Broadway and West End musicals invariably come to us completely developed, and well tested on international stages long before we see them. Thus, Melbourne almost never has the chance to witness the development of a new work – from initial readings, through workshops, concert sing-throughs, and out of town tryouts – we have no idea of the phases of development a show goes through before any success is possible.
From September 20th to the 22nd, we were able to be part of such a development process. The musical items of Samuel Kristy’s Quasimodo were presented as a concert staging. This of course made it necessary to read the synopsis in the program carefully prior, and at times to refer back to link the song descriptions in order to follow the plot. Between the two, the written program was the only presentation of the script, and though of course the story has been told many times before, there is much detail here that needs to be read to get the full depth of the work in this format.
Whenever a new work is witnessed, people always ask “Is it accessible?”, by which what they really mean is “to what extent does it resemble the familiar?” The nervous undertone is that perhaps they have experienced works that asked them to work hard to comprehend them.
Musically, Quasimodo is a score whose style will be immediately familiar to fans of Schönberg and Boublil’s Les Miserables – it contains not just nods of acknowledgement; this work is deeply grounded there in all aspects – structure, melodic, rhythmic and harmonic ideas.
There were thirty-one musical items presented. All but one were songs; solos, duets and other ensembles, but the majority are in the searing power ballad genre. The writing for voice here – like the score of Les Miserables – challenges the soloists with extremes of range. This was a challenge spectacularly met by Joshua Robson as Quasimodo, frequently having to work in sustained heroic tenor range, as well as low baritone. The other soloists were Des Flanagan, Enya Angel, Ben Clark, Fem Belling, Michael Lampard, Sean Hutton, Paul Hogan, and Julee Johnson, all meeting their challenging roles.
Musically, the presentation benefitted enormously from the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra, under musical director and conductor Andrew Wailes. This provided an orchestra of a size and composition all too rare today in musical theatre, and a splendidly large chorus. Together with the orchestrations by Hamish Ander, this provided the most luscious imaginable textures to the work.
Lighting design of Jason Bovaird was enormously enjoyable (with one caveat below). Lighting design was a rich variety of colours, textures and dynamics throughout, incorporating too the considerable range of effects available in the wonderful “origami” ceiling of the Capitol Theatre – surely one of the greatest achievements of Walter and Marion Burley-Griffin.
Generally the sound, designed by Marcello lo Ricco, was balanced – no mean feat with a largely acoustic orchestra and chorus mixed with various electronics and amplification, but again with one caveat.
For the following, no doubt the sound and lighting designers will declare that I am ready for the retirement village. The sound level overall was loud, but from the very start there were ear-splitting accents that had me scurrying into my pockets for earplugs, which mercifully were there. Once in my ears, the show became listenable for me – in fact at that level, just right. My companion was very thankful that I had a spare pair. I did notice other people with their fingers in their ears at times.
Similarly, the lighting – so beautiful otherwise – periodically blitzed the audience with (to us) painfully strong blasts that had me shutting my eyes against the violence. Perhaps modern audiences need these shocks to keep their attention; I find it alienates me somewhat from what is happening on stage, and it takes time to come back to it. I am probably a relic from the time when we went to the theatre already open and receptive to what the performers are presenting.
It was a privilege to witness such a new work – an Australian work – at this stage of its development. The engagement and enthusiasm of the participants was obvious to all, and one wishes Mr Kristy well for the considerable stages he must take the work through next if he is to achieve what he triumphantly declared on Sunday night: “tonight Melbourne, next stop Broadway!”
Photo supplied.
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Peter Hurley reviewed “Quasimodo – the Musical – world premiere concert version”, presented by Broadwest Productions and the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic at the Capitol Theatre on September 22, 2024.
