The Shaw Festival relies heavily on its big-budget musicals to keep the seats filled and patrons happy they came, hopefully to stay and catch more shows at the Festival before leaving town. It is always an important element of any theatre season not only at Shaw, but at the Stratford Festival as well.
Most years the musical is a slam-dunk that plays right by the theatre playbook; other years it can be a somewhat more risky affair that only partially satisfies. The big musical offering this year, Grand Hotel, The Musical, falls into the latter category, but does it with great style.
Set in Berlin in 1928, the musical takes place entirely in the art deco lobby of the Grand Hotel, a still ritzy place only slightly past its prime where guests escape for any number of reasons. Some are admittedly sinister.
Grand Hotel is based on Vicki Baum's Grand Hotel, updated in 1989 by Luther Davis with music and lyrics by Robert Wright & George Forrest of Kismet fame, and additional music and lyrics by Maury Yeston. Almost musical by committee but not quite. The film version from the 30s starred Greta Garbo, of course, where she uttered her famous line "I want to be alone!"
This new reworking, however, relies heavily on the musical aspect to carry the day, as the characters sing and dance their way through much of the production, only stopping long enough from time to time to remind us how unlikeable many of them really are. These are desperate, even sometimes nasty individuals you frankly would not want to meet in a back alley or anywhere else for that matter.
The central character who wanders the stage throughout commenting on the events around him is the Colonel-Doctor, played with much angst by Steven Sutcliffe. He opens the show by shooting up with heroin, suggesting perhaps the whole show we're seeing is a product of his drug-induced, warped mind.
No matter, at least it takes his mind off the incredibly bad tailoring job done on his costume for the show. I mean, really, can you not shorten his jacket sleeves so he doesn't look like a kid wearing his dad's jacket? I know I am nit picking here, but considering the expense of producing a lavish show such as this, it struck me as a jarring oversight.
Sutcliffe's sombre tone as he wanders the stage uttering lines such as "Time is running out!" suggested perhaps he was an allegory for the impending doom of the stock market crash of 1929, ushering in the Great Depression and more misery than even the the inhabitants of the Grand Hotel could imagine.
Overall the cast is strong, ranging from Deborah Hay returning to Shaw as the ballerina Elizaveta Grushinskaya, on her eighth and hopefully final farewell tour, to Jenny L. Wright as Madame Peepee and Vanessa Sears as Frieda Flamm, or, Flammchen, who is longing for a film career in America.
Jay Turvey puts in a good performance as Hermann Preysing, a businessman with a non-existant moral compass, although as such he doesn't receive much sympathy for his plight from the audience.
The show really belongs to Michael Therriault again this year, hamming it up as Otto Kringelein, who spends his last days of life seeking a more opulent lifestyle he's only heard about before a terminal illness claims him. Therriault makes Kringelein more likeable than most everyone else in the cast, even as he temporarily loses his cash at the Grand Hotel to one of the other guests.
Kringelein is befriended by that very guest, Baron von Gaigern, played by James Daley. The Baron is rich in title but little else and needs to get his hands on some ready cash - fast - in order to stave off his Russian creditors. This brings him in contact not only with Otto but also Elizaveta, knowing she wants to sell her precious necklace to raise funds to finance the remainder of her tour. He steals it but in the process, caught in the act as he was by Grushinskaya, clumsily declares his undying love for her.
An unlikely romance blossoms, producing some real poignancy in the show when she sings Bonjour Amour. But when his real intentions are revealed to her the next morning, her readiness to forgive in order to keep him no matter what is both sad and rather unnerving in this day and age.
The cast is ably directed by Eda Holmes and musical direction is by Paul Sportelli.
Grand Hotel is a grand effort that produces some great individual performances, but overall leads to a somewhat unsatisfying conclusion. In light of that, I give it two out of four stars.
Grand Hotel, The Musical continues at the Festival Theatre until October 14th.
Have a great holiday weekend!
June 30th, 2018.
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