Post by Talissa on Aug 20, 2004 16:19:34 GMT 11
Campbell in outstanding theatre debut
Author: Jim Murphy, Reviewer
Date: 20/08/2004
Words: 385
Publication: The Age
Section: A3
Page: 10
MUSIC/THEATRE REVIEW: CAROUSEL: A CONCERT Music by Richard Rodgers, book & lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, directed by Gary Young. The Production Company, State Theatre until tomorrow
High expectations of David Campbell singing the role of Billy Bigelow are marvellously realised in this outstanding concert staging of Rodgers and Hammerstein's crowning work, Carousel, a perfect choice for concert dramatisation in the Production Company style because music is the heart and soul of this show, much more important than the story.
A sumptuous score by musical comedy standards is sumptuously played by Orchestra Victoria, conducted by Guy Simpson. It is also brilliantly sung by a talented, spirited company, but none better than Campbell, making his first music theatre appearance in Melbourne since his triumph as rocker Johnny O'Keefe in Shout!
Campbell could not give a more intense, focused performance as the brooding, troubled carnival barker Billy Bigelow if he were at a Method master class.
His acting when he sings about "My boy, Bill", pondering the reality of impending fatherhood, is exceptional and brings new life to a familiar song. And his singing is even better. His incredibly open vocal sound and thrilling top register go straight to the hairs on the back of your neck in this famous Soliloquy, which may well prove the most electric seven minutes of Melbourne theatre this year. It is alone well worth the price of the ticket.
This is not to diminish the contribution of others in an extremely good cast. Danielle Barnes sings and acts beautifully as Julie, and her If I Loved You duet with Campbell is another highlight.
Carrie Barr is equally fine as her friend, Carrie, with Derek Taylor's choice tenor voice an asset as Enoch Snow, as is Melissa Langton's big mezzo in June Is Bustin' Out All Over and You'll Never Walk Alone.
Fifteen-year-old Dena Amy Kaplan's acting and dancing is wholly delightful as Louise, Billy and Julie's daughter, and there are strong contributions from Adam Murphy (Jigger), Terence Donovan (Narrator/Heavenly Friend/Doctor) and Anne Wood (Carousel proprietor Mrs Mullin).
Director Gary Young's staging is simple and honest, with judicious touches of theatricality, and choreographer Andrew Hallsworth does well to engineer effective dances - even a microcosm of the lengthy fantasy ballet - in limited space.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Australian
Edition 1 - All-round Country
FRI 20 AUG 2004,
Page 015
When you walk through a show
By Lee Christofis
MUSICALS
Carousel By Rodgers and Hammerstein. The Production Company. State Theatre, The Arts Centre, Melbourne, August 18. Tickets: $32-$69. Bookings: 1300136166. Until Saturday.
ABOUT seven years ago, at a Melbourne Festival masterclass, one of the most famous of all Broadway musical stars, Barbara Cook, told singer David Campbell that she had nothing to teach him, that he had it all. And he'd sung just one song. She'd be thrilled with him now, playing the tough talking, thin-skinned anti-hero Billy Bigelow, a fairground barker, in Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1945 classic Carousel, a darkly romantic show in which Cook was adored across America.
Like the people who get in Billy's way, Campbell takes the role by the shirt front and makes it entirely his own and of today, without undercutting Carousel's essential qualities of Middle European operetta and American music theatre. He sweeps aside any memories of Gordon MacRae's swooning baritone in the 1956 movie version and carries this Production Company semi-staged show beyond the nostalgia trip it seemed to be under Gary Young's direction.
Campbell sings Carousel's romantic melodies and ambivalent conversational duets (there's very little speaking), investing sweep and sweetness in the nuances evident in both words and music. These qualities surround this cocky wife-beater with a basically good heart, who commits suicide when he gets caught trying to kill a man for money to feed his pregnant wife, Julie.
He's winning all the way, nowhere so visceral, so thrilling as when he flies into the top notes of the great first act soliloquy -- the expectant father's dreaming -- My Boy Bill. He stops the show, his tone, posture and facial expression shifting ravishingly through the moment when he realises that his boy Bill might be a girl. This number deserves a longer ovation than conductor Guy Simpson allows; curtailing the applause seems somehow ungenerous, even un-theatrical, but reflects Simpson's approach -- rather four-squared, lacking rubato, space and subtlety, more contemporary musical than 1940s classic.
Overall, the male parts are good, but the women don't fare well under Young's direction; all but two (Danielle Barnes's diffident Julie and Anne Wood's possessive carousel owner Mrs Mullin) over-act themselves into caricatures. Worse, the overloud amplification make them sound metallic and shrill. Even the hallowed anthem, You'll Never Walk Alone, sounds harsh.
Fortunately, Campbell has some fine company here: veteran Terence Donovan makes the perfect narrator and guide for Billy when he returns to earth for a day to sort out the mess he has left behind, while Adam Murphy is a splendid, bumptious Jigger, Billy's mate and downfall in crime.
Section: FEATURES Type: Review
(c) News Limited. All rights reserved.
===============================
Herald Sun
Edition 1 - FIRST
FRI 20 AUG 2004,
Page 090
CAROUSEL
By Xenia Hanusiak
THERE is one good reason to see the Production Company's concert version of Carousel. His name is David Campbell.
The moment he steps on stage as Billy Bigelow, the night belongs to him.
Here is a 21st-century, all-Australian male taking the flesh of an 1880s New England barker on a carousel and making it his own. There is a modernity and freshness in Campbell's interpretation that immediately signals a vital and compelling protagonist. On opening night when he sang the tour de force soliloquy with its infamous My Boy Bill, the theatre was electrified.
A rousing applause could have lasted for five minutes had it not been for the music that segued after him.
There is another reason to see Carousel -- simply to give yourself the opportunity to see an extraordinary musical which has not had a professional production in Melbourne for 40 years.
With its contemporary issues of physical abuse, frailties of marriage and a tale of courage and hope, it would make a welcome full-scale production. It already has a leading man. All it needs is a producer.
Where: State Theatre, the Arts Centre When: ends tomorrow
Section: ENTERTAINMENT Type: Review
(c) News Limited. All rights reserved.
===============================
MX
Edition 1 - Melbourne
THU 19 AUG 2004,
Page 026
Stage experiment loses classic plot
By LAETA ANTONYSEN
3 STARS
Carousel Stars: David Campbell, Danielle Barnes, Carrie Barr
Where: State Theatre, until Sat
Director: Gary Young
When does a musical need a grease and oil change?
When the classic musical Carousel, often touted as Rodgers and Hammerstein's most poetic piece, appears to be on slow rotation.
Perhaps it is just the lacklustre atmosphere created by The Production Company's latest version a semi-staged
concert where the n the 1956 movie version and carri 36-piece orchestra takes centre stage to the storyline.
While there is no denying the obvious vocal ability of Campbell as bad-boy carousel barker Billy Bigelow, at times he appears lost on stage among the musicians and minimalist set.
Set in a small fishing village in Maine in the 1880s, Billy marries naive millworker Julie Jordan (Barnes).
In keeping with the original work, politically incorrect issues like domestic abuse and suicide surface as the cash-strapped Billy is coerced into a robbery after learning Julie is pregnant.
Caught in the act, he takes his own life and is sent to heaven, where he is granted one day's leave to visit his daughter.
In a lighter moment, Campbell and Barnes deliver with the endearing duet If I Loved You, but Barnes is otherwise outdone by best friend Carrie Pipperidge (Barr).
And what is with Terence Donovan's Where's Wally narrator role? On stage at all times, he annoyingly pops into focus every now and again.
It took support star Melissa Langton to deliver the stand-out song of the night the powerful You'll Never Walk Alone.
Author: Jim Murphy, Reviewer
Date: 20/08/2004
Words: 385
Publication: The Age
Section: A3
Page: 10
MUSIC/THEATRE REVIEW: CAROUSEL: A CONCERT Music by Richard Rodgers, book & lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, directed by Gary Young. The Production Company, State Theatre until tomorrow
High expectations of David Campbell singing the role of Billy Bigelow are marvellously realised in this outstanding concert staging of Rodgers and Hammerstein's crowning work, Carousel, a perfect choice for concert dramatisation in the Production Company style because music is the heart and soul of this show, much more important than the story.
A sumptuous score by musical comedy standards is sumptuously played by Orchestra Victoria, conducted by Guy Simpson. It is also brilliantly sung by a talented, spirited company, but none better than Campbell, making his first music theatre appearance in Melbourne since his triumph as rocker Johnny O'Keefe in Shout!
Campbell could not give a more intense, focused performance as the brooding, troubled carnival barker Billy Bigelow if he were at a Method master class.
His acting when he sings about "My boy, Bill", pondering the reality of impending fatherhood, is exceptional and brings new life to a familiar song. And his singing is even better. His incredibly open vocal sound and thrilling top register go straight to the hairs on the back of your neck in this famous Soliloquy, which may well prove the most electric seven minutes of Melbourne theatre this year. It is alone well worth the price of the ticket.
This is not to diminish the contribution of others in an extremely good cast. Danielle Barnes sings and acts beautifully as Julie, and her If I Loved You duet with Campbell is another highlight.
Carrie Barr is equally fine as her friend, Carrie, with Derek Taylor's choice tenor voice an asset as Enoch Snow, as is Melissa Langton's big mezzo in June Is Bustin' Out All Over and You'll Never Walk Alone.
Fifteen-year-old Dena Amy Kaplan's acting and dancing is wholly delightful as Louise, Billy and Julie's daughter, and there are strong contributions from Adam Murphy (Jigger), Terence Donovan (Narrator/Heavenly Friend/Doctor) and Anne Wood (Carousel proprietor Mrs Mullin).
Director Gary Young's staging is simple and honest, with judicious touches of theatricality, and choreographer Andrew Hallsworth does well to engineer effective dances - even a microcosm of the lengthy fantasy ballet - in limited space.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Australian
Edition 1 - All-round Country
FRI 20 AUG 2004,
Page 015
When you walk through a show
By Lee Christofis
MUSICALS
Carousel By Rodgers and Hammerstein. The Production Company. State Theatre, The Arts Centre, Melbourne, August 18. Tickets: $32-$69. Bookings: 1300136166. Until Saturday.
ABOUT seven years ago, at a Melbourne Festival masterclass, one of the most famous of all Broadway musical stars, Barbara Cook, told singer David Campbell that she had nothing to teach him, that he had it all. And he'd sung just one song. She'd be thrilled with him now, playing the tough talking, thin-skinned anti-hero Billy Bigelow, a fairground barker, in Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1945 classic Carousel, a darkly romantic show in which Cook was adored across America.
Like the people who get in Billy's way, Campbell takes the role by the shirt front and makes it entirely his own and of today, without undercutting Carousel's essential qualities of Middle European operetta and American music theatre. He sweeps aside any memories of Gordon MacRae's swooning baritone in the 1956 movie version and carries this Production Company semi-staged show beyond the nostalgia trip it seemed to be under Gary Young's direction.
Campbell sings Carousel's romantic melodies and ambivalent conversational duets (there's very little speaking), investing sweep and sweetness in the nuances evident in both words and music. These qualities surround this cocky wife-beater with a basically good heart, who commits suicide when he gets caught trying to kill a man for money to feed his pregnant wife, Julie.
He's winning all the way, nowhere so visceral, so thrilling as when he flies into the top notes of the great first act soliloquy -- the expectant father's dreaming -- My Boy Bill. He stops the show, his tone, posture and facial expression shifting ravishingly through the moment when he realises that his boy Bill might be a girl. This number deserves a longer ovation than conductor Guy Simpson allows; curtailing the applause seems somehow ungenerous, even un-theatrical, but reflects Simpson's approach -- rather four-squared, lacking rubato, space and subtlety, more contemporary musical than 1940s classic.
Overall, the male parts are good, but the women don't fare well under Young's direction; all but two (Danielle Barnes's diffident Julie and Anne Wood's possessive carousel owner Mrs Mullin) over-act themselves into caricatures. Worse, the overloud amplification make them sound metallic and shrill. Even the hallowed anthem, You'll Never Walk Alone, sounds harsh.
Fortunately, Campbell has some fine company here: veteran Terence Donovan makes the perfect narrator and guide for Billy when he returns to earth for a day to sort out the mess he has left behind, while Adam Murphy is a splendid, bumptious Jigger, Billy's mate and downfall in crime.
Section: FEATURES Type: Review
(c) News Limited. All rights reserved.
===============================
Herald Sun
Edition 1 - FIRST
FRI 20 AUG 2004,
Page 090
CAROUSEL
By Xenia Hanusiak
THERE is one good reason to see the Production Company's concert version of Carousel. His name is David Campbell.
The moment he steps on stage as Billy Bigelow, the night belongs to him.
Here is a 21st-century, all-Australian male taking the flesh of an 1880s New England barker on a carousel and making it his own. There is a modernity and freshness in Campbell's interpretation that immediately signals a vital and compelling protagonist. On opening night when he sang the tour de force soliloquy with its infamous My Boy Bill, the theatre was electrified.
A rousing applause could have lasted for five minutes had it not been for the music that segued after him.
There is another reason to see Carousel -- simply to give yourself the opportunity to see an extraordinary musical which has not had a professional production in Melbourne for 40 years.
With its contemporary issues of physical abuse, frailties of marriage and a tale of courage and hope, it would make a welcome full-scale production. It already has a leading man. All it needs is a producer.
Where: State Theatre, the Arts Centre When: ends tomorrow
Section: ENTERTAINMENT Type: Review
(c) News Limited. All rights reserved.
===============================
MX
Edition 1 - Melbourne
THU 19 AUG 2004,
Page 026
Stage experiment loses classic plot
By LAETA ANTONYSEN
3 STARS
Carousel Stars: David Campbell, Danielle Barnes, Carrie Barr
Where: State Theatre, until Sat
Director: Gary Young
When does a musical need a grease and oil change?
When the classic musical Carousel, often touted as Rodgers and Hammerstein's most poetic piece, appears to be on slow rotation.
Perhaps it is just the lacklustre atmosphere created by The Production Company's latest version a semi-staged
concert where the n the 1956 movie version and carri 36-piece orchestra takes centre stage to the storyline.
While there is no denying the obvious vocal ability of Campbell as bad-boy carousel barker Billy Bigelow, at times he appears lost on stage among the musicians and minimalist set.
Set in a small fishing village in Maine in the 1880s, Billy marries naive millworker Julie Jordan (Barnes).
In keeping with the original work, politically incorrect issues like domestic abuse and suicide surface as the cash-strapped Billy is coerced into a robbery after learning Julie is pregnant.
Caught in the act, he takes his own life and is sent to heaven, where he is granted one day's leave to visit his daughter.
In a lighter moment, Campbell and Barnes deliver with the endearing duet If I Loved You, but Barnes is otherwise outdone by best friend Carrie Pipperidge (Barr).
And what is with Terence Donovan's Where's Wally narrator role? On stage at all times, he annoyingly pops into focus every now and again.
It took support star Melissa Langton to deliver the stand-out song of the night the powerful You'll Never Walk Alone.
