Bernstein On the Town
English National Opera, 10 March 2005

A qualified welcome for this sortie into the world of The Musical, into which Musical Pointers has often ventured, respecting the genre at its best, and recognising its blurred interface with "opera".

Despite the high claims for its importance made in the programme, On the Town seemed a curious choice for an important ENO production.

The story is as slight and dated as they come, the humour often unfunny. The young Bernstein demonstrates his skills at pastiche, taking us on a nightclub crawl in several national musical idioms. But it is all unmemorable; no big tunes or clinching musical scenes like some of Frederick Loewe's for My Fair Lady, nor any sense of place to compare with G B Shaw's London there.

ENO's Jude Kelly leaves New York largely to our imagination and emphasises the background, a war not going well for America in 1944. Fun is transient; we are to think of the sailors in their pristine white uniforms as likely casualties soon after they are back in their warship.

The sets are managed with aplomb and well lit, the costuming tasteful, the dancing and stage movement smoothly integrated and pleasant to watch; an undemanding evening which passes easily.

The three sailors (pictured) are light-weight but nicely individuated, and Lucy Schaufer has a good scene as a susceptible anthropologist. The quest for the 'Miss Turnstile' is a drag, and Helen Anker lacks the charisma needed to motivate the vicissitues of the search. This New York taxi, and its laser-voiced driver Caroline O'Connor, who grabs the stage and sounds like a real star of the musical theatre, were two of the best things about this revival of an early Bernstein piece which was influential in its time and presaged the great flowering of the genre.

The big plus is that the full orchestra sounds great (not reduced or miked up as in most West End shows) and the enhancement of the (mostly) small voiced principals, who come from the musical theatre world, is discreet and perfectly balanced (Nick Lidster).

Representing the ENO operatic contingent, Willard White has a tiny walk-on part singing about being at home with your woman as New York begins to come to life before work starts at 6 a.m, and ENO stalwart Andrew Shore, who finally stops being complaisant and 'understanding' of his nymphomaniac fiancée, sounds as if he didn't need to be miked, and maybe wasn't. The ENO chorus represents the 'ordinary people' of New York and that is handled well.

But think about the crushed initiative and flowering of creativity which has been lost to London with the deplorable closure of Carole Metcalfe's Bridewell Theatre. An occasional glossy production of a classic musical at the Coliseum or The National Theatre (which did not welcome us to review Cole Porter's Anything Goes at the Olivier in 2002 - far better than ENO's On the Town) is no substitute. Come along Sondheim.... And his successors in waiting.