Manchester seems to be awash with new or little known Musicals at the moment. '& Juliet' premiering at The Opera House, and 'Mame' being revived at Hope Mill Theatre to name just two; and now, The Palace Theatre hosts, for just 5 nights, another revival. This time it is the 2006 Whodunnit Musical, 'Curtains' starring local boy made good, Jason Manford.
John Kander and Fred Ebb, American Muscial Theatre's longest writing partnership have created two GREAT Musicals which have stood the test of time and will undoubtedly continue to endure long after we are all dead and gone; namely 'Chicago' and 'Cabaret'. However, only the die-hard Musical fans would probably be able to name any other musical composed by this duo. And there is a reason for that. All of them have flopped. from their first collaboration, 'Flora, The Red Menace' (1965) right up until their last, 'The Visit' (2015) all have never made it to the ranks of longevity and lasting popularity sadly.
'Curtains' is a curious musical. A curio, an enigma, something a little unique. This can be its greatest selling point, but ultimately is it also the reason why it has thus far failed to achieve popular approval. The story is lame, the music nice but unmemorable, and despite being very enjoyable and entertaining, once I walked out of the theatre it was gone and forgotten.
It's a book musical [ie: a libretto with songs, in the old style of Muscial Theatre]. The setting is clearly the 1950s, and we are in Boston, USA. We are at a theatre to witness a performance of a Wild West Musical (think 'Calamity Jane' or 'Annie Get Your Gun' or even 'Oklahoma!') called bizarrely, Robbin' Hood! In the final number / curtain call, the leading actress collapses and subsequently dies in hospital. The coroner's report indicates murder and a detective (Jason Manford) is called in to the theatre to solve it. The actress was neither talented nor liked, and so everyone in the cast, including the composers, the director, and the producers are now suspects and held in the theatre against their wills until the case is solved. So far, so good. However, where this show seems to go wrong is in that it can't really quite make its mind up what kind of a show it wants to be! Not quite a retro-musical, not quite a comedy, not quite a murder mystery, not quite a romance, not quite a play-within-a-play, not quite anything, but a bit of everything thrown in the pot for good measure. There also seems to be various 'acknowledgements' of other more famous shows too hidden in there such a 'Columbo', 'The Phantom Of The Opera'. 'And Then There Were None', 'Sleuth', to name but several.... (written that way? directorial additions? or just my imagining? - no idea).
There are some hilarious one-liners and some lovely characters populating the stage, but nothing really seems to fully cohere. Superb choral singing and some great dance routines combine with a multi-talented cast but the whole really ought to have been much funnier and much more alive than it actually was.
There were some cutting lines in the show about newspaper critics having the power to destroy careers; well I'm neither a critic nor do I write for a newspaper, but sadly I left with the feeling that not even the personable charms of Manford are enough to save this show. It's the kind of Musical you will go to once, out of curiosity, and most certainly enjoy it in the moment, but it will have no lasting memory and an hour later, it will have gone.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 9/10/19
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