Hats off, although it didn’t always hit the mark
The Greatest Shows : A Workshop Players’ production from Oct. 11- 14 at the Lionel Wendt Theatre
The stats are enough to make anyone say, ‘But how did they do that??’ Using 10 directors, six musical directors and six choreographers, the Workshop Players managed to coordinate a cast of 200 and perform excerpts from 26 musicals over the span of six shows. It’s a daunting thing to do, but the Players took the plunge, producing a show that perhaps didn’t always hit the mark but was a good effort anyway.
As there were so many musical items to get through, the company would only perform excerpts from 13 musicals for each show which varied from Sister Act and We Will Rock You to The Little Mermaid and Cabaret. Attending on the first two nights, I was slightly worried that the potency of the show might be diminished as the excerpts would be switching from genre to genre multiple times (rock to jazz to pop etc) but quite happily they had structured the shows in a way that it didn’t feel jarring. Having said that, I personally enjoyed the second night more because the flow felt better and it was a good mix of nostalgic and contemporary musicals, but this could also be subjective – I preferred the musicals they were performing and it was the second night so the actors were more at ease onstage. However, the run time of 3 ½ hours (including the 15 minute interval) felt too long for a show to be going on for and to that I would have suggested either cutting a couple of items or only performing two or three songs maximum for each item.
The show’s main problem was inconsistency – some items were very good, others less so. For instance, opening the show with School of Rock wasn’t such a good idea because at points, the item felt a bit underwhelming – there was a problem with the sound mix and some kids didn’t look like they were fully engaged with what was happening despite it being a performance which required high energy. But this was sharply rectified with the next item, Annie, where all the girls threw their entire heart and soul into being as fierce as possible opposite Shanuki de Alwis’ excellent comedic turn as Mrs. Hannigan.
Alternately, the second programme started with Cabaret which was brilliantly dynamic, raunchy and created a zing, thanks to Brandon Ingram and Melanie Bibile’s fiery performances.
The threat of inconsistency comes with the territory of co-ordinating 200 people at varying skill levels and having 26 different musical items to perform. So, this also meant some voices lacked the punch needed to execute some songs which left you feeling rather underwhelmed – Mamma Mia was an example of this (also not helped by the fact the lead singer’s mic was off) where the music and the voices were supposed to fill the auditorium but in all honesty lacked oomph - it just felt too empty. In other cases the texture of some voices made them suitable to some items but not as much to things like jazz, soul or RnB and it’s important to keep that in mind if you’re planning to go for maximum impact. As harsh as it may sound some items like Hair or Saturday Night Fever were quite forgettable and felt like missed opportunities to do something amazing.
However this is not to say there weren’t any knockout moments during the production. Sister Act stood out for its joyous representation of nuns shaking it to some fantastic gospel music. Furthermore, each aspect of the Aladdin performance, from the costumes to the choreography to the singing, was superbly pulled off by a confident cast, much like We Will Rock You where the brilliant vocalists, including Daniella Perera, Julian Anderson and Sheraya Dassanayake, stole the show.
On the other end of the spectrum, Hamilton was possibly the best part of the second night with each rapper nailing their bars and the ensemble executing their moves with such gusto. It made me long to see Sri Lanka do Hamilton in its entirety. I think special mention should also go to Vishan Gunawardena whose portrayal of King George in “You’ll Be Back” mixed acerbity and camp-ness in just the right doses.
In general, all the men in this show embraced their characters, camp or scrupulous, like Gaston (Darren Hakel) or Frollo (Mario De Soysa). In fact, De Soysa was one of the strongest male vocalists of the night, also taking on the role of the Beast in Beauty and The Beast. Special shout out to the incredible makeup artists who had a hand in creating the Beast’s look.
Production wise, you can’t manipulate the stage drastically as it has to adapt itself to a number of musicals so what we did see was a couple of items (stairs, metal frames, mirrors) which were versatile enough to change into various objects flanked by LED panels – a boat on the river for Hair, mirrors surrounding Effie during Dream Girls, metal bars for the Cell Block Tango women. However there were specific items like the flying platforms for Aladdin and Mary Poppins which, combined with the magical lighting and fog, created the most sensational effect. Indeed, across both shows, the lighting was on point! In some cases it was a subtle tribute (lights lit up in LGBT colours for Rent), villainous (the garish yellow lighting on Annie’s Mrs. Hannigan) or romantic (sunset orange for Miss Saigon). In particular, the soft pink lighting for ‘A Million Dreams’ was reminiscent of a scene from Singing in the Rain where Gene Kelly croons to Debbie Reynolds in ‘You Were Meant For Me’. Overall, the lighting and stage design (brilliantly executed by Javin Thomas and Johann A. Perera) balanced each other out superbly. The only flaw of this side of the production was the frequent sound issues which included problems in the mix and mics cutting out.
In other areas, I found myself sharing the same sentiments about the choreography and the costumes. I wasn’t so excited by the choreography (except for certain moments like Aladdin or Cabaret) and I think it’s because the choreography had to be made accessible for every cast member. In other cases, it felt like the choreography had been adapted from the movie version of the musicals, rather like the costumes where most of the designs were what we as an audience have been used to seeing in popular culture. There’s nothing wrong with this of course, but I think if the Players want to push themselves a bit more and give themselves an edge over other theatre troupes, taking that leap of faith to create something new and fresh wouldn’t go amiss.
But though the show may have faltered here and there, it managed to pull together all sorts of people, from veterans of the theatre to relative newcomers. I was absolutely blown away by the younger talent which included the confident actresses who played Annie and Matilda as well as newcomers like Bhanu Prabhasha and Sheruni Pilapitiya who were an absolute joy to listen to. The future is indeed bright for musical theatre in Sri Lanka. It’s important to build a new generation of thespians and encourage their love for the arts, no matter what level they’re at because eventually they will be creating the plays and musicals we see onstage. And for that the Workshop Players must be commended.