Chichester, sleepy little cathedral city, and home to the Chichester Festival Theatre, which is, in my humble opinion, just about one of the finest in the country. So I was actually quite pleased when the casting for Babes in Arms was announced, as the name of Sophia Ragavelas as Baby Rose Owen gave me the chance to revisit a place I hadn't been for a good few years.
Babes in Arms, I'm sure you'll know, is one of Rodgers & Hart's less performed works yet it contains an inordinate number of hit songs, especially The Lady is a Tramp, My Funny Valentine and Johnny One Note so recognition of the music ain't a problem!! The simple premise of the show is that of a group of talented young performers longing for the chance to write and stage their own show whilst working under the iron fist of theatre manager Seymour Fleming (Rolf Saxon) who is putting on a dreary, pretentious play, The Deep North, penned by the unjustifiably arrogant Lee Calhoun (Joseph Wicks). To aid the play they enlist, as their star, ex child film star Baby Rose Owen (Sophia!!!) who is being groomed for stage stardom by her domineering mother Phyllis (Lorna Luft). The plot develops as Baby Rose rebels against the play and her mother to help the kids stage their own show, which ('cos Babes in Arms is a musical comedy) naturally impresses the visiting big-shot producer and takes 'em off to Broadway (Yeeeaahh!!!).
Sophia beautifully takes the lead in a couple of numbers, the Western saloon style Way Out West and the final song in the show in which she is in mighty fine voice for the barnstorming Johnny One Note!! It would be a crime if there isn't a permanent recording made of her version of this song (do you reckon the staff would notice a small smuggled recordable minidisc? - oops, did I say that out loud?). In between, she's involved in avoiding the advances of Calhoun in the not-love duet All At Once and several bouts of severe, fantastic, classic comedic overacting, in character, during rehearsals for the Deep North. What are her costumes like? Well, pink is the order of the day, and lots of it too, including an unfeasibly large dress which Baby Rose's character wears for The Deep North!!
What about the rest of the cast? Lorna Luft. Wow, what an amazing voice. I'm sure the sound desk had smoke coming from it during her two big songs!!! Donna Steele as Billie Edwards more than does justice to The Lady is a Tramp and My Funny Valentine. The singing and dancing from the rest is just perfect especially during Imagine and a special word for Matthew Hart & Kay Murphy who played the on-off-on-off again love affair to comedy perfection.
The final word on the show. On leaving the matinee (yes, I was at both shows that day) I overheard one Chichester old chap ambushing a female cast member leaving the stage door, just to tell her that it was the best thing he'd seen on stage for many, many years. And, with the great feeling that Babes in Arms leaves you with, its very hard to disagree with him!
©Iain Sykes 2007
