Kismet

Synopsis

On one fateful day a poor poet and his beautiful daughter Marisnah find themselves on an adventure they will never forget. Kismet fed 1950 s America s appetite for eastern exotica. In the popular imagination Baghdad was a place of mystery, luxury and sexuality. Here, beautiful princesses, autocratic rulers, enlightened poets and court spin doctors play out a hilarious and dangerous story -part fantasy, part history. First performed on Broadway in 1953, Kismet was an overnight sensation winning 6 Tony Awards - including the only posthumous Tony ever awarded for Borodin s melodies.

Our Review:

28 June 2007

When the curtain came down on the first night of Kismet at the Coliseum, the cast sang “Happy Birthday” to Michael Ball. Sadly, for the rest of the evening, the curtain was up. And it felt like nobody’s birthday, least of all mine.

What sets out to be a promising attempt to fulfil both musical theatre and light opera expectations of a score borrowed from Borodin and given the mid-1950s Broadway treatment by Robert Wright and George Forrest, ends up a misfired mish-mash.

The story is a sort of musical Arabian night, adapted from a 1911 play by Edward Knoblock, in medieval Baghdad (“the symbol of happiness on earth” has an unfortunately inappropriate ring to it). An unnamed poet disguised as a beggar (Michael Ball) seduces Lalume (Faith Prince), the Wazir’s wife of wives, is appointed an Emir of the city, and marries off his daughter Marsinah (Sarah Tynan) to the handsome young Caliph (Alfie Boe).

Ball, kitted out in a series of vo...

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Latest User Review

BenJames - 18 July 2007:

"Faith Prince looks too much like the TV evangelist and serial nip-and-tuck client Tammy Faye Bakker to be taken seriously, and Michael Ball in a scruffy nightshirt and scruffier beard pleased only his clucking clutch of die-hard female fans who are so out of touch with reality, they probably think he's marital material. He's also chubbed up so effectively he won't need the padding when he takes on Divine's role in Hairspray. Can't comment on the second half, didn't stop for it. - " Thought these were supposed to be theatre reviews! If it were for the performances I would give it at least five stars. The standard of singing was great. Michael Ball impressed me greatly and was surely the best thing about the production.However everything else was not up to scratch so I give it three stars. ...

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