Muriel's Wedding The Musical, Global Creatures and STC, Her Majesty's Theatre, Thursday April 25th 2019
"Muriel's Wedding The Musical" was presented by Global Creatures and Sydney Theatre Company at Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne on Thursday April 25th 2019.
For those new to my blog I write about the holistic experience of attending the theatre. I buy my own tickets. So if you want a re-telling of the story please refer to the links for further information or for further insights. Note, that I may provide different links for repeated main words or phrases. I write for my memories of what I have seen, and is more of a stream of consciousness.
Why?
I will outline the good things before I discuss what I did not like about the show.
Do not get me wrong, I liked the show, but we, as an audience should have been loved it and singing as we left the theatre. We bumped into friends before the show began. At interval, they said they could have left. At the end of the show we left with our friends, and noticed no audience member was raving or singing any of the songs. To say the least we were all disappointed and we see a lot of theatre!
What I liked:
Updating the story of the film by P.J. Hogan to include references to social media, and the use of modern technology with smart phones, Facebook and Twitter and Instagram was a smart move to ensure modern day relevance.
Updating Muriels' job in the video store in Sydney to a photographic booth with life-size celebrity cut-outs was fun; as some of the younger audience members would not know what a video store was, let alone a VHS or Beta tape! So this became a double joke for the older generation. Mind you, no one laughed out loud at this change of location.
I loved the use of ABBA as Muriel's inner voice.
Music and Lyrics by Kate Miller-Heidke and Keir Nuttal were good with reservations. My favourite song was when Joanie, Perry and Malcolm sat on the couch with the monosyllabic grunts and reactions. I loved the integration of ABBA's lyrics and tunes into other songs, that I found to flow better than in "Mamma Mia" where they were contrived and opportunistic. Here, Kate Miller-Heidke and Keir Nuttal maximised the opportunities to get inside Muriel's thoughts without prostituting the songs. This was done with homage and respect to ABBA. See below for why I did not like this production element.
Costume Designs and Projection Design by Gabriela Tylesova. In particular the "Sydney" costumes were fun. The bridal outfits were beautiful. Muriel's daggy costumes highlighted and differentiated the status anxiety of her school group. The ABBA costumes were terrific in capturing the mid 1970's spirit.
Set Design also by Gabriela Tylesova had some elements that I loved and others that I liked. The best part was the proscenium arch that was decorated with mobile phones and leaves. The mobile phones would display different themes for some scenes, including menus, selfie photos etc.
The set comprised of many sliding walls and fly in curtains to create different locations. This scenic design idea has been used numerous times. I liked the idea of much of the set, but the execution left a lot to be desired.
The set also include two revolves centre stage, and there were two tracks running from upstage to downstage.
Some of the Choreography by Andrew Hallsworth worked better than other sections. In particular, I loved the bridal mannequins moving in a music-box-dancer style, juxtaposed by the more natural dance moves of the other characters. I loved the gestural dance of the evil girls swiping their smart phones and flicking their hair back, as they paid homage to "Kath and Kim".
The acting displayed adequate characterisations of each role without capturing the heart and essence and soul. Yes, the actors created iconic moments from the film and created larger than life characters; but the performances were wooden and pedestrian to say the least.
Jarrod Griffiths as Brice Nobes, the parking inspector captured the essence of Muriel's plight. He did not upstage Muriel; he just gave a solid performance with more heart. Sadly, though I think his role needs to be trimmed as his journey overshadows the main plot of Muriel's story.
Muriel's father, Bill Heslop played by David James with the right amount of gruffness. When he arrived home and entered through a door that was later used for Muriel's exit to her bedroom belied credibility. In hindsight, Muriels' exit highlighted that the staging gave the scene a creepy feel as if Muriel's father had just entered the scene from her bedroom! I appreciate artistic license of using sets for multiple uses and locations, but I did not like this staging at all. No door would have been better had he entered one way, and Muriel exited the other. Or use two doors. Simple!
What I did not like"
It was not as much fun as the movie!
Programme design needs to include locations of scenes as in many Playbill programmes. I found it disrespectful to the lead actors that they were relegated to the back of the programme.
The opening announcement could have been so much more theatrical to create a wonderful sense of occasion and anticipation. Creating atmosphere and acknowledging the rules of attending the theatre was done so well by David Atkins' production of "Hairspray" with their opening announcement.. Sadly, the producers did not use this moment to set the sense of occasion. Maybe they could have introduced with "Don't be "You're Terrible Muriel" and spoil the show for others. Turn off, that means off your phones"!
Below us, sitting in the stalls, mobile phones were being used to text during the opening number with not an usher in sight. I mean these women were holding up their phones texting for half of the opening number. The light shone in our eyes so badly we could not see the stage properly. Plus the distraction meant it put me in not a good head space. I do not pay $155.00 per ticket to be distracted by such Bogans. Don't worry, I complained at interval and the ushers were onto the perpetrators in the stalls area.
"Muriel's Wedding" is a magical film that transports you emotionally, and this did not happen with the musical. The audience should have been laughing uproariously at one moment, and then in tears at other times. Sadly, this was not to be.
Direction by Simon Phillips was reliable and adequate but missed so many emotional connections between the characters. This show was not up to his slick production values as in "Dream Lover" or "Priscilla Queen of the Desert The Musical" as the staging was messy at times with poor co-ordination of the set, lighting and stage hands.
The show lacked pace and highlighted holes in the awkward pauses between set changes and scenes. Segues were messy, and were not helped by the stark lighting. No attempt at really transitioning occurred. Our focus was drawn sometimes to areas on the stage by poor coordination of lighting and set changes. We were distracted by extra and inappropriate action at times that drew our focus from the main thrust of some scenes.
Music and Lyrics by Kate Miller-Heidke and Keir Nuttal were ruined by the location of the orchestra and the sound quality. The film is rich in sound, while here it sounded distant, retarded and cheap. The orchestra sounded if it was a small band for the local school production, using professional musicians and with a limited budget. Wrong! If Global Creatures want to take this show further, it needs a richer and fuller Broadway sound to the orchestrations.
The songs were not presented in their best way. The songs and music were grating as we, including our friends said because we could not understand the lyrics as the diction was so poor on many occasions. The songs would have been better had we had better orchestrations and lyrics that we could understand. Thankfully the cast were not out of tune.
Sound Design by Michael Waters needs a lot of work with balance and execution of the coordination of turning on-and-off the microphones. The clunkiness and sound quality was jarring.
The orchestra sounds tinny, thin and amateurish. Orchestrations by Isaac Hayward need developing for a richer sound. This is unforgivable when you are paying $155.00 per ticket.
Set Designs by Gabriela Tylesova were executed by stage technicians that were too clunky at times and disrupted the flow. The screens and fly-in-curtains sometimes did not coordinate well. Some of the screens that slid in from the wings did not appear wide enough for Her Majesty's Theatre as they revealed entrances and exits in corners of the stage that took away the magic of theatre.
Set Design also by Gabriela Tylesova had some elements that I loved, and others that I liked. In particular the proscenium arch was decorated with mobile phones and leaves. The mobile phones would display different themes for some scenes. I liked the idea of much of the set, but the execution by stage hands and technicians left a lot to be desired with clunky and jerky scene changes. Exposed areas were revealed to show holes in the set design, and thus diminished what should have been magical theatre. The stage crew should have been wearing blacks or other attire so as not to stand out as they tried to sneak and hide as they moved sets on and off the stage. It was very tired and amateurish stage management.
Did I say - the magic was lost?
Lighting Design by Trent Suidest did not maximise the differences in location when the stage was split with two locations. When ABBA appeared there should have been a private lighting change to emphasise we were entering Muriel's head. The lighting seemed to be either on or off!
The Act One scene in the Chinese Restaurant needs refining. It became messy with ballet school like choreography and staging. Though, the best aspect was the set as it brought back memories of the Chinese Restaurant and "Small World" scene from "Gypsy".
The reveal and entrances of Deidre Chambers played by Chelsea Plumley lost any surprise element. She stood upstage centre, posing with her back to the audience. There was no attempt at disguising her entrance, so the fun was lost. It was too staged, and had an amateurish quality for her showgirl entrances. Mind you, Chelsea Plumley had the best voice in the show! She is too pretty and not haggard enough as she does not have the requisite wrinkles and face cream for the role.
The swimming sequence went on way too long. Yes, double the length of time that the audience could tolerate. Cull please.
Jarrod Griffiths as Brice Nobes, the parking inspector, sadly, though I think his role needs to be trimmed as the show is too long. We could have done without the ten minutes of the "Never Stick Your Neck Out".
Muriel Heslop played by Natalie Abbott was adequate but did not capture my heart. Yes, she did the right moves and said the right lines, but lacked charisma.
When Rhonda Epinstall played by Stefanie Jones dropped her lighter, the average smoker would rescue their vital possession quickly. She made no attempt to pick it up and could have done so and kept the dialogue happening naturally. The more she ignored it, the more palpable the lighter on the stage became. It was retrieved by a gentlemen and placed on the table later as he slid it under his left hand and then across with his right to where it should have been located. Wow, this meant more to us than what else was happening. This was an example of our audience focus being pulled away from the main action. Go with the flow and that is why actors study improvisation. This highlighted that these performers were not in the moment, and gave pedestrian performances.
The following scenes could be reduced in length and tightened: Life Is A Competition and S.O.S numbers, and the wedding-dress-store scenes.
The language could have been curtailed and use of "Fuck" once to emphasise the moment. The other times made it feel like "I would have preferred to watch the dvd again".
The bows at the end were very ho-hum and the reprise of "Sydney" was appropriate, but the audience wanted an ABBA song to sing as they left the theatre! The audience felt cheated as no one was singing as they left the theatre. It is a musical, AND they should have been at least humming a song from the show! It was just too long! Way, way too long. The audience were exhausted after nearly three hours. It became a chore, and audience members could at least tick off another "bucket-list" show to see.
Now remember: the audience barely laughed at this performance.
"Muriel's Wedding" the movie is one hour and forty six minutes long. It snaps along, while the musical just dragged on for nearly three hours.
Snap and slick will keep the show moving, as it dragged in both acts.
Revise, cull and shorten. The script and production numbers need pruning. Ensure the audience is begging for more!
Broadway:
"Muriel's Wedding The Musical" would be ideally suited to The Palace Theater on Broadway (where "Priscilla Queen of the Desert The Musical" played) but needs some work if it is to proceed to Broadway.
A friend, who attended the same performance, summed up the show and said "You're awful, "Muriel's Wedding The Musical"".
The show lacked the warmth of the film, and was a cold rendition lacking the emotional heart of Muriel.
