TRICK photography has been used in-film making almost from the time of the first moving pictures – Georges Méliès’s Trip to the Moon featured a rocket landing in the Man in the Moon’s eye way back in 1902.
It had become much more sophisticated by 1937, when Cary Grant and Constance Bennett caused comic havoc floating in space and walking through walls in Topper, and film-makers had the art of mixing ghosts and live people down to a fine art by the time Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg took the film world by storm with their mixture of thriller, mystery and romance with a dash of outrageous comedy, in Ghost in 1990. The introduction of the 35-year-old song Unchained Melody to the other numbers in the film also hit the jackpot.
Bringing Ghost the Musical to the stage, Bruce Joel Rubin’s book and lyrics kept very close to the film script. Director Bob Tomson and choreographer Alistair David sent Rebekah Lowings, Josh St Clair and Jacqui Dubois, (following in the footsteps of Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg in the roles of bereaved Molly Jenson, her ghostly lover Sam Wheat, and charlatan psychic medium Oda Mae Brown), down the same dramatic, vocal, and comedy roads. Rebekah and Josh took up the vocal and dramatic challenges stylishly, and Jaqui, with no more than a passing nod to the Whoopster, was looking to raise as many laughs as possible.
And those laughs are important to the health of this production, because if you take a hard look at the storyline, it has a very dark heart. The lovers’ corrupt friend Carl, played by James Mateo-Salt, hires trigger-happy Willie Lopez (played by Jules Brown), to mug Sam and rob him of a wallet that contains information that will expose his misdeeds, the mugging goes wrong and Sam is killed.
The ghostly Sam soon realises that he cannot wreak revenge on Carl or defend Molly from his dangerous advances, until he discovers Oda Mae, who can hear, but not see him. The possibilities for comedy and drama in such a situation are immense, providing you can convince us that Sam really is just a ghostly presence. Richard Pinner’s illusions, Nick Richings’s lighting plot, Dan Samson’s sound design and Mark Bailey’s sets are all skillfully used to help this illusion and create the right atmosphere for drama or comedy. Their combined work may not be as effective as the wonders at the disposal of a modern cameraman and film editor, but it is extremely effective, serving the production very well and leaving quite a few in the audience asking ‘how did they do that?’.
A sparely-used, well organised ensemble and expert contribution from the underused Les Dennis, combining a know-all Hospital Ghost with the sort of ineffectual and easily-led Bank Manger we all dream of having, and an outrageous raging bull of a Subway Ghost from Garry Lee, punch above their weight in a show which has 13 other well chosen numbers in support of Unchained Melody to help move the story from romance, via mystery thriller to high drama.
GRP