Musical stumbles into parody
Composer and lyricist Steven Sondheim is a living legend in musical theatre. He wrote the lyrics of West Side Story and Gypsy and the music and lyrics to A Little Night Music and Sweeney Todd. Many think him a legend, a genius who can do no wrong.
So why was it that I found myself cringing as I watched a revival of his Pacific Overtures in London's famous Donmar Warehouse? Pacific Overtures is more a political fable than a musical and deals with the forced opening up of Japan by the Americans in the mid-19th century and its subsequent history up until the present.
The story is even told from the Japanese perspective, yet representations of the Japanese were often ghastly stereotypes. In the aftermath of the US occupation of Iraq Pacific Overtures - with its critique of America as an exploitative colonising power - had a chance to strike a contemporary chord. There are suspicions that the American liberation of Iraq had as much to do with oil as anything else and Pacific Overtures could have tapped into this critical mood and given the piece a topical punch.
Yet with a mix of Caucasian and Asian actors dressed in kimonos and made to shriek mid-sentence like Burt Kwouk playing Inspector Clousseau's martial arts-crazy man servant Kato in the Pink Panther films, and portentous haikus delivered with mock irony, Pacific Overtures was on about the same level of authenticity and insight concerning Japanese culture as Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado. You could see director Gary Griffins' pared-down production, a revival of his 2001 Chicago Shakespeare Theatre effort, straining after a Brechtian satirical seriousness, yet what he achieved was little more than a rather minimalist form of Nanki-Pooism.
Yet the piece must have its virtues. The English National Opera gave it the full monty in 1987, bringing it into its season alongside great works of the classical opera repertoire. The Japanese cannot be offended by it - as recently as 2000 the New National Theatre of Tokyo performed it in a production by Amon Miyamoto, which was revived last year. And it has to be said the original 1973 production received nine Tony award nominations and won in two categories - best costume and best scenic design.
Pacific Overtures tells the history of Japan from 1853 when Commodore Matthew Perry anchored American warships in Edo Bay and forced Japan to open up to the west.
There are two central characters, Kayama Yasaemon, a traditional samurai, and his friend Manjiro, a fisherman. As Japan becomes more Americanised Kayama becomes increasingly westernised, whereas Manjiro rejects this trend and goes back to his roots. The bare wooden rectangular stage on which an all-male cast perform in was an unmistakable attempt to evoke Japanese noh and kabuki theatre. Sondheim's score clearly borrowed from various Japanese musical styles.
This could have been a homage to Japanese musical and theatrical traditions - instead it was parody and pastiche.
