Brief Encounter With … Thom Southerland
Thom Southerland is the director of State
Fair, the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical currently running at the
Finborough. Having completed a postgraduate degree at Rose Bruford College in
2005, Southerland has spent the last four years directing small-scale
productions of major musicals, including stints as resident director at the
Union Theatre and the Broadway Theatre Catford.
This production is the European premiere of State
Fair, which was written as a movie musical in 1945 and only adapted
for the stage in the 1990s. Here the 25-year-old director tells WOS what made him
want to bring State Fair to the London Fringe and why
Rodgers & Hammerstein continue to delight.
The film of State Fair has
been around since the 1940s. Why do think it has taken this long to reach the
stage in this country?
I think probably because it’s one of the least known of
Rodgers & Hammerstein’s work and really wasn’t that much of a big hit originally – I mean the film – over here.
So what attracted you to the
show?
It’s a beautiful story. The benefit to doing something on
the Fringe is that you don’t have to guarantee an audience. I can hope that 50
people might turn up to see this. But I can air a beautiful story and also a
wonderful score that I don’t think is really recognized very much in this
country.
Why is it that inspires you about this kind of
work?
I really want to show people that these shows do have worth,
that they’re not just big spectacles with nothing beneath them. The story is
what is key and although people can criticize them when they go into the West
End or on Broadway for having too much glitz and glamour and not enough story,
I think it’s only because you can’t see the story through all that.
How have you approached it?
In terms of the script I’ve changed very little of what they
put on stage in 1996. I think it does stay quite loyal to the film but cuts out
all the dated references and changes the pace quite dramatically. It’s about
finding the real, true heart of the story in a language that might not
be the one that we use today.
What are the advantages of doing this type of
show on the Fringe?
The story is what’s key in taking stuff down onto a small
scale. It’s about finding the heart of that piece.
I’ve heard rumours that a transfer is on the
cards for State Fair. Can you confirm or deny them?
We’ve had two meetings with theatres in town about the
possibility of moving the show to them. In this economic climate you’re looking
for a musical that will – not necessarily a musical, but a show – that is full
of nostalgia and also that’s something new and will satisfy another market as
well. With only 14 peole in the cast and only three musicians is actually quite
an affordable show to put on. But it
would have to be somewhere with the same kind of intimacy that the Finborough
would bring. I don’t think there would be any merit at all in a larger house.
What’s next for you?
After State Fair I go and work at the Broadway Studio
Catford again to do the first revival of The Full Monty.
Again, it’ll be on a small scale, looking at the book and the music and scaling
it all down to a small venture.
