Review: Chariots of Fire (the play)

Theatre: Gielgud

Date of show: September 3, 2012

Director: Edward Hall

Synopsis (from Wikipedia): Chariots of Fire is a 2012 stage adaptation of the 1981 Oscar-winning film of the same name. Production of the Olympic-themed play, which opened at London's Hampstead Theatre 9 May and transferred to the West End on 23 June, is partially inspired by the 2012 London Summer Olympics.

tldr: The production focused too much on presentation, which was very good, as it a happens, and not enough on the content, which was less than fulfilling.

I am glad to have seen Chariots of Fire.

I will not go see it again.

The show is interesting in many respects, but falls very short in others.

The set is GREAT and uses a two-part turn table; there is an outer ring and an inner circle. They can move independently or together. There was also a fake track built as part of the set...(see below)

The staging of the show was wonderful: it included running warm ups and exercises as choreography/synchronized symbolic-y movement things and some very well done demonstrations using strobe lights and actors as moving slides...(see below)

The turntable was well used and really added wonderfully to the staging.

The lights were also quite good, and the sound design was very effective.

Basically, the show's tech work was superb.

The script was very much not.

It moved too quickly, was all over the place, and allowed for no emotional attachment to the characters, which they didn't seem to even try for. The main dilemmas for each of the main characters were fairly shallow and were never developed nor resolved. The love interests felt awkwardly tucked in around the main action, like an afterthought, which was disappointing, and there was some unnecessary music stuffs in there, which I think was meant to help set tone etc., but failed to do so, and I think the time allocated to mood music would have been better spent on the non-existent character development. There were some funny moments, but they didn't make up for the rest of the script.

The general consensus from the whole class is that the script was miserable. Some people agree with me about the staging, others didn't care for it. It is widely agreed that the lights and set were really good.

The actress playing the love interest of Abraham was just...not that great. She wasn't bad, but she seemed insincere and almost uninterested. One of my classmates phrased it as “the actors just seemed tired.”. I don't about all of them, but she certainly did.

The actress playing the love interest of Eric was very good, but her character is Canadian, and she occasionally slipped into her native Irish, I think it is, for a vowel or two. It wasn't frequent...maybe three times, and anyone who isn't native to the US/Canada likely wouldn't have noticed.

The coach, the Prince, the two main runners, and their team manger were all good for the most part, but I could have asked for more connection with the audience.

There was one very good bit about the script: 

The production started with some cast members on the stage dressed in modern running clothes stretching etc. This lasted for probably about five-ten minutes before the lights went down. The modern runners were then brought back at the end of show dressed in the British Olympic uniform, and the runners were mixed in with those dressed in the old Olympic uniforms. It was really cool to see the melding of the old and the new styles. 

Anyway, first West End show! It was a good if not totally fulfilling experience. But you learn something from even the shows you don't like, and I'm glad to have seen it.