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I honestly wasn't looking forward to it greatly. Okay, I had enjoyed the music of the concept album but, against my better judgement, I had been jaundiced by the comments of the critics. But with my loins well girded I headed in the direction of the Prince Edward and joined a surprisingly large number of people who were joining the hunt for the Snark. To say I was pleasantly surprised would be a gross understatement. My evening with Mike Batt's controversial show seems likely to be my most enjoyable evening at the West End theatre in 1991.
Sure it has faults but how many musicals can you name that don't have somedefect. The Snark does lack a conventional story but partly recompenses by providing everyone in the audience the opportunity to reach their own interpretation of just what is being hunted in the same way that all the principal characters are seeking something different from the adventure. My only criticism centered around a few moments of some what forced humor-the "bell scene" in the first half and "Nursery Pictures" extract atthe start of act two which looked like it had been designed by the Three Stooges with the added disadvantage that the audience laughter partially drowned a good song. But having said that the fact that there was audience laugher might suggest that my reservations derive from rather over serious approach to musicals and not any fault in the piece.
Whatever, the fact remains that debits are few and far between and difficult to find while the sow quite glows with credits. The staging, the cast, the orchestra, the music and so on. But let us look at each facet in it's own right. The staging is indescribable. Having said that I will now try to describe it. The main orchestra , all 50 of them, are situated right there on the stage while the rock group which augments the sound of their big brother is suspended above in a gantry. Two further gantries, the upper a precarious thirty feet from the stage, together with access staircase, come and go as the action demands. Similarly numerous screens descend and ascend and move vertically and horizontally and other way there is providing a melange of backdrops for the 12,000 slides, count them 12,000 slides, projected from the 156 slide projectors arranged around the theater. With apparent simplicity the scene is transformed from a church to a quayside to the ship on which much of the action takes place to various appealing and eerie places. There are too many remarkable scenes to try to list them but suffice to say the moving galleon with the flying fishes below, the courtroom scene with the moving legs (you had to be there) and the rainstorm remain clearest in my mind. The production consultants to the show are called Imagination. I wonder why?
So much attention in the press has been given over to the arrival on the West End stage of Kenny Everett. Kenny is fine. An adequate singer he carries off his part perfectly well. But it is a minor part and the attention focused on him is detrimental to the real stars. David McCallum is great. He strolls about the stage in his role of Lewis Carroll binding the work together and keeping the audience involved in the story through his gentle stage presence.
He also sings sweetly although he is hardly taxed in this direction with Batt giving the real meat of the music to the real singers. And how they relish the task! Led by Philip Quast (Javert in the Symphonic Les Misérables) in the central role of the Bellman they are magnificent. Mark McGann as the indecisive Baker brings pathos to the show while Veronica Hart as the Beaver and Peter Ledbury are true finds. On the night that I went Hunting, the important part of the Butcher was being played by Myles Freeman, the understudy, and such a situation further emphasized the strength of this company as the young lad was wonderful. (Dear Mr. Lloyd Webber, why didn't you look at this lad when you were looking for a stand in Joseph? I don't think he can giggle to a puppet but…?). The chorus and the dancer were terrific to a man and a woman and then again there was Philip Quast. He was quite simply superb. Larger than life with a voice to match that echoed round the theater. The hairs on the back of my neck that he raised with the epitaph, 'Whatever You Believe', haven't lain back down yet. But the musical quality does not just rest with the singers. The orchestra and band, who blend together remarkably well, produce a wonderful full, rich sound to augment the vocals while Batt has written several quasi classical orchestral interludes to provide a soundtrack to recitative and action segments. I commented on the strength of the songs appearing on the concept album in my review in the last Masquerade. Most impressive live were 'Children of the Sky', 'The Bellmans' Speech' with it's clever use of chamber music and the lovely ballad 'As Long as The Moon Can Shine'. What was a joy to discover however, was that Mike Batt had added a substantial number of new songs of the same quality. The moving 'Hymn to The Snark' and the amusing, and slightly risque, 'The Butchery Waltz' are just two of several examples. The two real new treats are, however, 'The Trouble With You' a sort of musical running gag in which the Bellman and the Butcher trade insults but do so to a ravishing tune, and the closing 'Whatever You Believe' of which I have already waxed lyrical and described it's effect on my anatomy. But while those are the highlights I believe that the whole two hours plus is packed with superb music much of which is deceptively simple. You may leave the theater whistling but the songs stand up to repeated listening admirably.
A totally imaginative staging and production, a high quality cast and orchestra and a strong musical score. What more could anyone ask for from a West End show? Critics may send their answers on a postcard to me c/o Masquerade.
