Making a splash
PIETER Toerien’s latest musical offering, Singin’ in the Rain, is a lavish looking but tightly directed showcase of talent, both on and off stage. Costume design, lighting, sound design and music are all top-notch.
The cast also watch a series of black and white film inserts starring themselves – funny to us because the style seems so old, but these are expertly produced.
The musical hews closely to the original film, telling the story of 1930s Hollywood as it made the transition to talkies through the experience of the two leading stars of Monumental Pictures.
Glamourous screen couple Lina Lamont (Hudson) and onscreen partner Don Lockwood (Grant Almirall) dominate the company’s slate of pictures, but as the industry introduces sound their old-school methods have to change. A chance encounter by Lockwood with a straight-forward stranger (Bethany Dickson as Kathy Selden) challenges his belief in his talent, but best friend Cosmo (Van Wyk displays a keen comic sense of timing in Make ’Em Laugh and excellent tap skills) is on hand to remind him that he is a good actor.
Eventually Selden is also brought into the Monumental Pictures fold and her voice is used to dub Lamont’s, though things don’t turn out as well as all parties involved envisaged.
Hudson steals the show as the screechy-voiced Lamont. She has a great sense of comic timing and sashays on and off stage, leaving chaos and confused looks in her wake and an audience hooting with laughter. Lamont believes the tabloid stories of a real-life romance between her and Lockwood and it takes a lot to disabuse her of the notion despite the obvious growing relationship between him and Selden. But, turns out she has some sharp lawyers.
The theme of control of PR image still resonates today but what really sells this show is the singing and dancing, especially the tap dancing.
Ensemble work is sharp and the leads fit very comfortably into their iconic roles. Almirall and Dickson are subsumed into their roles, creating dignified, charming characters.
He performs the big ticket numbers with grace and style and brings the house down when he does Singin’ in the Rain. This number comes at the end of the first act and as the rain ponchos on the seats of the first row attest, it is a dancing in the water number which makes a splash, literally and figuratively.
The elaborate set is reminiscent of a Hollywood studio lot – complete with a Hollywoodland sign waaaaay at the back, at the top to remind of of time and space. The front of the stage lights up as Almiral dances the big number and the company’s performance of Broadway Ballet is tight. The Moses Supposes routine is especially rousing.