If only this Eternity had Burt Lancaster kissing in the surf !
ROBERT GORE-LANGTON From Here To Eternity
Charing Cross Theatre, London
Until December 17
2hrs 30mins ★★★★★ Marvellous @sohoplace, London Until November 26
2hrs 20mins ★★★★★
Remember Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr rolling in the Hawaiian surf? That kiss in the movie From Here To Eternity remains way more famous than James Jones’s door-stopper novel on which this, Stuart Brayson and Tim Rice’s musical, is based. It opened in 2013 and is now back with an extensive rewrite.
The action is set in late 1941 at the naval base at Pearl Harbor, just prior to the cataclysmic Japanese attack, where Private Prewitt, a top boxer, is being victimised because he refuses to fight as he once blinded a man in the ring. His chipper ally is Maggio, a little tough nut (Frank
Sinatra in the film). Meanwhile, the company commander’s wife, Karen, is conducting an affair with her husband’s working-class aide-de-camp while Prewitt falls for a sex worker, Lorene.
Carley Stenson’s Karen and the sergeant (Adam Rhys-Charles) never generate much sexual electricity, perhaps because the writers (Donald Rice and Bill Oakes) are more interested in the gay themes that are in the novel, if not the film. For instance, Maggio in this is gay, and there are a lot of soldiers in their underpants who might be. Character-wise none emerges with enough depth or definition, though I loved the vampy Eve Polycarpou who manages the brothel.
Tim Rice’s lyrics go hand in glove with Brayson’s classy score of jazz, blues and period swing – even if there’s no bugle solo as per the movie. It’s perfectly watchable, but in the end oddly uninvolving.
Marvellous is being staged at London’s newest theatre, a cosy 600-seat in-the-round venue that feels warm and welcoming.
The opening play is about local hero Neil Baldwin, now 76, who grew up with learning difficulties and worked as a clown, an unofficial vicar at Keele University, and a Stoke City FC kitman. He’s been immortalised in a book and a TV film starring Toby Jones. Neil’s story is here a community theatre affair, with multiple writers, told with joyful daftness, hilarious interruptions and with a smashing performance from Michael Hugo as Neil and Suzanne Ahmet as his loving mum. It’s one of those rare shows that leave you feeling a whole lot better about the world.