Out and About with Les Solomon

Agent and director Les Solomon is excited to commence a new occasional column for Stage Whispers. In his first report he raves about movie Matilda, Phantom in Melbourne, Australia’s original Dolly the late Carole Cook and more.

I was thrilled to finally see the movie version of Matilda. After sitting and watching it again, I am convinced it’s the best movie musical in years. Ignored by the film crits awards so far, its way ahead of its time in its psychotic, psychedelic style in much the same way as The Wizard of Oz and It’s a Wonderful Life were ignored when first released.

I hope Netflix has the foresight to release it on DVD to help preserve it for generations to come. Pleased its only playing in cinemas in the UK till mid-year, it really is too good to be rushed onto streaming. It makes more sense of the original story than the stage show ever could; it is really a 'movie', not a film of a stage show. A masterwork for the ages. A shame so many of the movie awards are dictated by how much publicity is thrown at the product beforehand. Netflix failed in that regard. I think Netflix was too busy promoting the less interesting Glass Onion. Matilda is my favourite movie of the year so far by a mile.

Matilda images: Dan Smith / Netflix

But right alongside it is Steven Spielberg’s remembrance of his own youth in The Fablemans. I don’t know whether it’s because I am only one year younger than Mr Spielberg, but I identified so much with this movie. Like him, the first movie I sat all the way through was The Greatest Show on Earth and I still remember the effect of the train crash affected me as it did him. I played around in Super 8mm movies for many years and scenes of him cutting and pasting strips of film together made me feel very nostalgic as did James Darren singing “Goodbye Cruel World” in the beach sequences. 

But even if you didn’t live though the era of the fifties and sixties, there is much to identify and love here, especially the performances of Michelle Williams, Paul Dano and a delightful newcomer called Gabriel La Belle who captures the young nebbish Spielberg with great panache and style. There is also a glorious cameo by one of our greatest film makers playing one of the great film makers of the past - no spoilers, see the movie and relish the final scene in which he appears. A movie that is remarkable and quite theatrical in its own way – it deserves so richly its two Golden Globes for "best picture" and "direction" this week.

The Phantom of the Opera images: Daniel Boud.

Popped down to Melbourne to see some clients and finally caught the new reworked version of The Phantom of the Opera. I missed it in Sydney, mainly because it was hard to get a seat under $350. Prices were a lot more reasonable at the glorious Arts Centre, which remains one of my all time favourite large theatre houses. I’ve never seen this new re-staging before and it really makes the most of modern theatrical technology to give the show an extra kick.The cast and performances were all phenomenal, Josh Piterman makes a very fine Phantom, but Blake Bowden is another step again. His voice is pure Mario Lanza-like and having that voice soar into classic traditional opera like music theatre is breathtaking. Oh the journey that young man has taken from when I first remember him at 17 as a rather average "Tony" in a high school production of West Side. 

But the standard of the whole show is world class and I bet they don’t have a full lush large live orchestra playing it in London or New York now. How thrilling to see a sold-out crowd of over 2200 pack out the Arts Centre. What new show can come along and thrill an audience the way this audience was thrilled. Lavish and brilliant.

I was very sad to see the passing (just short of 99 years) of Carole Cook. I wonder how many people remember she was the original Australian Dolly in Hello, Dolly! In the fifties and sixties, Australia had all sorts of second-rate ensemble people who were dragged out here as Broadway "stars" to play leads in Australian versions of Broadway hits, but Carole was the real deal when she played Dolly. As a stagestruck teenager, I took my mother and we ended up going back several times because my mother wanted to take cookies to Carole. Carole went on to an illustrious career including a lead in the original Broadway company of 42nd Street. I have seen many "Dollies" including an ageing Carol Channing, a somewhat miscast Bette Midler, but Carole was the one who really "got" Dolly right.

Finally, a word on the Stephen Sondheim concert, performed last May in London, it has found its way onto Youtube in a beautiful rich copy taken directly from the broadcast of the show on New Year's Eve in London. It probably isn't supposed to be there and clearly recorded by someone, but thank goodness we can see it, as it probably will take years to find its way onto the ABC or one of the streaming channels or, please, please-onto DVD.  

Formulated very much in the style of Cameron Mackintosh's concert of 24 years ago -Hey, Mr Producer — it had some fine highlights. I am highly critical of the fact that none of the British music theatre stars were credited or introduced during the show, so we had to guess who we were seeing - some were excellent, some just average. But there was no need to guess when Bernadette Peters, Judi Dench, Michael Ball, Imelda Staunton and the ever-young Petula Clarke made their appearances. All were brilliant, I actually think Bernadette Peters sounds more interesting now that she has lost that slightly girlish lilt she gave to her performances for so many years. Her performance of "Children will Listen" took the breath away, Judi Dench did “Send in the Clowns" once again to perfection, Imelda Staunton recreated her Momma Rose from Gypsy, but for my money the highlight was Petula Clarke making perfect sense of "I’m Still Here”. At 80 plus, she is a true living legend, from the pop days, to her all too short movie career (her "Goodbye Mr Chips" remains a personal favourite of mine), to her recent stage appearance in Mary Poppins in the UK as the bird woman, she is and always was, a perfect example of a true superstar. Overall, I believe Sondheim would have been smiling down from above at the night.