE MUSICAL
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written, directed & designed by Paul Jenden music composed by Gareth Farr [2hrs 20min, incl interval] at Circa One, Wellington From 24 Jun 2006 to 22 Jul 2006 Reviewed by: John Smythe; Laurie Atkinson (The Dominion Post); |
From the fabulously talented Paul Jenden and Gareth Farr (ONZM Queen's Birthday honours list) comes this sparkling new musical about ancient follies - TROY The Musical premieres at Circa One on Saturday 24th June at 8pm and runs until 22 July.
The premiere of a new NZ musical theatre work is something of a rarity, but this smart and saucy romp through the classics, TROY The Musical, has it all - toe tapping rhythms, catchy lyrics, soaring sensual love songs, waltzes, charlestons and tangos, a fabulously talented cast of 11 singers and actors playing over 30 characters, a three-piece band, sumptuous costumes, sly humour and some of the greatest stories in the world, full of love, courage, and desperate deeds and all those most human emotions that can never go out of date.
When Helen, Queen of Sparta, deserts her husband and elopes with a Trojan prince, she begins one of the most famous wars in history. But behind the legend are personal stories - epic lives filled with romance and comedy, cheap betrayal and bloody revenge.
TROY The Musical brings Homer's immortal characters vividly to life in a silly, serious, totally fun night out.
The idea for the show originated with Jenden, who says:
"TROY - The Musical began life as a small script intended as the basis of a performance collaboration with Gareth Farr. As work on the script progressed, it became evident that this was a much bigger project. When it was finally submitted to Circa it had grown into a major musical work.
The original concept involved the blind poet Homer telling his stories as he acted them out. That developed into a history that began at the beginning of time and ended as the last survivor of Troy died of old age. Impractical to stage in one night, maybe, but the research filled in many gaps in my knowledge of Classical Greek legends and I became interested in putting all the characters into one continuous storyline. Ironically, the more I wrote about these epic characters, the more personal their stories seemed, and the large events like the sacking of Troy took a back seat to the more domestic events.
In the interest of a clear, dramatic story many characters I had become very fond of had to disappear, but the interwoven lives of those that remained gave Gareth the ability to interweave musical themes as well. So we have created musical themes that overlay each other and can be put together in many different ways - something that has become a challenge for the singers since they often sing the same theme as a different character.
The work we have produced is wonderfully complex but also has the directness of a traditional musical, with ballads, charlestons and love songs mixing with ten part chorales. As one song says: "A surprise around every corner..."
For Gareth Farr this show is a first, and he's having a ball! He says:
"TROY The Musical is unlike any other show or concert that I've worked on because it is just that - a musical. From the time I was brought on board, Paul and I have taken the approach of not pretending it's something that it isn't, and as a result I've been allowed to absolutely go to town and write tangos, charlestons, ballads, waltzes - even a Hawaiian ukulele song! It's very unlikely I'd have the opportunity to do any of that in 'serious' concert music. Working with Paul has been wonderful - we've been dubbed the Gilbert and Sullivan of Circa theatre. I find his lyrics extremely easy to set to music, as they are so strong rhythmically, and that is such an important thing for me. We work well together - I'll set his lyrics, and the music that I create gives him ideas - he goes and changes other lyrics to match them, and then in turn those changes give me musical ideas for the next bit, and so it goes from there. And then there are the performers - the most special moment for a composer is when you hear the notes on the page come to life, and we have a cast that could make a Grecian urn get up and dance."
Musical direction by Michael Nicholas Williams
Arrangements by Gareth Farr and Michael Nicholas Williams
Lighting Design by Jennifer Lal
Sound Design by Ian Hull-Brown
CAST
AIDAN BELL Priam, Odysseus
JASON WARD KENNEDY Agamemnon, Peleus, Paris, Patroclus, Cyclops, Orestes
EMMA KINANE Elektra, Hecuba, Clytemnestra, Athena, Calypso
SARAH LINEHAM Europa, Helen, Hera, Andromache, Electra
LYNDEE JANE RUTHERFORD Leda, Cassandra, Thetis, Aphrodite, Hermione
ROBERT TRIPE Menelaus, Achilles, Aegisthus, Circe
DAVID GOLDTHORPE Hector
LOUIS SOLINO Zeus, An Old Shepherd, Penelope, Pyrrhus, the Wooden Horse
Chorus: Jennifer Fouhy, David Goldthorpe, Katrina Ladd
Band:
Michael Nicholas Williams Keyboards
Tim Solly Keyboards
Richard Wise Drums, Percussion