REVIEW: THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE at Upstairs at the Gatehouse 5 – 29 September 2024

‘big songs lustily sung that can’t fail to strum the heartstings’ ★★★

It’s an incestuous old world, the world of the play, and this one, which is by Rodgers and Hart out of Plautus, via Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors, is full of big songs, lustily sung, that can’t fail to strum the heartstrings.

The plot’s familiarly convoluted – two twins with the same names have two identical servants with the same names and find themselves in the same town after years of separation. No-one knows which is which or who is who or whether up is down or right left. And that’s the hook for the first Shakespearean musical comedy to make it big on Broadway, a 1938 hit occasionally since revived, but perhaps in the later shadow of Kiss Me Kate or the similarly Plautus-inspired A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

And it’s worth reviving for the songs – in this production the standouts include What Can You Do With a Man? and Sing For Your Supper and Oh, Diogenes played with brisk aplomb by Benjamin Levy’s five-piece band and sung by an eight-strong cast giving all they’ve got.

George Abbott’s Book is sprinkled with Shakespearean quotations (now cliches), such as ‘love at first sight’, though, playfully, given the false identity theme, they are largely, as in that case, from plays that are not the Comedy of Errors (‘It’s all Greek to me’, which is in Julius Caesar, does actually appear, more or less, in the prologue of the original Plautus play Shakespeare nicked his plot from, mind you). But times, they have a-changed since 200 BC or the 1580s. Nor is comedy what it was in 1938, and one suspects the intimate knowledge of the theatre-going audience with the intricacies of Shakespearean plotting (not always his strong point) may have faded a tad.

The show’s at its dramatic strongest and most fun the 80 percent of the time the music’s playing; the dialogue sequences unravelling the plot have a slightly dying fall as the wives of Antipholus and Dromio of Ephesus find themselves confused by the presence of Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse and the confusions caused by unpaid-for bracelets, money pouches never where they should be and so on and so forth.

The show looks beautiful (the set design, credited to Intellectual Property, is pretty and witty), and there are subtle but sufficient costume changes to distinguish the two Antipholuses (John Faal), relaxedly strong and nuanced in both roles) and the two Dromios (Brendan Matthew). 

Given that it’s a play about mistaken identities, though, the economics of modern casting unhelpfully have all the other actors doubling roles, creating occasional audience double-takes about who is who. Which said, the costumes quickly overcome any momentary confusion, and Karen Wilkinson is outstanding as the corporal and Luce, the servant of the main house, and Caroline Kennedy a stand-out singer. Which means, as noted, that all the joy of the show lies in the big numbers (and Jared Hageman’s pinpoint choreography of an eight-strong cast in a space that also contains a five-piece band). The full show itself may be something of a curio by now, but a strong production performed with gusto is never not worth a look.

THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE at Upstairs at the Gatehouse 5 – 29 September 2024

Box Office: https://upstairsatthegatehouse.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/1173653352/events/428652467

Music: Rodgers and Hart       Book: George Abbott

Director: Mark Giesser

Reviewer David Weir’s plays include Confessional (Oran Mor, Glasgow), Better Together (Jack Studio, London). Those and others performed across Scotland, Wales and England, and in Australia, Canada, South Korea, Switzerland and Belgium. Awards include Write Now Festival prize, Constance Cox award, SCDA best depiction of Scottish life, and twice Bruntwood longlisted.