The Third Man. Book & Lyrics by Don Black & Christopher Hampton. Music by Don Black. The Menier Chocolate Factory, 53 Southwark Street, London SE 1 to 9 September 2023. 2**. William Russell.
Lavishly staged, handsomely designed, with a cast as big as any on a Shaftesbury Avenue stage, directed by Trevor Nunn, whose musical direction credentials are pretty good, with writers and a composer who also have enviable track record one could have expected a decent show. But just what made any of them think that Graham Greene's story filmed memorably by Carol Reed was the stuff of musical theatre is one of those questions only they can answer. Turgid, hammy, with the ensemble working overtime shoving chairs and tables and other bits of scenery on and off, this ranks with the world's worst musicals. Things are not helped by the fact that Sam Underwood, who plays Holly , while personable and possessing a decent voice, is extremely annoying and silly, an overgrown teenager whereas Joseph Cotton, who plays Holly, a writer of pulp Westerns, in the film, he may have been adrift in post war Vienna then divided into four sectors - French, American, Russian and British - but he was a grown up man out of his depth trying to find out how Harry Lime, the friend who had invited him, had died. As for Anna, nicely enough done by Natalie Dunn, Lime's lover, she is no longer a displaced person but a cabaret artist which allows for a smutty song in a low dive Cabaret style song that sounds like a Kander and Ebb reject. However designer Paul Farnsworth has stripped the Menier bare to create an impressive world all dark gray and rubble strewn suitably lit by lighting designer Emma Chapman with everyone dressed in the same monochrome by costume designer Farnsworth. The only colour comes in that inserted cabaret number.
It is not those who have staged it that are to blame, although Nunn as usual takes his time. indeed at two and a half hours with interval this is hare stuff from the usual tortoise, but those who wrote and composed it. The score is bland, the substitute for the zither of the film is feeble, and the dialogue clunky while the lyrics - well Lime, slime and crime suggest a spell reading the collected works of Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein would not go amiss ans for "So he is dead - I can't get this out of my head" warbled by Holly at the Lime's supposed funeral it really is deplorable. The film is also famous for Orson Welles's performance as Lime but here Simon Bailey proves to be pretty well a blank space. This is the first of three musicals the Menier is planning to stage up to Christmas - let us hope things can only get better.
Holly Martins - Sam Underwood; Anna - Natalie Dunne; Calloway - Edward Baker-Duly; Harry Lime - Simon Bailey.
and Chanice Alexander-Burnett; Craig Bently; Carriopeia Berkely-Ogyepong; Derek Griffiths; Leah Harris, Jonathan Andrew Hume; Rachel Izen; Aly Merral; Gary Milner; Harry Morrison; Tim Sterling; Tom Walton; Alan Vicary.
Director: Trevor Nunn; Set & Costume Designer - Paul Farnsworth; Lighting designer - Emma Chapman; Sound Designer - Gregory Clark; Musical Director - Tamara Springer; choreography - Rebecca Howell; production photographs - Manuel Harlan.
