|
|
||
|
News
|
||
|
News |
Dateline: 6th August, 2005
The Iron Mask Crashes New musical Behind the Iron Mask is to close on 20th August, just eighteen days after it opened, following previews from 20th July. A statement from the producers, GBM Productions Ltd, blames the state of the West End, saying, "The current state of the West End has meant many shows are discounting to keep running. It has been difficult for a new musical to sustain sufficient audience levels and meet its running costs." However critical reaction to the show has been uniformly bad. Charles Spencer in the Telegraph called it a "pile of ordure" and that "the cast perform as if they have been on a prolonged Mogadon bender", whilst the Guardian's Lyn Gardner says "This musical three-hander is not Dumas the elder or even Dumas the younger, but entirely Dumas the dumber" and finishes her review by saying, "The sheer ineptitude of the evening bears all the hallmarks of the West End equivalent of vanity publishing. In this case it is not just a vanity project but a calamity project." Although admitting that the music sometimes is pleasant in a Lloyd Webber way, Benedict Nightingale in the the Times adds, "The lyrics are mostly vile and the sudden twists of behaviour would take platoons of psychologists to unravel." The BTG's John Thaxter is a little kinder, although he concludes that the major problem is that "having taken ages to set up the scene, nothing much happens beyond a hinted night of passion between the prisoner and the gypsy, and some embarrassingly gluey male-bonding in the moments before a poisoned chalice helps bring down the curtain on a disappointing evening." John Robinson, who write the music and lyrics, says he is "mystified" by the critical reaction. "The critics don't bother me one iota," he said. "They feel it necessary to say these things - why, I really don't know. The reviews were a big surprise to me. It doesn't deter me from the qualities of the show. It's a fantastic musical." Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
|
|
|
|
