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21 July 1982
VOLTAIRE'S CYNICISM BECOMES A ROMP
When Candide first appeared in 1956 it met with a mixed reception. The critics were enthusiastic, but audiences had their doubts. what worried them most of all was the Voltairean cynicism.
The updated version - the version which Sydney's Nimrod Company has brought to Melbourne - is in a much more popular vein.
The cynicism has been toned down; what Leonard Bernstein and his new collaborators (Stephen Sondheim included) have produced is a breezy, joyful entertainment, peppered with wit and served up in fine exuberant style.
Purists may object that the musical version does not have the original's astringency, nor it's vein of savage anti-clericalism. Bernstein's monks, Jesuits and servants of the Inquisition are little more than comic strip creations; they wouldn't harm a fly.
Still the fact remains that what is showing at the Comedy is a musical, and like all musicals it presents a simplified, and basically, optimistic, view of life. If you want more, read the novel.
As with the novel, Candide takes its audience on a picaresque journey from the Old World to the New, in the course of which the hero and his lost true love, Cunegonde, are exposed to cruel privations and vicissitudes, calculated to test the faith of even the most dedicated disciple of Dr Pangloss.
The Bernstein score is lively, the lyrics witty and the production fleshed out with a rich store of incident. It is perfectly tailored for the Nimrod Company, and they throw themselves into it with relish and enthusiasm.
With the help of the designer, Roger Kirk, the stage of the Comedy has been transformed. A built-up promenade encircles the musicians. Behind, there is a heavy wooden platform set, up and down which the action spills.
John Bell's production is buoyant and inventive. The actors slip easily from role to role, while the musicians down instruments on occasion and take part themselves.
There are some splendid moments, an auto-da-fe especially. The stage glows red, smoke pours out from the wings, the Grand Inquisitor bares his crucifix while a mixed chorus of nuns and priests in studded leather underwear crack their whips and sing: "What a day for an auto-da-fe." Grand theatre. The second half, alas has nothing to match it.
In the best of all possible worlds, a couple of the performances would be stronger. On the whole though, the work is well served by the Nimrod team.
Philip Quast and Susan Van Cott make an engaging (though vocally unremarkable) hero and heroine. Deidre Rubinstein turns in a delightful performance as the old Polish lady who has learned the art of survival in a nasty world.
John Ewing invests the whole production with authority, firstly as Voltaire himself, commenting wryly on the affairs of men and God, then as the unquenchable Dr Pangloss and other misfits.
Candide is the second musical brought to Melbourne by the Nimrod within a year. The first, The Venetian Twins, had lost something of its original freshness by the time it reached Her Majesty's. No such charge can be levelled at Candide.
It is a romp: fresh, spirited, bubbling with life and humor, and with something to say for itself as well. You would have to be hard-hearted not to enjoy it.
© The Age
