|
Broadway, Jeeves? - the diary of a theatrical adventure
By Martin Jarvis
Published by Methuen at £16.99
Dateline: 31st October, 2003
Martin Jarvis is an accomplished character actor with a lovely voice
that he makes much of. With his wife, Rosalind Ayres he owns a production
company that specialises in the spoken word.
Broadway, Jeeves? is a diary that he has written covering a
year in his life while he starred in the musical By Jeeves in
the United States.
It is quite surprising that this seemingly most British of shows should
even have made it across the Atlantic. It featured a very august but
very English production team. It was based on the writings of PG Wodehouse,
with a book by Sir Alan Ayckbourn who also directed, music by Lord Lloyd-Webber
(described by our hero as "a musical Mr Toad ") and starred
Jarvis as the eponymous butler.
There the Englishness stopped. The remainder of the cast and backroom
team were solidly American. It seems likely that Jarvis got the part
because he spends a fair chunk of his life living in Hollywood and has
a Green Card.
The musical began life in England in the mid-1990s and was already
playing in the States before Jarvis' was drafted in early 2001. It spent
some time in Pittsburgh and he soon established himself opposite his
excellent Bertie Wooster, John Scherer, an actor whose "talent
deserves proper recognition".
The diary follows the production from a successful run in Pittsburgh
with the promise of Broadway just around the corner. The writing about
the early rehearsals is surprisingly dry and uses language that may
be unfamiliar to those who have not trodden the boards, as Jarvis desperately
tries to learn lines, avoid singing and perfect his "little dance"
Once the book moves onto the machinations of management that followed,
it becomes almost like a thriller. The negotiations over contracts with
Lloyd-Webber's Really Useful Group - not renowned for their generosity
- become almost farcical. As Jarvis very reasonably asks, "Could
this multi-million-pound company really want to save themselves such
a small sum?" Things get so out of hand that Jarvis likens the
play's demise to Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express.
Once the show got into its stride, it first moved to Canada to be filmed
and then desperately tried to make its way onto off- and on-Broadway
post 9/11. At that point, the story hots up and becomes a real pleasure.
Jarvis releases much information about his own life (he became a grandfather
during the run) and also writes cameos about those around him both in
and beyond the show.
These included stars such as Donna Lynne Champlin from the show; Sir
Ian McKellen and Jack Nicholson further afield; and nobodies. The latter
include the hilariously inefficient backstage Mafia at the Helen Hayes
Theater.
The people who come out best are Sir Alan, who fought tooth and nail
to promote and protect the show; Scherer; Jarvis himself, soon the father
figure or possibly shop steward of the show; his friend, the actress
Miriam Margolyes; and his "landlady", the theatre critic and
director Ruth Leon.
Interestingly, Broadway, Jeeves? involves itself in the business
side of show business in a way that few others have tried. It also contains
more than its fair share of sadness, as the under-capitalised show limps
along to its inevitable last act.
This book is just what one would expect from Martin Jarvis, who is
a good teller of theatrical anecdotes. It gives a good insight into
the rehearsal process for a musical, samples life in the American theatre
and is affectionate and witty, if rarely demanding.
Philip
Fisher
Buy
Broadway
Jeeves? from our Bookstore.
Articles Indices:
Articles from 2004
Articles from 2003
Articles from 2002
Articles from 2001
Articles from 2000
Articles from 1999
Articles from 1998
Articles from 1997
|
