If Rodgers and Hammerrstein's much-loved 1951 musical were to be pitched as a new work today, chances are it would be knocked back.
Devising a show about an eastern despot with a dodgy human rights record and a fondness for American presidents who is enlightened and educated by a prim English teacher, hardly sounds like the sort of feelgood fare to keep the nation's postwar pecker up. Slavery, misogyny, bullying, spying and brutality are all in the mix. If there's anything happy about the ending, it's that the King's death is for a more universal good.
Yet even at a Saturday afternoon preview of Music and Lyrics' touring restaging of Paul Kerryson's original production for The Curve, Leicester, it is eye-poppingly clear just how inspired a yarn this is. The songs and story are intact, with Ramon Tikaram and Josefina Gabrielle making a handsome-looking cross-cultural couple, and a 10-piece orchestra in full view at the back of Sara Perks's vivid set. Yet there seems something very modern at play here, even as Kerryson and co look to traditional theatrical forms.
Shadow puppetry and gymnastic interludes frame each scene, adding to an already sumptuous spectacle, while the singing during the second act play within a play bizarrely and almost certainly unintentionally recalls the vocals of Glasgow-based visual artist Sue Tompkins in Life Without Buildings a decade back. This is a show that's full of heart and soul, which, as charming as it is, also takes itself seriously enough to give those blinded by power their comeuppance.
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