Rebecca (Budapest)

[Cia]

Rebecca - Operettszínház, Budapest
March 22nd 2010


Vágó Zsuzsi
"Én" (being used to the Austrian production, I'll call her Ich)

Szabó P. Szilveszter
Maxim de Winter

Bálint Ádám
Jack Fawell

Náray Erika
Mrs. Van Hopper

Pálfalvy Attila
Frank Crawley

Janza Kata
Mrs. Danvers

Nádasi Veronika
Beatrice

Sánta László
Ben

Jantyik Csaba
Julyan ezredes

Marik Péter
Frith

Oláh Tibor
Robert

Csuha Lajos
Giles

Péter Richárd
Horridge

Arányi Adrienn
Mrs. Rutherford



These are now first impressions and my opinions are likely to change a bit in the future, but I still want to write them down.

I really like the production. There's the certain Operettszínház stamp on it (lots of smoke, random ensemble members in surprising scenes, people being lifted up on platforms to sing big solos, etc.), but far less than I've this far seen in any other production there. The directing worked nicely, people had contact and chemistry with each other and I don't remember any scenes where something would have really felt wrong. I have to see it again to get a more developed opinion because there's lots to see, but so far nothing annoyed me. We have tickets for next Friday, so then I'll probably notice more details. No songs were removed or changed, but there were some little pieces of dialogue that I haven't heard before. For example, in the scene where Maxim tells about Rebecca's illness to Frank, in the end Frank says "You're free now" and Maxim answers something like "No, I'm not sure".

The Operettszínház has a strong tradition with operettas (well, duh) and you can see it in their musicals. For example, in Elisabeth they have attempted to transfer the directing style, sets and choreographies of an operetta into a drama musical, and IMO the result doesn't work. There's too much everything on stage. They've gradually learned something, though, so in Rebecca the operetta tradition is already much less visible, and the Epilogue must be the first time in the history of the theatre when we actually see a completely empty stage. The choreographies of Ákos Tihányi worked very nicely, they were clear enough to look good and they didn't use too much people at the same time.

The sets were beautiful. They are very much based on the Vienna sets (lots of blue colour, the big staircase, the hotel, Rebecca's room with balcony and so on), but the set designer had created something original out of them and they mostly worked very well. There wasn't half as much useless props on the stage as usually in that theatre, and people had enough space to move and dance and just be. They used a lot of projections and those looked natural.

Acting-wise, I liked the actors. In Hungary actors generally can bring out emotions and details like in no other country where I've been to theatre, and the characters worked very well alone and together. But, but... I've got a general problem with the Operettszínház actors, and that's unfortunately their singing. It's not Hungarian actors in general, it's the actors of Operettszínház. I don't know why, perhaps they all have a common singing teacher. Apart from some exceptions, they tend to sound very forced and unnatural to my ears. I can't explain it very well, but it's like the sound wouldn't be coming out freely, there's something keeping it down. Every time they have to get even a tiny bit more voice out of them, they seem to be more shouting than singing. In most cases it doesn't disturb me too much and I can watch a production without agony, but I just don't enjoy the singing. Some voices really hurt my ears, though, and usually Kata Janza is one of them.

In this cast everyone except László Sánta sounded more or less bad to me. I like for example Zsuzsi's voice when she doesn't shout, but now she shouted a lot. I had feared what Kata would sound like as Danvers, but in the end she wasn't that bad. Not good, but better than I had expected. The theatre has some sound tech problems, too, and in some parts of the theatre the sound is quite sharp.

Danvers clearly had something wrong in the head, and I'm not yet sure if I like it. During "Sie ergibt sich nicht" she takes dead orchid petals in her hands and lets them slowly fall on floor while she sings, and in the end of the song she's sort of singing in a light rain of white orchid petals. Then she kneels at the orchid pots like at an altar. It worked nicely, but I could also do with a bit less of Danny's weirdness. Kata is a decent actor, very stiff and scary and powerful, but nothing spectacularly genious.

Ben is scared of Rebecca. He's shaking, desperate, nearly hysterical, and IMO one of the strongest characters in the production. I wanted to hug him and tell everything's well now. In him you can so well see what Rebecca really was like, and László played him excellently and had definitely the best voice of the cast.

Szilveszter was quite stiff, but as Maxim he can use all that angsting potential he has and he did it well. This must be the first time I've seen him smile on stage. I'd have liked to see a bit more of the Maxim who feels at home in society, because there is also that side of him, but I assume Sziszi will find it sooner or later. In some ways he was very much like the Maxim in the novel. When I first saw the musical in Vienna, Uwe's romantic gestures as Maxim annoyed me because "my" Maxim never was very much in love. Here they had emphasized the lack of romance in Maxim's behaviour. It showed both in Sziszi's acting and in the scenes. In the wedding scene Ich had no bridal dress or flowers or anything, and after them another couple came out of the church with all that normal wedding fuss. Ich caught the bridal buquet, but Maxim took it and gave it to some wedding guest, making her much happier than what Ich seemed to be.

Zsuzsi was a very sweet Ich, and I got the feeling that Ich really tried to be what she should be and make both herself and Maxim happy. The change in the 2nd act was amazing. Already the small hand gesture with which she told Frith that she doesn't want bread was full of lady-like attitude. She still had the scared side in her, but in the house she was now confident. Interestingly, we saw her making the servants re-order Rebecca's room and not just some random dining room.

I got the feeling that lots of the atmosphere we see is in the head of either Mrs Danvers or Ich. The production has a very psychological feeling in it, and it emphazises the dark sides of the story even more than what I've seen in the previous productions. One nice example to which I paid a lot of attention are the shadows or ghosts or whatever they are that accompany Danvers in the title song. In this production there are four female, a bit zombie-like creatures going around in Manderley, mostly in the darker scenes with Danvers and Ich. For example, they walk around Ich in the Prologue, and later she sees them in the mirrors of Rebecca's room, which I totally adored because there's a lot of mirror symbolism in the original novel and I'm fond of it. In the novel Ich sometimes sees Rebecca as her own mirror image, so they had used that idea here. During the Rebecca song in the 2nd act the mirrors start to haunt and follow Ich, and after that the creatures move more and more outside the mirrors, for example around the balcony when Danny tries to persuade Ich to jump. In that scene they slightly disturbed me, they seemed to be too much and generally the scene wasn't very scary. I liked the creatures more when they were in the mirrors or just among the ensemble and not too highlighted, so they disturbed a bit in some scenes.

That's all for now. I'm curious to see what I'll think after the next time. On Friday we should see the other cast with Dóra Szinetár, Zoltán Bereczki and Veronika Nádasi.

[Lora]

Thank you so much for the review

[safira]

Thanks for your review.
I´ve seen the show on Saturday afternoon and both on Sunday, and your description of Szilveszter as Maxim reminds me of the Saturday performance. On Sunday he showed more different emtotions.

In my opinion you´ll see a different show on Friday because in my opinion the first cast has found another way to act this musical. They´ve been more distanced to everyone.

I have finished writing my reportin German, but not the English translation, yet. If somebody wants to (and can) read it in German already, look here:
www.razyboard.com/system/morethread-rebecca-budapest-maerz-2010-luxystarlight-1747603-5879809-0.html

[safira]

And here´s my English version:
Rebecca - Operettszínház, Budapest
20.3.2010, 15.00
21.3.2010, 15.00 and 19.00

Two shows were planned, in the end I saw three shows. You can see I liked the musical.

Untypical for Budapest the structure of the Vienna version was kept and the song order not changed. Well, I didn´t know what was there to change. The first act is quite long with 1 ½ hours. Break is after the ball, when „En“ appeared in her ball dress and Mrs Danvers calls out for Rebeccas ghost once more. The second act lasts 1 ¼ hour, so altogether with the break and applause one´s a bit more than 3 hours in the theatre.

The song „Wir sind britisch“ has been shortened, the first stanza about the weather is gone. The second stanza was divided, so that now the song begins with the text about Maxim, while the second stanza is about the ball. I can´t say whether that makes sense as I didn´t get the meaning of the song anyway. Ok, its nicely entertaining and gives time to change the set behind the prospekt.
The set looks fascinatingly different to the other productions I´ve seen. There are many projections (e.g. the sea, Manderley in its original look and burnt down, Mr de Winter senior with both his kids).

The revolving stage is sometimes boathouse with the stairs at it´s left, sometimes library in Manderley with the sleeping room at it´s back. Apart from that it´s used as the hall of Manderley, used for the parade of the house stuff, the ball and other scenes. Outside at the revolving stage is a moving part, the end of the stairs, where Mrs Danvers stands often.

Costumes are timely and underline the character´s personalities. Mrs Danvers wears a black only, figure-enhancing dress, Maxim wears a long coat and suit most of the time.“En“´s dresses first look like wallflower, later more elaborate cuttings and stronger colours. The house stuff wears mainly black with the ladies having a large „M“ at breast height.

The applause order is traditional with the characters coming on stage to their own music - well, at least from Fawell on. Don´t ask me why Ben and Giles appear on stage to „Wir sind britisch“. Both had their own songs...

Prologue and epilogue should be different to the Vienna version. Instead of shadows of Manderley´s inhabitants while prologue are shadow figures on stage, reminding me of mummys. 4 of these shadow figures always appear in Rebecca´s sleeping room. First they stand behind the mirrors or at the balcony, and they come dangerously close to „En“. Later in the second act they´re lying lifeless on the balcony. And while epilogue „En“ is first alone on stage, later Maxim appears behind her. At the last tone Maxim holds her turnend away from the audience while he turns around once more.

The subtitles aren´t always identic with what´s sung on stage. For example the subtitles show Maxim saying: „Yes, she wanted me to die and her to live.“, while on stage Frank is still talking. Just before he leaves stage Maxim answers with „Nem tudom“ (I don´t know). I believe the subtitles aren´t a translation back into English but the original English version (but with hardly any rhyme).

There was one mishap in my first seen show: Whilst the song „Rebecca“ all four mirrors roll off the stage. The third mirror suddenly stopped and the fourth one crashed against it. After a moment both went off the stage as an own „pair“. So besides the reaction of the actors it still looked ably.

The musical has an interesting structure of characters. Besides „En“, Maxim and Mrs Danvers all protagonists just have a few chances to gaze with a solo. Fawell appears in 5 scenes only and has just one song to sing. The rest of his part is spoken or just standing in the background. People like Mrs Rutherford, Frith or Robert are on stage often, as they´re members of the house stuff, but besides a few sentences they´ve got nothing to say/sing. Giles, Julyan and Horridge haven´t got much to do, either. Beatrice, Frank and Mrs Van Hopper can be seen in a few scenes only, but at least they have got several bigger performances to do.
That´s the reason why I can´t say much about the smaller roles even after seeing the musical three times.

In the following I always mention all the actor´s names (with the names in Hungarian order) as I´ve seen them on stage (so Saturday afternoon, Sunday afternoon and Sunday evening). If just one name is mentioned this person has played all three performances.

„En“ (Ich): Vágó Zsuzsi / Szinetár Dóra / Vágó Zsuzsi
Yes, Zsuzsi has improved her voice a lot since I saw her last time. She sounds deeper and more firm now. There´s no squeaking left. Her „En“ is first very childish and naive. Over the performance she becomes more and more a selfconfident but still loving woman. Her posture turns from a ducked and next to Maxim kneeling girl to an upright and strong woman at eye level with the others. Nice!
Dóra sings a bit deeper and lyrical than Zsuzsi. She uses her mimic much and her arms a lot for gestures. She doesn´t change as slowly from a girl to a woman. It´s more a sudden change after Maxim telling her about Rebeccas death. When Fawell appears with his „proof“ of murder she´s shocked and horrified. She keeps much distance to the other character like Ben or Fawell (more to this later).
At this second time Zsuzsi´s mimic seemed more expressive to me. She uses her voice and nearness / physical contact to express a lot. While Fawell explains his proof she sits in a chair with her head in her hands, looking as if she´s crying. Constistent with that she speaks quite broken when saying she goes to London, too. Her changes in the role are quite fluent.

Maxim de Winter: Szabó P. Szilveszter / Bereczki Zoltán / Szabó P. Szilveszter
From the very beginning this man seems to be broken and closed together. In the hotel his postures are mostly denying. Not until the end of the show he becomes more open. That way it´s hard to see why „En“ falls in love with him. At first it seemed to be the only chance to get rid of Mrs van Hopper. On the other side Maxim´s love to „En“ appears suddenly, the first kiss happens surprisingly. He showed a bit interest in „En“ but that could have been diversion of everyday life, as well. Also the idea to marry her came so sudden. In my opinion this was a bit too much closeness. Very impressing was his emotional burst at „Kein Lächeln...“. First he looked like being absent-minded, then he became more and more furious and despaired. He got rightly spontaneus applause for it.
Zoltán is at the beginning a quite relaxed Maxim who sits down next to Mrs Van Hopper by his own choice. He seems to be on holidays as usual. In my opinion he was a bit too much laid-back. Even when Mrs van Hopper wanted to leave suddenly he was relaxed and seemed to be disappointed about „En“ hesitating. It´s understandable why he wants to marry her as he cares a lot for her all the time. He tells her this suggestion accordingly selfconfident. Altogether he moves around the hotel room selfconfident and full of verve. He nearly left the room already while „En“ hesitated to marry him. The more reality catches up with him at Manderley the more despaired he becomes. Towards Mrs Danvers he behaves strong as long as possible. When she tells him about the disappeared cupid he fast stands straight in front of her. While „Kein Lächeln...“ he seems to be completely insane. Spontaneus applause followed. The only really unfotunate aspect of his Maxim is the hairstyling, but that´s not his fault.
This time Szilveszter was more loving towards „En“ at the beginning. He showed different emotions I didn´t see in the first show. After „Zeit in einer Flasche“ he played embarrassed with the telephone receiver in his hand as if he didn´t know how to keep „En“ at his side. The idea to marry her came very sudden and the receiver flew just as bold onto the phone. When „En“ hesitates his hard and closed side appears again, as if he mustn´t show his disappointment. Then he tells Mrs Van Hopper just by the way he´s ging to marry „En“. This time he seemed to be surprised and happy about „En“ winning the chess game. His despair and fury in Manderley was as strong as in the Saturday performance. Result: 1A, couldn´t be better!

Jack Fawell: Bálint Ádám / Mészáros Árpád Zsolt / Bálint Ádám
Nicely arrogant and smeary! He uses his few scenes very well, especially his solo. He moves easily and elegant and tells his idea how to get money like naturally. His song reminds me a bit of Schikaneder in Mozart! (Ein bissl für´s Hirn...). When speaking he´s dangerously smeary without being too threatening. Just at the end of „Strandgut“ I could hardly hear him when singing with the ensemble.
MÁZS is a more severe and brazen Fawell. He sings deeper and not so raspy as he did as Benvolio. Instead he sometimes started to speak. While his solo he once kneeled next to „En“ and moved along his cane like doing table-dancing or so. Altogether the choreography didn´t look that easy, which fits to his harder role profile but looks a bit forced.
This time I could hear Ádám at the end of „Strandgut“ very well. The rest was as mentioned above. Nice!

Mrs. Van Hopper : Náray Erika / Szulák Andrea / Náray Erika
Oh my god! What a voice! What a laugh! More shrill isn´t possible. Wow! Her performances were just great, she showed her „I´m something better“ very believeable. Her song at the ball brought her rightly spontaneus applause. Well done!
My first thought when seeing Andrea as Mrs Van Hopper was I saw „Mary“ or another travesty artist. She was less shrill but still present, being able to become more quiet. She asked Maxim about Julyan being married very quiet just to shout out it was her lucky evening.
And the next evening the shrill laugh was there again. Erika is really unique as Mrs Van Hopper and not a bit quiet at the ball. She asks Maxim that loud that everybody can hear her.

Mrs Danvers : Janza Kata / Polyák Lilla / Janza Kata
To be honest Kata should play mystic and dark characters more often. This woman was good! Icecold and hard in her behaviour, strong and cold in her voice. Couldn´t be better! Towards „En“ she behaves very threatening and manic, and she´s fanatic about Rebecca. At the end she seems to revenge Rebecca.
Lilla shows a manic and obsessed Mrs Danvers who is very condescent to „En“. She pronounces „Madam“ always very dismissive and with a break to her other text. Her voice sounds a bit more brighten but still very present. At the end her mania turns into despair about Rebeccas death with the fire as the only solution/salvation for herself and Rebecca.
The second show with Kata was just as the first one: great!

Beatrice: Nádasi Veronika / Füredi Nikolett / Nádasi Veronika
Veronikas first scene together with Giles was funny and a bit embarrassing at the same time. Thankfully the funny side grew whilst the song. Without Giles she was more caring and sorrowful. It´s not surprising why „En“ calls her big sister. She´s always there when „En“ needs her.
Nikolett is already at the beginning quiet and loving in her role. he´s very busy with put Giles behaviour into perspective. She loves „En“ from the first moment they met and is very caring towards her.
This time Veronika seemed to be more quiet at the beginning. She didn´t want Giles to leave a bad impression. Good performance.

Ben: Sánta László / Pirgel David / Sánta László
Fantastic! László´s a very believeable and human Ben, who gets rightly spontaneus applause in the first boat house scene. He´s endearing and scared at the same time. And to sit in the background for minutes just nodding with the upper part of the body and still not looking like crazy is great!
Davids version of Ben is in my opinion the weal point of the first cast. There´s really nothing positive to see. The makeup makes him look as if he was dead himself because his face looks too angular and sunken. His acting didn´t remind me of a mentally disabled person but of a (sorry, but I don´t know anything else how to describe it) drunken robot! He moves very hackly and unstable and says his text very mechanic. Sorry but that wasn´t human at all!
László showed a nicely human Ben again who understands what´s happening around him. He looked very surprised when „En“ said just Maxim and her would know the truth about Rebeccas death. It looked like he didn´t know whether to shout or to jump down the house towards these two.

Frank Crawley: Pálfalvy Attila / Földes Tamás / Pálfalvy Attila
Both were very loving persons, who accepted „En“ as the new Mrs de Winter at once. Warm voices, Tamás sings a bit deeper, always with calmness.

Colonell Julyan: Dézsy Szabó Gabor / Jantyik Csaba / Jantyik Csaba
Both were assertive when at work fair and much interested in finding out the truth about Rebecca´s death. Very present voices.
The first Colonell wasn´t very happy about his devotee at the ball. He looked a bit unbelieving towards Mrs Van Hopper. After the kiss on the hand he first watched her a while and the decided to go up the stairs.
The second Colonell fled from Mrs Van Hopper quite fast. He just nodded to her before he went away. In the evening he shaked his head when Mrs Van Hopper called him her luck. After the kiss on the hand he was up on the stairs fast. She didn´t seem to be his type of woman...

Frith: Marik Peter
Robert: Oláh Tibor
Mrs. Rutherford: Arányi Adrienn
Perfect house stuff. Always there, always active, present when called and otherwise not showy.

Giles: Csuha Lajos
At his first scene with Beatrice he had the more embarrassing part - and this was well done. Together with Nikolett he appeared to be more quiet. Very funny was his bouncing at „Die lieben Verwandten“. He holds the hand in front of his breast as if he was sitting on a rocking horse, and bounced sidewise towards „En“.

Horridge: Péter Richárd
Strict, a bit threatening person. Very powerful voice.

I have already mentioned that Dóra often keeps her distance to the other characters. That doesn´t concern her only but the whole first cast. There are many scenes in which the first cast is more distanced than the second. And it doesn´t concern the main roles only, even the ensemble reacts different! Here are some examples:

In the hotel in Monte Carlo: Zoltán as Maxim declares by choice he invites the ladies to tea. The responsible waiter stands at the right end of the stage. Szilveszter as Maxim prefers to go away but he can´t because the waiter stands directly behind him. Because all people are starring at him his invitation is an emergency solution to get out of this situation.

At Mrs Van Hoppers hotel room: Maxim asks „En“ to marry him while standing on the right side in front of the sofa. Dóra stands on the left side of the stage near the telephone, Zsuzsi is directly in front of him.

In Rebeccas sleeping room: When in act two (Song Rebecca) the shadow figures leave the mirrors Dóra always stays a few steps away from them. Zsuzsi comes so close they can nearly touch her.

Boat house with Ben: Dóra and David touch each other at the end of the song. He kneels next to her and puts an arm around her. At that time László embraces „En“ already after having taken her hand and leaning his head against her before.

Boat house (Kein Lächeln...): Maxim breaks down. Dóra as „En“ stands in front of him and talks down to him. Zsuzsi in the same moment kneels next to him and touches him.

Eine Hand wäscht die andere Hand: MÁZS as Fawell puts his feet onto the table. Frank just comes one step nearer and the feet are down again, though Frank is still one length of a table away. When Ádám in this role has the feet on the table Frank needs tu push them down.
Altogether Ádám acts more close than MÁZS. When telling „En“ not to tell Maxim about his visit Ádám touches „En“. MÁZS tells her just by the way while leaving to keep it as a secret.

Result: Both casts have a different approach to the story, whereas both versions are interesting. I prefer the second cast because they show more close relations between all characters. But that´s a matter of taste. A clear reason to prefer the second cast is László as Ben. He shows a fantastic performance while I didn´t like Davids version at all.
Apart from that I can´t share many previous fears. Zoltán is a believeable Maxim, who doesn´t look like being 20 years older but at least than „En“. Katas voice sounds stronger to me than Lilla´s. In the lst show I saw she got even more applause than Maxim and „En“. Ádám can act well, and Szilveszter is with his multi-faceted interpretation not only worth to see but also to hear!

Anecdote from the stage door: László was asked to sign a poster - but please not on Szilveszter! But there wasn´t much other space left. When after two suggestions the fan still didn´t agree László turned the poster around in order to sign the back of it. ;D

[Valancy]

Thanks for your reviews, both of you! I also saw the show once last month, with mostly the first cast, and I'll try to write down my impressions soon, but it's taking a while to get to it (mostly because I'm not yet finished with my Spring Awakening review). Overall I really liked the production, though. As a production it's better and truer to the spirit of the book than any other I've seen. I was also mostly happy with the cast (I had mostly the first cast), but more on them when I write my own review.

I wish I had seen László as Ben, though, unfortunately I didn't like Dávid either...

[safira]

Nice you enjoyed the musical, even though you missed László as Ben.
I´m already looking for your review.

[Nikki]

Thanks for the reviews, the production sounds lovely!
I really hope I get to see this soon, I'm even tempted to give Kata a chance

[Valancy]

I still have no desire to give Kata a chance if I can avoid it (I'm just completely sick of the sight and sound of that woman and I have no great faith in her suitability for this role), but I thought Veronika made a really good Danvers. Maybe not my ideal, but still excellent and very powerful. I'll try to write a review of the show I saw some time. It's an extremely interesting production, though, and definitely worth seeing.

[Nikki]

I was checking the Operettszínház website earlier and saw they have put up they're cast lists for June. Now I am really REALLY tempted to go see 2 performances in the middle of that month which features both Maxim's/Én's, Lilla and Vera as Danvers and a double dose of Niki as Bea
It sounds almost too good to turn down! ;D