Ghost The Musical was on my Musicals To Watch list since last year, and knowing that it will close in West End I quickly got some tickets to catch the last glimpse of it.
The beginning of the show was stunning – live orchestra, the special effects that seemingly brought us through space, the word “Ghost” in your face, and then through the thick dry ice, powerful light from torches was directly in your face again.
Unfortunately that was probably when the “wow” began to end.
Salute to the technological whizz who made disappearing on stage, walking through objects and spirits floating in air possible. Otherwise, the production, empty, was wrapped under the shell of its use of technology in a few key scenes; added to its depth was only the amazing Oda May Brown character and actress for whom I would pay to watch again. The ever changing sceneries – a combination of stage mechanics and digital projection – did nothing but treated the audience like idiots who needed to be spoon-fed. On top of that was some dance acts that looked like steps put together by an amateur choreographer (or choreographies too clever would steal the show even more?), danced by a cast who looked uninspired and were sick of changing costumes.
What I felt the producers wanted to do was to recreate the movie on stage, which was ridiculous in the first place. How could you replace or recreate a 2D experience with live performance, and vice versa?
My last hope was when Molly pulled out her potters wheel – I knew this classic scene from my mum who absolutely loved the film – but it was just another passing scene. In fact, the whole show was made up of passing scenes – storytelling in its blandest way.
I am glad I saw the show, not just it ticked one thing off my list but also I finally got to watch what is called a bad, large-scale production.
