It was a slightly strange disjunct, going from hearing about his new show From Here to Eternity, going in to rehearsals, and speaking to Tim Rice, to sitting in a production that felt rather more traditional than I'd imagined. It feels like the show has a mild identity crisis. The tube adverts are all bright pink lei-draped, ukulele-toting kitschery, but everyone involved is so keen to emphasise that it's a grown-up show for grown-up people. It definitely made for some odd moments on stage, as James Jones' darker moments are faithfully set in incongruous surroundings -- homophobic violence to an oddly jolly soundtrack, highlighted with trombones and zylophone, and a hysterectomy reference mingling with stockinged song and dance numbers. The Stewart Pringle's (brilliantly funny) review is here http://cormonkeys.wordpress.com/ -- mine will be out later this month, and will be a bit more generous, owing partly to my higher tolerance for musical theatre campery.
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