Shattering: Star's Mid Life Crisis
“You’ve gotta make magic out of tragic.”
Myrtle in the song “Magic”
“Game of Moths to a Flame”
David Samuels
The audience has to work at productions directed by Ivo Van Hove. He is known for his deconstructionist approach to classical works. Opening Night is a modern musical about The Second Woman, a play opening at the Orpheum Theatre on Broadway which is being filmed in the previews by a documentary film crew.
This musical has music by Rufus Wainwright and is based on a 1977 film written, directed and starred in by John Cassavetes also called Opening Night. The title was decided long before anyone thought about the likely success of googling “Opening Night” and finding this work! Just searching my email box is a nightmare.
This production is a metaphorical onion, full of layers. The star is Myrtle Gordon (Sheridan Smith) whose co-star is her ex-husband Maurice Aarons (Benjamin Walker). She is also attracted to her director Manny Victor (Hadley Fraser) whose form of encouragement to her is to tell Myrtle he loves her. Manny’s wife Dorothy (Amy Lennox) isn’t too happy overhearing conversations between her husband and Myrtle.
The play is written by Sarah Goode (Nicola Hughes) focussing on Virginia, played by Myrtle, a menopausal woman who is conscious of aging. Sarah is slightly older than Myrtle and Myrtle has difficulty seeing herself as that old. The play is being produced by David Samuels (John Marquez) who is himself a bit in love with Myrtle.
Early on Myrtle meets a young female fan Nancy Stein (Shira Hass) who is besotted with her but who runs into the road and is killed by a car outside the theatre. Myrtle continues to see and talk to Nancy in ghostly form.
Ivo Van Hove’s production is full of metatheatricality with reminders that this is a drama and not reality. The first distancing ideas come from the documentary camerawomen with small hand held cameras producing images on the huge screen behind.
This means we are watching the melding of a live stage play and a film with close ups. Some of the time I was trying to see where the camera operators were filming from so I knew I wasn’t thinking about what was happening onstage. Sometimes I was comparing the colours of the costumes onstage and those on the screen.
This is not a traditional musical in as far as the musical numbers advance the plot but there is fine singing with several solos from Sheridan Smith, “Magic”, “Meet Me at the Start” and “Ready for Battle”. Shira Hass, in her West End debut, too has stand out solo numbers “I Forgive You” and “There’s Something to be Said For Being Young”, and, with the Company, “This Isn’t a Game Anymore”. Four women sing the title song “The Second Woman” each feeling in second place.
The core of the play is Myrtle having a breakdown so that at one of the late previews she ignores Sarah’s script and speaks her own words much to the confusion of the prompt Leo (Ian McLarnon), the other actors and the fury of Sarah Goode. One has to hope that no critics were asked in to review at this preview! The whole production reflects this shattering of Myrtle’s well being.
This tousled musical will confuse and disorientate the audience. Not everyone will cope with its unconventionality and dealing with mental health, it will make them feel uncomfortable and negative. But if you value Sheridan Smith’s talent as a singer and an actress, you will want to see Opening Night. It is no accident that, at the time of writing, she has been nominated for an Olivier for her solo part in Willy Russell’s Shirley Valentine.
Musical Numbers
Act One
Overture
One Shot
Magic
One Shot (Reprise)
Talk to Me
Humming Chorus One
Trojan women
Humming Chorus Two
A Change of Life
I Forgive you
Met Me at the Start
Life is Thin
Act Two
Trying To
Makes One Wonder
Moths to a Flame
Married
Humming Chorus Three
This Isn’t A Game Anymore
The Pantomime
The Second Woman
There Is Something to Be
Said For Being Young
Ready For Battle
Magic (Reprise)
Finales
Production Notes
Opening Night
Book by Ivo Van Hove
Music and Lyrics by Rufus Wainwright
Directed and conceived by Ivo Van Hove
Cast
Starring:
Sheridan Smith
Hadley Fraser
Shira Haas
Nicola Hughes
Amy Lennox
John Marquez
Benjamin Walker
Ian McLarnon
Cilla Silvia
Jos Slovick
Rebecca Thornhill
Robert Finlayson
Daniel Forrester
Jennifer Hepburn
Issy Khogali
Chrissie Perkins
Creatives
Director: Ivo Van Hove
Set, Lighting and
Video Designer: Jan Versweyveld
Orchestrations and Musical
Arrangements: Rufus Wainwright
Movement and Choreographer: Polly Bennett
Musical Supervisor: Nigel Lilley
Sound Designer:
Tom Gibbons and Alex Twiselton
Costume Design: An D’Huys
Information
Running Time: Two hours 20 minutes with an interval
Closing Early
Booking until 18th May 2024
Website: openingnightmusical.com
Theatre:
Gielgud Theatre
Shaftesbury Avenue
London W1D 6AR
Tube : Piccadilly Circus
Telephone: 0844 482 5151 (7p per minute +)
Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge
at the Gielgud Theatre at the evening
performance
on 23rd March 2024
