Synopsis Falstaff gets him come-uppance (three times) in this rather confused but at times immensely funny Shakespeare comedy - his only one about the middle classes. The story, almost certainly false, goes that Queen Elizabeth I so enjoyed the character of Falstaff that she asked to see him again in another play - in love. Shakespeare is supposed to have obliged with this delightful romp. The Complete Works
The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Merry Wives The Musical premiered last night (12 December 2006, previews from 2 December) and continues in rep until 10 February 2007 at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon as part of the RSC’s year-long Complete Works festival (See News, 21 Apr 2006).
Overnight critics gave the musical a mixed reception. While they unanimously praised Dench’s performance, they concurred that the source play itself is one of Shakespeare’s weakest and the plot seems all the thinner for being adapted for musical comedy. While some enjoyed the eclectic musical styles employed by Englishby, others tired of the score of many genres, and some felt the company was trying too hard to make merry.
Pete Wood on Whatsonstage.com (4 stars) – “The production is cast to the hilt: aside from Simon Callow, there’s Judi Dench, Alistair McGowan, Haydn Gwynne and Alexandra Gilbreath. Also making their presence felt are Simon Trinder, a star of the recent RSC Spanish Golden Age season, Paul Chahidi, unobtrusively excellent of late and terrific here as mad Dr Caius, and Ian Hughes as Sir Hugh Evans, a Welsh Parson. In the programme notes, Doran promises ‘a romp’, something the production, for the most part, delivers in spades. It’s beautifully staged and excellently played - yet it doesn’t always sweep one up as one feels it should.… This being a Doran production, the experience is never less than rewarding and it will undoubtedly be a hit. Look out for Brenda O'Hea’s wicked Russell Brand impersonation."
Nicholas de Jongh in the Evening Standard (1 star) – “While an epidemic of song-and-dance productions spreads through the West End, the Royal Shakespeare Company embarks on an expensive gamble, takes leave of the straight stuff and inflicts this flamboyantly awful, musical version of The Merry Wives of Windsor upon us. I came out whistling in the dark, lamenting the poverty of music and songs and the lumbering, heavy-handed performance-style…. Its 15 songs sound mistily derivative…. The lyrics of Ranjit Bolt, an experienced translator but new to song-writing, constitute a wit-free zone…. In the course of three hours, there are only three minutes of musical and emotional impact. Unsurprisingly, Judi Dench supplies all of them…. Doran's irritating, frequent directorial tactic of standing his actors in a virtual row, from where they tend to speak at us rather than to each other, accentuates the production's artificial air, to which only Dame Judi's fine Mistress Quickly proves a spirited, splendid exception.”
Michael Billington in the Guardian (3 stars) – “I found it a rather strenuous romp that often seemed jokey rather than genuinely humorous…. this is a soufflé that takes a long time to rise. And the real reason lies in the nature of the beast. Shakespeare's play is a precise social comedy about bourgeois revenge on a dilapidated aristocracy: here, however, we are in the no man's land of musical comedy…. And Englishby's score similarly shops around…. Of course, there are compensations. Bolt's lyrics, when you can hear them above the orchestrations, sound witty. Callow's Falstaff is a suitably earth-larding figure with an aura of decayed grandeur. Dame Judi's Mistress Quickly, equipped with a backstory from the Boar's Head scenes in Henry IV, is also a genuine delight. The talented Paul Englishby is, in fact, only the latest in a long line of composers drawn to Shakespeare's comedy…. It is well-constructed, deals with the ritual humiliation of Falstaff and contrasts the predicaments of aged lust with the promise of young love.”
Paul Taylor in the Independent – “There's a point early on in this musical when Judi Dench, as the frizzy-haired Cockney housekeeper and go-between Mistress Quickly, bustles on and does a comic double-take at one of the dinky half-timbered houses that dot the set. Because it's in perspective, she is a head taller than it is and this scenic device puzzles her. For some members of the audience, though, there will be another less funny dimension to this theatrical in-joke, for Dench is also much bigger than the material in this well-meaning but obdurately uninspired piece…. Unfortunately, almost everything about this venture (where Fifties New Look meets olde worlde Jacobean) feels ersatz and a poor replacement for the real thing…. There isn't an atom of originality in any of it and a woeful lack of polish in the execution. Simon Callow as Falstaff is a plucky substitute for the glorious Desmond Barrit… I’m afraid to say, though, that his booming heartiness kept putting me in mind of a slightly brainier Brian Blessed, while Brendan O'Hea's leather-clad swaggering Pistol is a dead ringer for Russell Brand.”
Benedict Nightingale in The Times (3 stars) – “Anybody who feared that the RSC’s year-long Bardathon might become a respectful trot or worthy trudge through tragedies, histories and earnestly interpreted comedies certainly got their answer last night…. It’s good seasonal stuff and extremely well cast…. Judi Dench as Mistress Quickly… gives a performance that’s simultaneously warm, mischievous and, helped by a frizz of red hair, just a bit slatternly. Maybe Callow misses the lechery Shakespeare wanted; but his portrait of raddled gentility is beautifully judged and he makes the most of the comic moments… McGowan rises to the comic challenge, too…. And who can complain when that fine comic actor Simon Trinder, playing the gormless swain Slender, is swigging back booze in an energetically sung, cheerily choreographed, thoroughly Christmassy salute to sack?”
Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph – “Do you remember those end-of-year school plays, when the teachers joined in with the pupils and everyone was supposed to let their hair down and have the most tremendous fun? Embarrassing, weren't they? Well, the RSC's Christmas treat… is often agonisingly reminiscent of such occasions. Everyone is absolutely determined to be jolly…. And just to prove this is a genuinely gold-plated and copper-bottomed occasion, Judi Dench, the beloved and normally frightfully strict headmistress of British theatre, is on hand to show us just what a sport she is by playing Mistress Quickly…. Yet the cruel truth is that the show proves more exhausting than entertaining. Everyone seems to be trying that little bit too hard, the performances are almost all slightly but fatally overdrawn, and the result is that for long sections of the evening those on stage seem to be having far more fun than the audience…. A huge amount of effort has gone into a show that somehow fails to achieve comic lift-off.”
Sheridan Morley in the Daily Express – “This is Stratford’s first home-grown musical in a very long time, and Judi Dench’s first in the decade since A Little Night Music at the National…. True, it starts out looking just like an old 1950s Palladium pantomime, complete with villagers frolicking on the (in this case Windsor) town square, as represented by some miniature Tudor-beamed houses which Dench’s Mistress Quickly eyes in passing with hilarious disapproval…. What… composer Paul Englishby and his lyricist Ranjit Bolt have gorgeously and surprisingly come up with here is not a throwback to D’0yly Carte or vintage Broadway, but instead a lyrical echo of the post-war Julian Slade or Vivian Ellis, writing in the golden days when the English stage musical was not afraid to be just that. The score here is gentle, wistful, romantic, elegant: it doesn’t scream at you, and it perfectly suits a brilliantly confident production by Gregory Doran…. I for one can’t wait for the CD of what is a superb Christmas present to us all from the RSC.”
It would take a churl, a very ‘dried pear’, to cavil at Gregory Doran’s musical adaptation of The Merry Wives of Windsor, which offers reasons enough ‘to be cheerful’. The play, reputedly written to order for Elizabeth I, ranks with Shakespeare’s slightest, while Falstaff, fat though he be, is but a shadow of the colossal creation, the force of nature, who bestrides Henry IV Parts I and II.
Simon Callow, making his RSC acting debut, following the withdrawal due to injury of Desmond Barrit, initially underwhelms. That voice is present and correct of course, and the art informing his performance is never in doubt, but he doesn’t seem to loom over the proceedings as he ought.
And then you remember that the Falstaff of the history plays is not present here. That Falstaff would never be so gulled and Callow’s performance, shaped at short notice, seems even more admirable. This is soft-focus England, something hinted at in Stephen Brimson Lewis’ set, an idyll of a pristine street of timbered buildings, smoke curling above, giving way to undulating meadows.
In the programme notes, Doran promises ‘a romp’, something the production, for the most part, delivers in spades. It’s beautifully staged and excellently played - yet it doesn’t always sweep one up as one feels it should. That this is so seems partly down to the music by Paul Englishby. The numbers wittily pastiche West End hits like Cats and Stomp, as well as opera and country & western. For every palpable winner, however, there are two less sparkling melodies.
But this being a Doran production, the experience is never less than rewarding and it will undoubtedly be a hit. Look out for Brenda O'Hea’s wicked Russell Brand impersonation.
Good fun but nothing brilliant. Well cast, entertaining sets, costumes and above average music. However, the plot of the first half is too complicated for a light hearted musical and there are simply too many characters. That said, the second half is much tighter. Decent seasonal fun but the history cycle next door is of a much better quality. - 81.151.177.65)
21 Jan 07
I can't really fathom why many critics have been sniffy about this. It's the RSC letting its hair down in panto season with superior seasonal fare. It works as a musical just as it works as a play or an opera. The production is cast to the nines, sits on a great set and has some wonderful comic moments and some good songs well sung. It's a lot of fun and you shouldn't be put off, though the run is probably sold out anyway! - 86.144.100.101)
21 Jan 07
A bit of a curate's egg. It has charm and it works to a degree but it doesn't really hit all the right notes as it were. Having said that Judi Dench was clearly suffering with her voice on the night I saw it, so that didn't help although she of course performed with great character and profesionalism. It's fun in the main, fluffy at times and arguably true to the play's roots as a piece of light entertainment. Callow is a fine Falstaff although his singing is not great. In fact, only Strallen and Crewes really sing beautifully, while the others are clearly "actors who are singing" rather than "musical actors". Musicals seem to bring out the extremes in people's ratings - for me, it's neither brilliant nore completely duff. It's a nice night out and it's a pleasant addition to the Complete Works. And few Doran productions can really be considered to have no merits. It's worth a look. - 82.13.39.137)
15 Jan 07
Fantastic! I went thinking perhaps they wouldn't pull it off - but Oh Boy! they did. It is a terrific romp which does not detract from the bards original. The songs are witty and tunefull and help to move the narrative forward and are not just musical interludes as could have happened. This show really deserves a transfer - it would be a tragedy if it does not. Well done to the RSC for taking this imaginative and superbly performed production to the stage. - 172.143.22.158)
13 Jan 07
Fantastic fun. It may be a bit like a pantomime but what's wrong with that as it is a Christmas show after all. Judi Dench, Simon Callow etc. all seemed to be having a good time as did the audience. See it while you can. - 193.23.116.11)
08 Jan 07
Dire sub-pantomine drivel which wastes what should have been a great cast. The jokes are forced and there is some quite horrible racial stereotyping. Over long as well. I cannot remember enjoying a night at the theatre so little. - 80.1.224.8)
07 Jan 07
A real dog's breakfast of a show which somehow manages to be very entertaining in places. Simon Callow & Judi Dench are great, as are the majority of the cast who really put their heart and soul into it. But the songs are unmemorable and one wishes it could have been left as a straight play. Having said that, the most excruciating scene is the farcical duel section, which failed to raise a single titter.
And the nadir of the entire experience was the presence of the nauseatingly saccharine Scarlett Strallen as Anne. I've seen her in "Mamma Mia", "Chitty" and now this. The Langford genes run strong in her and her OTT, utterly twee and panto-style performance never fails to set this particular audience member's teeth on edge!
A worthwhile evening out purely for the calibre of the (majority of the) cast - just don't expect too much! - 82.31.38.80)
05 Jan 07
This would have been a good production if they hadn't set it to music or maybe just put in the occasional song with Shakespeare's original dialogue. Paul Englishby's songs in the first act were pretty dire - the second act songs were better if you stuck with it but as performers like Simon Callow and Judi Dench are wonderful actors but abysmal singers why detract from their performances by making them sing? Callow and Dench were great when speaking and not singing. The true musical theatre performers - Scarlett Strallen as Anne and Martin Crewes as her suitor - were wasted in small roles with only one song each. Alexandra Gibreath and Hadyn Gwynne sang well and had an excellent sisterly rapport as the wives while Alistair McGowan was an energetic Ford who, while not being the greatest singer, is able to put over a tune without embarrassing himself. However, in my opinion the real stars of the show were two of the supporting players - Brendan O Hea as Pistol and Simon Trinder as Slender. They made the most of small parts that often go unnoticed in this play and were always watchable.
On the whole an enjoyable evening. Go and see this with an open mind but don't expect musical fireworks! - 62.253.80.222)
03 Jan 07
Deliriously entertaining. Wonderful performances and some sweet songs. A really enjoyable show, funny and well worth seeing! - 86.146.13.43)
29 Dec 06
Highly enjoyable, clever, witty, funny... all you need for a great evening out. The music is great, the actors marvellous, particularly Judi Dench (though that was to be expected), the set is simply beautiful. Emotions run high, whether you laugh with Mistresses Page and Ford, weep with Mistress Quickly or rage with Mr Ford. Worth watching!!! - 84.154.121.228)
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