Salad Days
cast list
Andrew Ahern, Lee Boggess, Emma Burford, Sophie-Louise Dann, Michelle Francis, Sam Harrison, Matthew Hawksworth, Graham Howes, Claire Machin, Spencer O’Brien, Ellie Robertson, Richard Suart
directed by
Bill Bankes-Jones
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The 1950s musical Salad Days, by Julian Slade and Dorothy Reynolds, can always make for a fun night out.
But when it is performed by an opera company (Tête à Tête) with such a sound understanding of where the show lies within the overall evolution of both music and theatre, an evening of joy also becomes something far more important.
In the 1950s, Salad Days became the longest-running musical ever, smashing Chu Chin Chow’s forty-year old record.
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In spite of this, all that survives of the original music are various bastardised scores that are unplayable in their current form, and a heavily edited original cast recording. This is a shame, but, undeterred, Tête à Tête has pieced together all of the available evidence to conclude how the original band would have sounded. The fruits of this labour are seen here in the form of a band, superbly led by Anthony Ingle, that consists entirely of two pianos, a double bass and percussion.
Salad Days witnesses the clash of old and new values in post-war Britain, and was clearly influenced by long-standing theatrical and musical traditions. It explores how Timothy and Jane make their way in the world following their graduation from a rather stuffy establishment. Both sets of parents want them to follow respectable professions, but they rebel by marrying each other without falling in love first, and earning their living from a magic piano that possesses everyone who hears it to dance!
It is a lesson for all age-groups in this brave new post-war world. It is forward looking in that the parents not only have to accept that they don’t understand their children, but also to realise that this is actually a good thing. On the other hand, it looks backwards in that some of the lines could have come straight from the pen of W. S. Gilbert (such as ‘Since we got married I’ve noticed you more’), while several routines are clearly grounded in the music hall tradition. Indeed, the song about Cleopatra (‘Egypt’s answer to Montmartre’) is a real highlight of the evening as the sumptuous words just roll off the tongue.
Embracing the show’s catchy, but clever, tunes, the cast perform with great panache and slickness. Headed by Michelle Francis’s lovely Jane and Sam Harrison’s effective Timothy, there is really no weak player amongst them. Particular accolades, however, must go to Matthew Hawksworth’s Tramp, played with a moving sensibility, and Richard Suart for such an accomplished portrayal of Sir Ambrose Williams.
Studio 2 of Hammersmith’s Riverside Studios is used to good effect as the walls of the entire box-like area are surrounded with bright yellow curtains, the audience sitting either side of the central performance area. As each person enters they are presented with a degree, which adds to the atmosphere by making them a part of the graduation ceremony they are about to witness. When buying tickets, patrons can also opt to sit at tables where Pimm’s and sandwiches are laid on.
The only disappointment is that the studio was not primarily designed for singing, and there is a lot of ‘dead air’ that doesn’t always allow the voices to blend with each other. Fortunately, however, this only seems to affect the opening number, and it remains a minor quibble in the face of an evening that has much to commend it.
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London reviews
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theatre
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