The Remains of the Day | |
---|---|
Music | Alex Loveless |
Lyrics | Alex Loveless |
Book | Alex Loveless Chris Loveless |
Basis | "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro |
Productions | 2010 London |
The Remains of the Day is a musical written by Alex Loveless, based on the novel of the same name by Kazuo Ishiguro. The original production, directed by Chris Loveless, premiered at the Union Theatre in London, playing from August 31, 2010 to September 25, 2010. [1]
In an interview, Ishiguro said, "It struck me as an intriguing idea. ... I am a big believer in musicals and I see no reason why my novel shouldn't make a good one. Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music shows you can set an unlikely story to music. ... This is a small scale thing and I might feel more cautious about it if the film version hadn't been such serious, faithful adaptation." [2]
The musical received mixed reviews. Among the positive reviewers, Fiona Mountford wrote, "“Rashbrook gives a marvellously restrained performance that hints at the unexplored depths of Stevens’s soul, and he and Bradshaw, plus a top-notch ensemble, make easy work of the songs, many of which have a solemn and hymn-like feel. It’s not all gloom, though, with the frothy music hall number 'The End of the Pier' to lighten the mood. A canny West End producer could do far worse than to tweak this fine show for a transfer.” [4] The What's On Stage review agreed, "The songs are almost always well-integrated, intelligently written, and subtly performed. Although Loveless’ adaptation does not quite pack what we feel is its potential punch, it does suggest a wealth of potential." [4] BroadwayWorld's review by Carrie Dunn observed, "...some of this show works surprisingly well. This is pretty much entirely down to the touching, subtle performances of Stephen Rashbrook as butler Stevens and Lucy Bradshaw as housekeeper Miss Kenton. Both are compelling viewing, and work with the frequently limited (by necessity) material they have, endowing it with rich emotion." [5]
Mixed to negative reviews included those in the Financial Times , [6] TimeOut [7] and MusicOMH. [8]
Carousel is the second musical by the team of Richard Rodgers (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II. The 1945 work was adapted from Ferenc Molnár's 1909 play Liliom, transplanting its Budapest setting to the Maine coastline. The story revolves around carousel barker Billy Bigelow, whose romance with millworker Julie Jordan comes at the price of both their jobs. He participates in a robbery to provide for Julie and their unborn child; after it goes tragically wrong, he is given a chance to make things right. A secondary plot line deals with millworker Carrie Pipperidge and her romance with ambitious fisherman Enoch Snow. The show includes the well-known songs "If I Loved You", "June Is Bustin' Out All Over" and "You'll Never Walk Alone". Richard Rodgers later wrote that Carousel was his favorite of all his musicals.
Sir Kazuo Ishiguro is a Japanese-born British novelist, screenwriter, musician, and short-story writer. He is one of the most critically acclaimed contemporary fiction authors writing in English, having been awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature. In its citation, the Swedish Academy described Ishiguro as a writer "who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world".
The Remains of the Day is a 1989 novel by the Nobel Prize-winning British author Kazuo Ishiguro. The protagonist, Stevens, is a butler with a long record of service at Darlington Hall, a fictitious stately home near Oxford, England. In 1956, he takes a road trip to visit a former colleague, and reminisces about events at Darlington Hall in the 1920s and 1930s.
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