Review | On The Town at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in London
By Will Stroude
There’s a dance between two men in the first act of this new production of On The Town that’s passionate and powerful and ends in a kiss that gets a huge round of applause for how beautiful and brave it is, especially considering this musical comedy originates from 1944 and this Pas de Deux is usually performed by a man and a woman. It’s not, moreover, a jarring reinterpretation as it would be if it were staged as a jolly same-sex romp on the streets of wartime Manhattan, it’s exactly how a tryst between a gay sailor on shore leave and a native New Yorker would have gone back then – clandestine, indoors, with the sailor seemingly torn between desire and duty.
It’s only right that a show so commendably colour-blind in its casting of the leads should also be furthering LGBT visibility but thank goodness director and choreographer Drew McOnie hasn’t opted for a radical rethink of the show itself. The enduring charm of this musical comedy is how it’s all about servicemen seeking adventures in the big city in a more innocent time, although it’d have been nice if McOnie (OBJECTIFICATION ALERT) had come up with some excuse to get leading man Danny Mac to shed his shirt. I mean, it’s not like the former Hollyoaks star had any reservations about showing some skin on Strictly, is it?
Even fully clothed, Danny is adorable as Gabey – one of three sailors who alight from their ship to sing the rousing New York, New York opening number before traversing Manhattan from the Battery to the Bronx in search of a good time and maybe some romance. Joining him are Samuel Edwards (so good as the dumb hunk in Xanadu and so funny here) as ladies’ man Ozzie and Jacob Maynard as lovably naïve Chip.
They’re a winning trio complemented by their female counterparts. Gabey tries to woo wannabe singer Ivy, who is beautifully played and danced by Siena Kelly. It’s hard to believe Miriam Teak-Lee, as the man-mad and amusingly-monikered anthropologist Claire de Loone, is making her professional debut – her comic timing is every bit as brilliant as that of Lizzy Connolly (another Xanadu alumni), whose lusty taxi driver Hildy gets to declare I Can Cook Too in the show’s sassiest number.
Paired down for the movie version, On The Town on stage runs a little long and there’s at least one ballet too many. The set, a series of girders and walkways and rooms that are wheeled on and off, is more functional than it is an evocation of 1940s New York glamour and the night I saw the show the ensemble dancers seemed underrehearsed, with none of the precision timing of the recent Broadway revival.
But it’s a big smile of a production and Danny Mac, so light of foot and winning of grin, is a bright new star for musical theatre. Next up, he’s doing the Sunset Boulevard tour and good news oh fellow objectifiers: There’s a shirtless scene in that one!
Rating: 4/5
On The Town is at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre until July 1st. For more information and tickets visit openairtheatre.com or call 0844 826 4242