Picture: Ellie Kurttz
Roman Holiday continues at the Theatre Royal Bath until 1 July 2023.
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
In today’s world of zero risk taking, where lovers of Broadway’s Golden Age have to content themselves with seeing the same five titles over and over again – namely, 42nd Street, Anything Goes, Kiss Me, Kate, Guys and Dolls and Crazy For You – it is refreshing to at last have a brand new version of a movie classic without a pop score but rather a dig into the likes of Cole Porter’s extensive catalogue to find sophisticated songs able to convey the delicacy of a timeless story.
As the Broadway composers of today seem to have lost any touch for simple, hummable, yet rhythmically melodic tunes, Roman Holiday is refreshing. These lyrics from Porter’s ‘Easy to Love’ (We’d be so grand at the game / So carefree together / That it does seem a shame / That you can’t see / Your future with me / ’Cause you’d be, oh, so easy to love) perfectly sum up the emotional dilemma faced by the American journalist and the Princess, respectively played by Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn in the famous movie.
After a tryout in Minneapolis in 2012, another updated one in San Francisco 2017, and a UK premiere originally planned for the summer of 2020, the musical has finally opened here this summer, though it has had a successful staging in the city of Rome itself and in Japan, the ultimate land of Hepburn fandom. But Roman Holiday has truly found a perfect home in the city of Bath, a historic landmark with honey-kissed buildings, fountains and baths suggestive of the Eternal City.
As Joe, the American journalist tripped up by love in his career climbing scheme, Michael D. Xavier is the perfect debonair leading man, with his to-die-for vocal prowess, particularly impressive in his personal delivery of ‘Night and Day’ at the end of the show.
Rebecca Collingwood as princess Ann is a sensation, although she comes off at first as a bit too young for the part. Her chemistry with Xavier is as convincing as it was in the movie, and even the two actors’ difference in height is uncannily like the petite Hepburn’s and the towering Peck’s.
The supporting cast is equally topnotch, with Adrian der Gregorian as the photographer Irving, the irrepressible Richenda Carey as the stern but funny chaperone Countess, and the wonderful Tania Mathurin (as Francesca), who delivers some of the best vocals in ‘You Do Something to Me’ and ‘Just One of Those Things’ (I just wish they had used the verses from those two songs), though her character isn’t developed enough.
Like the movie, the show is all about the impossible love of the romantic leads, which is evocative of scandals often surrounding Britian’s contemporary royal family, but the eight-piece ensemble of excellent dancers is put to good use in the imaginative choreography of Matt Cole and Jane McMurtrie.
Too bad production number like the Act I finale ‘Ridin’ High’ and the Act II opener ‘I’m Throwing a Ball Tonight’ are relatively short and don’t lead on to full instrumental dance breaks as used to be common in Broadway musicals. At 125 minutes sharp, that new fast-paced Cole Porter could definitely have a few minutes of pure dance added on here and there!
The set and costume design by Francis O’Conner and the lighting by Mark Henderson superbly convey the atmosphere of the Italian capital in its 1950s heydays. Chris Walker’s orchestrations enhance the genius of Porter’s music and make some of the lesser-known pieces, such as ‘Wouldn’t It Be Fun’ and ‘Look What I Found’, sound as fresh as if they had been composed yesterday.
Kirsten Guenther and Paul Blake have written a faithful book, blending Porter’s song in as if they had been written for the movie, with ‘Experiment’ serving as a perfect leitmotif throughout and the haunting ‘In the Still of the Night’, perhaps Porter’s most beautiful and personal song, reflecting the master’s own tragic destiny, as the perfect conclusion, sung by the already parted lovers as a duo.
Special mentions to musical director Steve Ridley and his impeccable orchestra and to Jeremy Sams for directing the entire production with deep love and appreciation for the source material. Roman Holiday is well worth a trip to the enchanting city of Bath, especially considering the fact that such delicately sophisticated and traditional quality musical fare may not easily find a place in today’s West End, governed more and more by commercial imperatives.
Patrick Honoré
