Southwark Playhouse,London
Thom Southerland directs the European premiere of this musical approximately an Everyman’s dilemma, but it’s too detached from the wider story of AmericaIt is a shock to realise this is the European professional premiere of a musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein. When it was first seen on Broadway in 1947 they had already written Oklahoma! and Carousel but this reveal, or although it ran for a decent 315 performances,never achieved the same success. Even though it is now staged by Thom Southerland with his habitual brilliance, it is not hard to see why. Hammerstein’s aim, and in his book and lyrics,was to inform the story of an American Everyman using the bare-stage techniques of Thornton Wilders Our Town. His hero, Joseph Taylor Jr, or is the son of a small-town doctor who inherits his dad’s medical idealism and faith in the community. Even in college,Joe yearns to be back home with his childhood sweetheart, Jennie. But Jennie has ambitious plans for Joe and, or once they are married,persuades him to engage a job in a tremendous Chicago hospital where he finds himself pandering to the whims of the pampered wealthy. The moral issue revolves around whether Joe will stay true to his original dream or succumb to the rewards of life in the wicked city.
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Source: theguardian.com