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An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
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The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
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I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
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Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Evening Standard rating
Reader rating
Dir: Trevor Nunn, David Bolger (choreographer).
Cast: Darius Danesh, Jill Paice, Edward Baker-Duly, Madeleine Worrall, NaTash Yvette Williams, Jina Burrows
Description: A musical adaptation of the famous American Civil War-set novel by Margaret Mitchell, composed by Margaret Martin, adapted and directed by Trevor Nunn.
Trains: Tube: Covent Garden/Holborn 
Phone: 0870890 0141
Website: www.rutheatres.com
Heart-throb: Darius Danesh as Rhett Butler and Jill Paice as Scarlett O'Hara
When it opened last month, Trevor Nunn’s musical version of Gone With the Wind was panned; the Evening Standard’s theatre critic Nicholas de Jongh advised those interested to catch the show before it blew away “on gales of ridicule”. How prophetic this proved to be, now that an announcement comes of the show’s final curtain on 14 June.
Such an inglorious end seems unfair. When I went to see it last week the theatre was close to full, and the almost-four-hours running time of which the critics so complained had by then been cut by half an hour, bringing it to a more respectable three hours, 10 minutes.
Fans of the 226-minute film (which used to be shown at cinemas with an interval) wouldn’t expect the show to be much shorter. I even had the stamina, as a romance-starved teenager, to watch the film twice through in one sitting, wistfully longing for my own Rhett Butler to appear in the village where I lived and kiss me.
As the stage Rhett, Darius Danesh, “the one that lost Pop Idol”, brings something of Clark Gable to every line. Far from minding about his impersonation, the audience seemed to lap up his exaggerated swagger. “It’s great fun, isn’t it?” said the jolly lady sitting behind me to her companion in the interval, after the dramatic burning of Atlanta scene.
There is the crux: this musical effort was surely made for devotees of that 1939 film. I’d guess that the average age of the theatre audience was nudging 80. They’d have watched Vivien Leigh ruffle her skirts and flirt her way across the screen first time round and were overjoyed to see their modern counterparts back before them — and bursting into song to boot.
While not a grey-haired octogenarian, I am a bit of a Gone With the Wind groupie, so I sat happily through the show. And even though you get the feeling that Nunn went through the script at random with a pencil earmarking short, sporadic spaces for songs, there are some terrifically powerful voices belting them out.
So fiddle-de-dee to triumphant theatre snobs; abridging Margaret Mitchell’s 1,000 pages into a musical was never going to please them.
But for fans of the original film and anyone with a romantic fibre lurking within, you could do worse than catch this fun, frothy show before it ends next week.
Until 14 June. Box office: 0844 412 4654.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Gone With the Wind is my favorite film. I read this book and watched movies many times.
here I found http://rapid4me.com/?q=Gone+With+the+Wind audiobook
- Terrw, new york, usa
I saw GWTW yesterday and as a musical it was no better and no worse than any other musicals that I have seen and I can see no reason apart from the critics poking their noses why the ticket sales are so low. I liked the staging and the costumes were excellent. The vocals were good especially the ensemble numbers. The adaptation from the book (a difficult task) was very true to the story with only a few pieces missed out. What did the viewer above want to see the whole stage set afire when Atlanta burnt. I thought the scene was well done. The only thing I would say is that usually when having seen a musical you come out of the theatre humming one of the tunes. I did not find this as there was no melody that went through the whole musical or one song that you could pick up on. A slight touch of comedy perhaps with Mrs Merryweather and her cohorts would have perhaps lightened some of the situations. Having said all that I am glad I went to see GWTW and I enjoyed the performance and so did other members of the audience who stood to show their appreciation.
- R. Hutt, Berkshire UK
I can't believe the poor reviews for GWTW, I must have gone to another show. GWTW was fab, standing ovation, fab scenery, great emotions, brilliant atmosphere, everyone who went the night I did enjoyed it immensely. I can only be sad that such a great show has been criticised by so many who haven't even been to see it. Go with an open mind, and you will enjoy it for what it is, a great show! Darius and Jill are fab and deserved to be applauded, as does Trevor Nunn who bought a legendary book to the theatre with such vigour ! Well done...
- Mrs M Guest-Naharnowicz, London England
In no way did GWTW deserve to run. I have never in my 50 years of theatre- going witnessed anything so banal as this! How can anyone defend a non-music musical, with a unoriginal staging repeated from an earlier Dickensian work. As for the burning of Atlanta I've had more excitement watching paint dry. The two leads were very poor; she particularly had the most awful squeak of a voice. No, not good enough for the West-End. One of the obstacles facing the cast on the night I went (a week after it opened) was to get caught up with the departing audience members! Perhaps after all his recent experiences, Sir Trevor will leave musicals directing to the professionals.
- Adam Buchanan, London, England
