PROMISES, PROMISES

Book by Neil Simon, Music by Burt Bacharach, Lyrics by Hal David

The Crucible Theatre Sheffield

Performance : 7th December

So many promises go un-kept both in life and also in the theatre. Promises of greatness and joy which when shown on stage have all the content of the hollowest of victories. Luckily for all of us ‘Promises Promises’ not only delivers its promises but rightly deserves to be able to bellow them out from every street corner and every advertising hoarding. This IS musical theatre. This is the BEST of musical theatre. A triumph from start to finish in terms of acting, staging, singing, oh…and the writing, of course.

We open to four American looking desks on which lie typewriters and dictation machines with a backdrop of an American style elevator with the words ‘Consolidated Life’ writ large above the doors. The white hand above the lift moving upwards in an arc as the lift rises, signifying and nudging our sensibilities to remember the best of 50s and 60s movies. This could be the set of the new Doris Day and Rock Hudson movie and so even before the play begins our collective hearts and minds are lifted (if, that is, you’ve ever seen a Rock Hudson, Doris Day movie). A blue marble stage perfectly accompanies the corporate 50s look with fake ‘high in the sky’ windows out of which we can see the fake black cardboard silhouette of New York. The stage, as they say, is set.

Suddenly the play begins with a Bacharach crescendo and we are plunged into a busy office scene. Men in suits looking/ being/ acting important and the women beautiful and bustling and no doubt looking for the right guy. As everyone leaves we are left on stage with our hero, Chuck. A nice man who wants to get on in life, who wants to be somebody…anybody. Richard Frame plays Chuck so well and seems so at home on stage we, the audience, immediately warm to him. Like the finest of actors he is able to make the character’s suspect morality and selfish motivations seem acceptable, because after all, we know he’s just so darned nice. That is just one of the wonderful qualities that shine through in this performance. Richard’s singing is superb, his timing exquisite and considering the amount of work he has to do in the performance the fact that he never flags or appears under par is an achievement indeed.

For those unfamiliar with the plot, Chuck is in love with a company secretary named Fran. Chuck, in an effort to get ahead, begins to loan out the use of his apartment to executives who need somewhere to take their mistresses for a few hours. Eventually the head of the company hears of this and asks Chuck for a similar arrangement. Chuck agrees, unknowing that the boss is taking Fran. What ensues is a comedy and musical cavalcade of misdirection, heartbreak, laughter, romance, dance and ultimately joy.

Emma Williams as Fran Kubelik is perfectly cast as the heroine and is indeed reminiscent of Shirley Maclaine who played the character in the film on which this is based. She is a superb actress and deals with the rigours of combining musical theatre with ‘proper’ acting seem effortless. She also has one of the most beautiful voices it has ever been my privilege to hear in the theatre. It is clean, resolutely real, and pure and without the affectations that musical theatre voices usually pick up. It almost seemed as effortless for her as speaking, which, trust me, it’s not.

The rest of the cast were also marvellous and at no point did you feel removed from the play. They were authentic, funny, sometimes tragic and more to the point, true to the piece. To single any one of them out would be unfair as they all made it a fantastic evening at the theatre. So well done to all for ‘Promises, Promises’ – you certainly delivered!

Written by Paul Tyree