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A CurtainUp 
London Review
London ReviewLa Boheme
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Your fingers are half frozen. Let me warm them in my own. — Rodolfo
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Gareth Morris as Rodolfo and Belinda Evans as Mimi (Photo: Soho Theatre) |
Now transferred from the pub theatre in Kilburn to the Soho Theatre, this production does what it says on the tin. It is opera up close and accessible. We are thrown into the bohemian lifestyle of students living in an attic flat in Soho. Rodolfo (Gareth Morris) is a writer, a wannabe novelist, his operatic tenor chunky girth clothed in jeans and t-shirts, and his hair gelled into spikes. Mimi (Belinda Evans) is the sweet natured girl from the Ukraine living in London and working as a cleaner.
In the most detailed set, Kate Guinness and Lucy Read have created a one attic room with posters and student ephemera with the sole instrumental musician seated at a baby grand piano providing the accompaniment. It is Christmas time and the number of Christmas fairy lights show that these students are not overly concerned about the electricity bill or global warming. Most of their income, as with students today, seems to be spent on alcohol.
Act Two is set on a bar on Dean Street in Soho and so we as the audience move downstairs in the theatre to the adjoining bar where suddenly people we had thought ordinary drinkers turn out to be the chorus and others who tumble in from the street turn out to be fun loving Musetta (Louise Lloyd) and her boyfriend and sugar daddy corporate lawyer Alcindoro (Martin Nelson). This is the most fun as, seated or standing in the bar, we can watch the reaction of passersby walking down Dean Street, hearing these divine voices and wondering where the music is coming from and staring through the plate glass windows trying to make out what is going on inside! It's a crush in the bar but superbly atmospheric.
The singing is outstanding from these opera stars of the future and the closeness to the stage creates an intensity impossible to experience in the loftier operatic spaces. The acting too has to be less exaggerated as everyone in the audience can see well. Belinda Evans has a wonderfully sweet voice and her duets with Gareth Morris are outstanding. Louise Lloyd as Musetta enjoys her spat and the romantic roller coaster ride with her on-off artist boyfriend Marcello (Michael Davies) who, in Act Four, will sing about the women they have loved and lost with Rodolfo. The wonderful music sees the full blown tragedy reach its sad end with a very grey looking Mimi's demise.
This is the first time the Soho Theatre has staged an opera and well worth seeing in this contemporary version.
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| La Boheme
Music by Giacomo Puccini New English version and direction by Robin Norton-Hale Starring: Belinda Evans (Rosalind Coad, Pamela Hay, Elinor Jane Morgan), Gareth Morris (Robin Bailey, Anthony Flaum, Toby Scholz), Louise Lloyd (Louise Alder, Rhian Lois, Clare Presland), Michael Davis (Nicholas Dwyer, Benjamin Seifert) With: Martin Nelson (David Freeman, Ian Wilson-Pope), Charles de Bromhead (Ian Wilson-Pope), Julien Debreuil (Dickon Gough, Alistair Sutherland), Marcin Kopec (Tom Kennedy, John Savourin) Design: Kate Guinness and Lucy Read Lighting: Christopher Nairne Musical Director: Andrew Charity Running time: Two hours 05 minutes with two intervals Box Office: 0870 429 6883 Booking to 4th September 2010 Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge based on 28th July 2010 at the Soho Theatre, 21 Dean Street, London W1D 3NE (Tube: Tottenham Court Road) |
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Musical Numbers
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Act One
| Act Two
Note: most of the musical is sung, however not all the parts that are sung are titled songs some are simply sung-through scenes with minor amounts of dialogue. |
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