Paul Kerryson has pulled out all the stops once more and tackled a musical which, while it may not be to everyone's taste, stretches the performing skills of all those taking part and presents us with an evening of absorbing and entertaining fluidity. | "The evening just grows on you as it builds to an exciting and unusual climax when the commercial prowess of 21st century Japan is celebrated..." | | Clive Roberts- reviewer |
He takes Sondheim's musical which tackles the subject of Japan's attempts to resist imperialistic overtures backed up by naval force and makes it into an acceptable and intriguing cocktail of east and west. The story itself is intriguing, based as it is on fact. Japan, at one stage, kicked out all foreigners in a bid to keep its cultural heritage pure. Pure bred Japanese were treated harshly. To leave the land of your birth and then to return were both regarded as heinous crimes, each punishable by death. We are also exposed to all sorts of tensions within the Japanese social and political structure with the mighty shoguns taking over power from the child emperor to whom they owe allegiance and the evening proves to be educational as well as entertaining. Kerryson takes this somewhat unpalatable story and makes the clever decision to absorb Japanese acting styles within his production. Firstly he adapts the auditorium with the construction of two long ramps or hanamichi, which bring the action much closer to the audience. He also adopts the Kabuki style, which dates back to the 19th century, in which all the parts are played by men. Their aim is to portray aspects of femininity rather than the character of any one individual and the ploy works brilliantly.This brings both humour and pathos to the evening in equal measure. The tea ceremony where a mother tries to warn and stir her weak shogun son into action but finally ends up murdering him, had me struggling to suppress real belly laughs. The arrival of the world's major powers to get a share of Japan's commercial pie is also a true expression of theatrical farce. The evening just grows on you as it builds to an exciting and unusual climax when the commercial prowess of 21st century Japan is celebrated in a way which brings the story right up to date. A strong cast is ably led by Junix Inocian as the narrator and there are impressive contributions from Julian Forsyth, Hadley Fraser, Dougal Irvine and Spencer Noll. David Needham's choreography which successfully incorporates elements of both American and Japanese musical theatre takes the show onto a new level while the set by Jane Linz Roberts is a masterclass in simplicity. Special praise must go to the orchestra, so ably led by Julian Kelly, who helped turn this into a classic. Don't be put off by the composer or the subject matter – this is indeed entertainment to savour, my only regret being that not every seat in the theatre was filled. I'm now really looking forward to the time when we can see Paul Kerryson using a more exciting theatre space which will enable him to give full scope to his obvious talents in bringing top class entertainment to the fore. Pacific Overtures runs at Leicester Haymarket Theatre until 06 June. Performances are at 19:30 and matinees are at 14:30 on Wednesday and Saturday. Tickets are £22/£16/£12 (£7 students and £2 off for concessions). | 
