If I'd been in the Russian Revolution I would absolutely have wanted it to be like an nineteen eighties Cameron Macintosh musical. Coincidentally that's also what I was hoping for when I booked a ticket to see Broadway's monolithic musical adaptation of the Russian epic, DR ZHIVAGO. And boy, do they deliver!It’s the epic love story of an aristocratic doctor and a female revolutionary who somehow keep finding each other amongst the bloodshed and shifting political factions of the revolution. Two minutes in and the ensemble are gliding around the stage in gorgeous Edwardian funeral garb beneath glistening black umbrellas, drizzle and forbidding skies. Five minutes in and they're running down stage at us and calling for revolution. Ten minutes in and the young firebrands are having a vodka drinking competition whilst Cossack dancing. Twenty minutes in and a nurse is singing Lara's theme (from the film of DR ZHIVAGO) in a field hospital as the hero and heroine swirl through the wounded, momentarily oblivious to the horror, in each other's arms. As the interval approaches we learn that war has left many "empty chairs" (honestly I'm not making this up) where poets used to sit.
2nd act highlights included our heroine joining a line of wholesome country gals, scything corn. (As throughout she helpfully wears turquoise so we can pick her out) The shows three jokes are also post interval - one about handwriting, one about a library book and one about cats. As the musical builds to its climax the power ballad count stretches well into double figure and the set designer finally gives up and just flies in some icicles.
Don't we all secretly love all this? Beautiful protagonists with chiselled cheekbones, glaring at us through dry ice and semaphore? For years now they've been making us perform and watch musicals which make fun of musicals. But what we really want is another Saigon / Les Mis experience when for three hours musical theatre is the world and everything in it. ZHIVAGO even has a couple of take home tunes too.
The show’s been a big hit in Germany, if it survives its Broadway press night it seems certain to come to London where the same producers are enjoying great success with MEMPHIS.
The genius of Robert Askin's hilarious play about a troubled young Christian who's hand puppet becomes possessed by Satan is that he takes it all to unthinkable extremes whilst remaining true to a logical progression of events. It’s somehow so persuasive a journey that you can believe in the spiralling of mayhem right through to the blood dripping, shocking conclusion.