Theatre

Gone With the Wind
Until Sep 27
New London Theatre, Drury Lane, London, WC2B 5PW
Rating:
© Catherine Ashmore
By Caroline McGinn

Posted: Tue Apr 29
This energy-guzzling, epically draining production ought to be slapped with a congestion charge. Trevor Nunn’s ‘Gone with the Wind’ is big, bland and rolls grandly down the middle of the road. With its mammoth run time (3 hours 40 minutes) and lack of dramatic flair, it’s a wonder the wheels don’t come off entirely. Two things preserve it from the ditch: Nunn’s professional handling of the pace, and the talent of some of the cast. Thanks to Jill Paice’s feisty, feminist Scarlett, Darius Danesh’s sexy, soul-searching Rhett (yes, really) and, especially, Natasha Yvette Williams’s humorous, wise and powerfully voiced Mammy, it’s a fairly enjoyable ride. But the performers, no matter how much wishin’ and wantin’ and strivin’ and frettin’ they do in their gorgeous crinolines, can’t improve their vehicle.

With a thousand seats to sell, and top-price tickets £60 a pop, it’s a big box-office mistake not to spotlight the relationship of Scarlett and Rhett (and cut the Confederate ladies’ sideshow into the bargain). Rookie writer Margaret Martin remains faithful to so many discardable details of Margaret Mitchell’s novel that the characters whisk and whirl from scene to song too quickly for you to get a fix on them.

Seventy years ago, the movie pulled in huge crowds with a woozy, lush, amoral appeal expressed perfectly in the smouldering relationship of its co-stars Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable. Nowadays, there are different unsaids: sex has been on the table for years, while the racial politics of Mitchell’s eulogy to the lost South deserve to be kicked under it for ever. While Nunn and Martin’s revisionism is commendable, tacking on ahistorically optimistic, aspirational songs to characters that remain minor (Scarlett’s maids Mammy and Prissy) only highlights the fact that their struggles are major, compared to the petulant anguish of the leads. To rewrite this story as a musical fantasy for modern times, with truly soul-stirring music, you might just have to make Scarlett black.

Add your comment to this listing

- Bookmark
- |
- Send to a friend

2 comments

Posted by heather louise on 21 Jun 2008 15:03
i thought the show, was 1st class entertainment. i loved it. it was my first time at the threate seeing a musical and i thought it was excellent.i was gripped from start to finish. i travelled 5 hours to get there and it was well well worth it.
all the actors were very talented and at parts i have to admit i was in tears.
if i had the time i would certainly go and enjoy it again.

Report this comment as inappropriate
Posted by Mrs B Bond on 03 Jun 2008 21:01
Just a bit "fed up" that we , all six of us, have to spend money to go to london to a crap show, which we know is true because its been axed. Unfortunatly for us its a week later, tho' I do feel its quite unfair to make us go and not offer us a refund just because we fall in the dead zone. If the customer wants a refund in the two week notice why should'nt we get one, those who don't request don't- obvious. Didn't necessary want a refund but an option of another show, to keep it in the business so to speak.Not impressed with this closing down business why should we have tosuffer the whole evening and expense?

Report this comment as inappropriate