As well as reviving hit musical Miss Saigon this year, believed to be headed to the Prince Edward theatre, producer Sir Cameron Mackintosh is also due to re-stage two of his other former shows in London.
The vastly underrated Martin Guerre and also the ill-fated Moby Dick.
The 1992 show in London at the Piccadilly theatre, Moby Dick, probably counts as Cameron Mackintosh biggest failure to date. It closed after only four months and yet Cameron has said ‘I am dealing with someone who wants to bring Moby Dick out next year.’
The show is about a girl’s boarding school putting on a musical version of the Moby Dick novel in the school swimming pool on parents’ day. Cameron added ‘There are two revivals; a production that’s going to open in London in a pub theatre and there’s one being eyed up for Broadway in the next two years.’
Cameron’s biggest successes in the West End include the world’s longest running musical, Les Miserables at the Queens theatre and the world’s second longest running musical, Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s theatre. Tickets for both shows in London were sold out.
The world renowned theatre impresario is also working on bringing back his other notorious London flop, Martin Guerre the musical. Martin Guerre has all the ingredients to be a big hit show and it defied logic why it failed to gain the necessary critical and public acclaim it deserved. Martin Guerre is a musical written by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, the writers of the huge worldwide successes Les Miserables and Miss Saigon. Written in the operatic style similar to the creative team’s previous shows, Martin Guerre failed to achieve similar ticket sales. However, to label it a flop is probably doing it some injustice bearing in mind it played at the Prince Edward theatre in London’s West End for just over 19 months which is longer than some supposed ‘hit’ shows.
Far from being a sycophantic Cameron fan this writer did genuinely enjoy the show, save for one lyrical line in a love song that made me wince: ‘I am attracted to her like flies to sh*t’ hardly seemed that romantic. I loved the film ‘Sommersby’ starring Richard Gere and Jodie Foster which portrays the same story, but reset in the U.S. and without the same relgious under-tones.
The musical thaetre version is loosely based on the real-life historical figure Martin Guerre and the 1982 film The Return of Martin Guerre. Set in France in the anti-Protestant town of Artigat, where a young Martin Guerre is forced into an arranged marriage with a local girl, Bertrande de Rols in order to produce a Catholic heir. Martin is dissatisfied with their marriage, further complicated by the fact that his childhood friend, Guillaume, is secretly in love with Bertrande.
Martin is beaten by the priests due to his failure to consummate the union, so he abandons his home and his wife to fight in the war against the Protestants. During the seven years Martin is away at war he befriends Arnaud du Thil with whom he shares his past secrets. Martin is then apparently killed in battle, his new friend Arnaud goes to Martin’s village to inform his wife, Bertrande of her husband’s death. But he is mistaken for the deceased soldier by the village residents, so he decides to play along with their error and becomes involved with Bertrande. The big question is; is Bertrande aware of Arnaud’s deception or because of their growing love has Bertrande decided to play along and keep the secret to herself?
Guillaume, who had hoped for a chance to romantically woe Bertrande himself becomes jealous of the supposedly returned soldier, and not entirely convinced of his identity.
Meanwhile Bertrande and Arnaud have secretly converted to Protestantism and Guillaume discovers their secret and rouses a mob to lynch Martin (Arnaud).
However, before Martin Guerre (Arnaud) is killed he is revealed to be an imposter claiming to be Martin Guerre. He is arrested for deception, but because of his love for Bertrande he still insists that he is Martin Guerre. At the end of the trial in a dramatic twist, Martin Guerre himself, having apparently survived the war, appears as the last witness so condeming Arnaud. Arnaud is freed from prison by Martin who forgives him for stealing his identity as he recognises Arnaud and Bertrande’s true love for each other. The mob, though, sets the town ablaze and Guillaume stabs Arnaud before he can escape. Not perhaps the happiest of endings.
The show in London opened on July 10, 1996 at the Prince Edward Theatre. It was a spectacular show, but the reviews were mixed and the public reception was also luke warm. In the early weeks, the show was hastily re-written and some scenes changed and one song removed. But perhaps these changes contributed to the perception that the show was in trouble? While the show continued the creative team, now with additional lyricist Stephen Clark, virtually rewrote it, adding new scenes and songs, shortening the long beginning and providing a happier ending. In order to make more radical changes the show closed for four days in October 1996 as the production was completely revised. This revised show in London opened after a week of previews in November 1996. The critical response was significantly improved, and the show went on to win the 1997 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Musical and Best Choreography, so perhaps not the big flop that myth would have you believe.
In June 1997 some further changes were made to the production to coincide with the cast change. The production finally closed at the Prince Edward theatre on February 28, 1998 after 675 performances.
Cameron Mackintosh says ‘Believe me, once we get it all right, Martin Guerre will rise again.’ He argues that there is always a second act for a musical closed before its prime, Cameron added ‘Good old shows never die. I keep them in my Lazarus locker.’
Perhaps Martin Guerre the musical will fare better this time, and perhaps part of the fact that it failed to live up to the expectations of its predecessors, Les Miserables and Miss Saigon was jealousy of Cameron’s previous successes. Some people seem to like to knock things for knockings sake.
I for one can’t wait for tickets for the show in London to go on sale for Martin Guerre, but perhaps less enthusiastic about Moby Dick.
