Recently caught the Chichester production of South Pacific. Good stuff, although I'm never sure how to judge a production when the story and songs are so familiar.
Anyhoo, one of the most surprising things was Emile De Becque. In part, it was the voice. The character was written for an operatic bass and Julian Ovenden who plays him in the Chichester production is a trained opera singer. I couldn't remember the last time I had heard that kind of voice - rich, deep, powerful - in a musical.
But it wasn't just the voice; it was the manliness. Debeck is a manly man. He's been around a bit. He's killed a guy, made a fortune from scratch, had kids. In the show, he not only survives a dangerous military operation but also bags a young nurse. Let's just say, Evan Hanson, he ain't.
Is it my imagination or don't you see this kind of manly man is musicals these days? Male characters tend more towards the geeky and shy and awkward. Perhaps musicals have always had a touch of the nerdiness about them. But it seems that in recent years they've been playing more and more into that stereotype. I suspect it started sometime between High School Musical and Glee or maybe it was the other way round. To be honest, I wasn't really paying attention.
The point is that sometimes it feels that modern musicals have gone full geek.
Now there's nothing wrong with that. I like geeks. Some of my best friends are geeks. It only becomes a problem if it limits the kind of stories that musicals can tell and the kind of characters that musicals can portray. And I wonder if Emile De Becque would ever find a place in a modern show.
There are times when it's all about that bass.
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