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"Blimey! From Broadway to Portsmouth?" A hectic matinee at the Theatre Royal, few patrons in the seats but plenty of drama in the wings. The 42nd Street situation, understudy (Twiggy) is pushed into the spotlight while vexed star (Glenda Jackson) sits with crutches in the audience, reluctantly joining in their tears. Mr. De Thrill from Hollywood (Vladek Sheybal) in the stage box triggers a bit of competition among troupers, so the hoofer (Antonia Ellis) literally plays to the balcony during her Charleston with the stork-legged tap-dancer (Tommy Tune): "One more ad-lib like that, Toots, and you're gettin' a knuckle sandwich!" A wanton raid on Busby Berkeley's closet for Ken Russell's widescreen pirouette, a sardonic sorcerer's parody of innocence. Villa Caprice and Pierrette's ball under the proscenium, pinwheel cascades in the imaginations of the visiting cinéaste and the production manager (Max Adrian). Gargantuan Victrolas, Dionysian bacchanalias, a fantasy that begins inside a dollhouse and dilates into a mushroom forest. "I say, that's a kicky step." Gallic bawd (Barbara Windsor), Cockney ham (Bryan Pringle), wave upon wave of parasol-twirlers with extra-wide eyes and extra-cavernous grins. "I Could Be Happy with You" as a vortex of painted chorines, a dash of pizzazz in "It's Never Too Late to Fall in Love" courtesy of the mischievous showgirl (Georgina Hale). Ahead of Potter the corrosive British lens on a catchy tune, "a foreign language to them Yanks." A moment of calm at last amid the fiendish gusto, just the ingénue's toothpick limbs and scrunched forehead during "All I Do Is Dream of You." Luhrmann gives it a valiant try with Moulin Rouge! but the sequel must come from Russell—De Thrill heads home to make his Singin' in the Rain, and there's Valentino. Cinematography by David Watkin. With Christopher Gable, Moyra Fraser, Murray Melvin, Sally Bryant, Brian Murphy, Graham Hermitage, and Caryl Little.
--- Fernando F. Croce |