Allegro

‘Allegro’, by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein has never been staged in Europe before, despite being the work of the same guys who brought us ‘South Pacific’, ‘Oklahoma!’ and ‘The Sound of Music’. Ockham’s Razor suggests this is because ‘Allegro’ is not a very good musical, and I would probably be inclined to agree with Ockham’s Razor.

The overwhelming problem with ‘Allegro’ is how worthily dull the story is, most especially the first half. It traces the early life of its hero Joseph Taylor Jr (Gary Tushaw) in mind-boggling detail, from birth, through early childhood and on to growing up as a full-time goody two shoes, determined to study hard and follow in his father’s footsteps as a small town doctor, despite the increasingly rapacious urging of his childhood sweetheart Jennie (Emily Bull).

That basically is the first half, albeit it’s slightly enlivened by the questionable gender politics (Jennie is a grasping monster because she worries about money; his mother Marjorie, who disapproved of Jennie, is a paragon of matronly virtue).

Things do mildly perk up in the second half, as Joseph is lured to the big city by Jennie against his better judgement. He becomes a wealthy prescription dispenser to monied city folks rather than a poor but happy pillar of the rural community (it is indeed hard to be a saint in the city). Inevitably valuable lessons are learned and it all turns out exactly as you’d expect.

So, er, why stage it now, 70 years after it was written? Well two points: one, this is Rodgers and frickin’ Hammerstein we’re talking about here – they could write a song, and ‘Allegro’s understated, lightly tongue-in-cheek numbers slip down far smoother than the stodgy story has any right to do.

The second is that this is a show from director Thom Southerland and producer Danielle Tarento. Patron saints of forgotten musicals, they’ve done better work with more damaged, less sloggy obscurities than ‘Allegro’, but they make it gleam as much as possible. Tushaw makes a decent fist of the awkward Joseph – shy and nerdy but with powerful moral convictions under it all. And it’s a solid ensemble all round. But it’s Southerland and team’s little flourishes that really pep it up and take the edge off the small town values proselytising: my favouite bit was the wall of cheeky flash cards that help Jennie manipulate Jospeh to move to the big city.

‘Allegro’ essentially deserves its obscurity, but the music is too good to be erased from history. This is about as fabulous a production as Rodgers and Hammerstein’s ultra-square lost child could hope for.