The Stage

Street Scene

Published Friday 18 July 2008 at 11:20 by George Hall

A large and versatile professional cast, with some community involvement in the chorus, takes part in this touring production of Kurt Weill’s 1947 ‘American opera’.

Originally premiered on Broadway, it mixes elements of the post-war musical with more obviously operatic material, some of which sounds like hand-me-down Puccini.

The two styles don’t really blend, and much of it finds Weill at less than his best.

But it’s a piece that has its heart in the right place. The book comes from Elmer Rice’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play about life in and around a New York tenement, where various families of different ethnic backgrounds interact.

Comedy intersperses with tragedy; the central character, Elena Ferrari’s vibrant Anna Maurrant, is shot by her brutal husband Frank, presented in a formidable performance by Andrew Slater, after an affair with Paul Featherstone’s shifty Sankey.

Meanwhile her daughter Rose, sung by Ruby Hughes, fails to get it together with neighbour Sam Kaplan, played by Adrian Dwyer, and eventually goes off to start a new life elsewhere.

The Young Vic’s acoustics don’t help performers, and diction is not what it should be. But Dick Bird’s set cleverly integrates stage with orchestra, and both the band and Patrick Bailey’s musical direction are first rate.

There’s much to enjoy, too, in John Fulljames’s detailed, lively production, even if it can’t override some faults in the piece itself, including an over-long first act.

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