Curtains

Tony Rickards, Alex Rathgeber, Lucy Maunder and Melissa Langton in Curtains. Photograph by Christopher Parker.

The Australian premiere of Kander and Ebb’s final musical Curtains is currently enjoying a short run at Arts Centre Melbourne as part of The Production Company’s 2016 season. This tongue-in-cheek whodunnit invites the audience to witness the backstage antics of a musical theatre troupe involved in a string of suspicious murders.

Curtains features the musical version of a ‘play within a play,’ around which the central action takes place. Robbin’ Hood of the Wild West is having its test run in Boston with a view to reaching the bright lights of Broadway once some of its truly dreadful scenes are re-worked. Thankfully, Curtains itself is much more impressive than the disaster of a wild-west musical the cast is working on in the show, whose boot-scooting, saloon-sculling scenes leave a little to be desired.

This production boasts a cast of talented artists who almost without exception give faultless performances. It’s great to see the collection of Australian musical theatre artists delivering work of high calibre following The Production Company’s trademark intensive two week rehearsal period.

Simon Gleeson is an absolute stand out as Lieutenant Frank Cioffi – a policeman who, for a character who can’t sing or dance, manages to sing and dance rather well. Gleeson plays a bumbling, star-struck policeman with a weakness for Alinta Chidzey’s Niki Harris. These two enjoy a romance which blossoms in the midst of Cioffi’s murder investigation. Both Gleeson and Chidzey deliver energetic and inspired performances.

Lucy Maunder doesn’t start out as the leading lady but from her first appearance on stage it’s clear she has star quality. She has a magnetic stage presence that forces the audience’s eyes to rest on her, even when she’s not the main character in a scene.  Maunder’s character Georgia Hendricks enjoys a bittersweet on-stage connection with her songwriting partner and former husband Aaron Fox, played rather cutely by Alex Rathgeber. Fox’s longing for his ex-wife is beautifully evoked through I Miss the Music, which according to theatre legend, was written by John Kander after the death of his songwriting and life partner, Fred Ebb.

The rest of the cast and chorus is electric, with the exception of Colin Lane, who struggles to pin down the English accent of his character Christopher Belling, the pompous Director of the ill-fated Robbin’ Hood.

The set and lighting design are simple yet effective. It’s refreshing to see musical theatre without the unnecessary bells and whistles and the absence of a multi-million dollar set doesn’t take away from the real stars of the show – which are of course, the performers. Esther Marie Hayes as costume designer makes mostly good choices, however it seems odd that she doesn’t dress leading lady Lucy Maunder in more flattering outfits throughout the show.

Even though this is a brilliant production, the storyline is at best entertaining and at worst a little uninspired. It’s not difficult to see why this musical hasn’t made the big time in the way of other Kander and Ebb works such as Chicago and Cabaret. All the same, the songs are catchy and Curtains makes for an entertaining night out, filled with high-quality singing, dancing and acting.