Singin' in the Rain

 based on the MGM film

seen at Sadlers Wells on 28 August 2021

Jonathan Church directs Adam Cooper as Don Lockwood, Charlotte Gooch as Kathy Selden, Kevin Clifton as Cosmo Brown and Faye Tozer as Lina Lamont in the stage adaptation of the famous MGM film starring Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor and Jean Hagen.

The story, an affectionate look at the transformation of the movie industry from silent to sound, inevitably appears somewhat more thin on stage, where the flimsiness of the characters is more exposed, but the chief attractions are the musical numbers, and these receive exhilarating treatment by the principals and the supporting chorus. The slapstick energy of 'Make 'em Laugh', with its dizzying use of cinematic tricks, cannot quite be matched on stage, but the delirious title song gets the full treatment, with Adam Cooper gleefully kicking up as much spray as possible from a stage drenched in huge amounts of rainwater. It is clearly wise not to be sitting in the front few rows of the stalls. The staging as a whole made excellent use of an all-purpose set designed by Simon Higlett with lighting by Tim Mitchell, creating many different locatons both interior and exterior with the minimum of fuss.

The thankless role of Lina Lamont, the rather bitchy actress whose voice and elocution desperately need the attention of a Professor Henry Higgins, but whose impossible vowels remain unchanged to the end, is given a wistful song in an attempt to increase her prominence, but this has the unfortunate effect of emphasising that she is little more than the butt of a joke which looks increasingly insensitive. This only goes to show that musicals of this vintage are almost impossible to redeem if one tries to impose modern sensibilities on them. Far better just to go with the flow, get sprayed with rainwater if one is close enough, and enjoy the show as sheer entertainment.