Stoker Wilde
Book and lyrics Eric Rosen
Music and lyrics Rodney Bush
Directed by Seimi Campbell
Wilton’s Music Hall
This semi-staged new musical is a work in progress. It is not presented as a finished, polished work and that is explained by the director at the start. For that reason I am not offering a star rating her because I don’t think, at this stage, that it would be helpful. Instead I shall confine myself to what I hope will be taken as a few constructive observations.
The show examines the relationship between Oscar Wilde (Glenn Adamson) and Bram Stoker (Connor Carson). They moved in the same circles in Ireland, both wanted to marry Florence (Christina Bennington) and they remained friends of a sort until Wilde’s death in 1900 following his imprisonment. Given Wilde’s flamboyant predilections they were probably also lovers, at least when they were young. Eric Rosen’s book focuses on that quite heavily. Stoker certainly wrote quasi-erotic letters of admiration to Walt Whitman and idolised Henry Irving (David Bedella – good) for whom he ran London’s Lyceum Theatre and all that features in this show. So it’s firmly rooted in truth even though, obviously, it’s fictionalised.
The title is a bit odd because effectively this is just another reworking of the Oscar Wilde story and Adamson is clearly having great fun, stealing the stage by hamming up the louche charisma. The lyricists, however, have worked too hard trying to cram in every aphorism Wilde ever came up with and that feels clichéd. Carson meanwhile has a hard job because Stoker, in comparison with Wilde, is a dull man but he does his best with it. Bennington takes a while to get her role going but eventually she’s quite convincing as Stoker’s wife of convenience and she does a rather impressive anguished full belt.
The music is unmemorable and samey and I was uneasy about the 6/8 work which lilted along happily when happiness didn’t quite seem right for the mood. It’s quite nicely accompanied by a four-piece band (led by Rodney Bush on keys) who sit among the actors on stage and they play well enough although the guitar is too loud at the beginning so that Carson’s first number is drowned out. There’s too much close crooning into mics and added echo for my taste and, as a device, that too begins to feel repetitive.
This narrative is a good idea for a musical and the piece definitely has potential but before that is realised, a great deal more work will be needed.
