Opening Night, Gielgud Theatre, London. Music and lyrics by Rufus Wainright. Book and direction by Ivo van Hove, based on John Cassavettes 1977 film. Starring Sheridan Smith as Myrtle Gordon.
I attended this new musical last night. Although it's interesting and innovative, it's pretty bad. Although there have been several four-star reviews, there have also been some devastating ones. For the most part, they thought Wainwright's music was awful. Van Hove's usual use of video went too far, sometimes reflecting the exact on-stage action, other times showing behind the scenes (and street) action, as Lloyd did in
Sunset Blvd. (I don't know if the off-stage video was canned or live.) In terms of the show itself, I found the bits with the ghost-girl almost unbearably tedious. I thought the cast was pretty good, particularly Sheridan Smith (whom I last saw in
Funny Girl) and Nicola Hughes.
From the
Evening Standard's one-star review:
This dismally muddled, self-important, furtively misogynist musical about an actress going to pieces squanders the talents of everyone involved, even breaking Sheridan Smith’s unique ability to connect with an audience. It’s adapted from John Cassavetes’ 1977 film by Ivo van Hove, whose London productions are either sublime or, like this one, awful. Singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright contributes his first-ever musical score, a hodgepodge of genre pastiche and schoolboy rhyme so lame I hope it will also be his last. The use of live video adds another tiresome layer of introspection to a project wedged firmly up its own fundament.
From the
Guardian's four-star (out of five) review:
"Yet Opening Night is an extravagantly original production, every bit as eccentric as the film but also its own alchemical creation, more vivacious in this musical incarnation."
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2024/ ... wainwright
From
The New York Times London critic:
"In a London auditorium, a work of art is being desecrated. “Opening Night,” John Cassavetes’s understatedly stylish 1977 movie about an actress struggling with midlife ennui, has been reimagined as a musical by the Belgian director Ivo van Hove, and the result is a travesty."
I'm glad I saw it. Van Hove's work is always interesting, and the production is certainly innovative and like nothing else on the London stage at the moment. It has posted early closing. Rufus Wainwright has blamed Brexit for the show's poor response, which I think is a ludicrous excuse. It's just a lousy show. It might have been better served in a small, fringe theater, rather than a big West End house.
"Some audience members reportedly walked out during the performance or left during the interval. The musical included a scene where Smith staggers out into the streets of the West End while being filmed and projected back on to the stage."
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/artic ... ights-flop
