Nearly 15 years since Jonathan Church's production of Singin' in the Rain debuted in the UK, the popular musical continues to make a splash.
Making its regional debut with a two-week run at Dubai Opera starting on Saturday, the work, based on the 1952 film starring Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds, charms while echoing some of today's concerns. Set in 1920s Hollywood on the cusp of a technological revolution, the story follows silent film stars Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont as they come to terms with the arrival of sound in the film industry.
Dig deeper and the production also offers wry commentary on celebrity culture that remains relevant today, according to British actress Olivia Finnes, who plays the role of Lamont. The contrasting nature of Lockwood and Lamont’s on screen romance and tumultuous personal relationship, she notes, mirrors some of the social media couples seen online today.
"To maintain their publicity, Lina and Don pretend they are a real-life couple as well as an on screen couple, and this was very much how producers used to control things in that era," Finnes tells The National. "These sort of things still happen today in things like social media, where people want to be seen with the right kind of people to help their career… that element of manipulation is still being used."
According to Church, the industry upheaval portrayed in the production also echoes what the film industry went through in more recent times.
“In the case of silent films, a large number of silent film stars created their own production companies to promote their work, and many failed financially because their whole business plan didn’t work with the arrival of talking pictures. A whole generation of actors never recovered from that,” he says.
“As for the 3D technology, there are stories of how films like The Hobbit had to be reshot because of the success of the 3D technology used in Avatar, for example. The film industry is full of these important moments that people were forced to navigate.”
Singin' in the Rain shows how pressure was particularly acute for women on screen. While Lamont is presented as brusque and megalomaniacal, this serves as a shield for her growing anxiety over a successful silent film career on the brink of collapse.
"On one hand, it's that typical Hollywood story in which you are only at the top of your game for a certain period of time and at any given point," Finnes says. "But some of the beauty standards women had to adhere to in Hollywood at that time are still the same today. Lamont really is battling with that and knowing that her career can crumble from underneath her in seconds. Of course, this is all done in a very light-hearted way."
Indeed, Singin' in the Rain tempers these prescient observations with a technicolour set, timeless songs, and Kelly’s standard-setting choreography blending humour and narrative drive. Church says channelling some of that energy on stage posed a challenge for the original London West End production, premièring in 1983, and that his production aimed to address.
"The original production was quite literal in terms of how it was presented, and what we did, through our designer Simon Higlett, was base the whole show in a film studio," he says. "This means the scene changes are all very swift, and it allows the amazing choreography to fly."
Church also confirms that the signature rain sequence – a hallmark of the original film – will be reimagined on the Dubai Opera stage: "We will flood the stage to capture that amazing sense of how Gene Kelly's Don Lockwood character was splashing in puddles of water."
With this production entertaining audiences for more than a decade, Church says its staying power is down to the overall enduring appeal of jukebox musicals – a genre in which non-original songs are used as the soundtrack.
"We often forget the movie was basically a jukebox musical, and it was put together from songs that already existed," he says. "It was put together because other musical films were getting popular, like An American in Paris, for example."
With jukebox musicals like Mamma Mia! and Tina: The Tina Turner Musical continuing to pull in crowds in London and New York's Broadway, Church says the genre is still viewed with some cynicism by critics. “What you have with the format is the chance to use some of the best music on the planet," he states. "And I understand there is that suspicion, but when it is done well – in that the music is well woven into he story – it can be absolutely brilliant.”
Singin’ in the Rain will play at Dubai Opera from Saturday to December 14. Tickets for evening or matinee performances start at Dh450
