Theatre review: The Frogs

Director Georgie Rankcom seems to have established a very specific niche: Revivals of Stephen Sondheim obscurities that I'd previously seen at Jermyn Street Theatre, given bigger, better productions at Southwark Playhouse that still aren't enough to rehabilitate them. After Anyone Can Whistle it's the turn of The Frogs, Sondheim (music and lyrics) and Burt Shevelove's (book) short 1974 adaptation of the Aristophanes satire, expanded to a full Broadway musical by the composer and Nathan Lane in 2004. In a setting that's simultaneously Ancient Greece and the present day, the god of wine and theatre Dionysos (Dan Buckley) enlists his slave Xanthias (Kevin McHale) to help him travel to the underworld to bring back the deceased playwright Bernard Shaw: He believes Shaw's no-nonsense brand of wisdom is the solution to a modern world he despairs at.

He also has an ulterior motive, as even the gods are powerless when they fall in love with a mortal, and Dionysos has a dead wife, Ariadne (Alison Driver) he hopes to find in Hades.

Buckley's Dionysos is an entertainingly jittery, camp figure who has big plans but isn't quite up to the difficult parts of carrying them out, so McHale's sidekick is both a sensible foil and a wisecracking contrast to his self-important master. The fact that the musical started life as a university skit before being expanded is still apparent in its episodic nature as the pair encounter a series of comic characters (haphazardly given the Greek and Roman versions of their names) they hope will help them on their way.

These are the show's highlights, beginning with Herakles (Joaquin Pedro Valdes,) whose incredibly friendly nature doesn't quite disguise the fact that most of what he says is negging the protagonists for not being as buff as him. Carl Patrick's lugubrious Northern Charon then accompanies them across the Styx before getting stoned and nodding off mid-journey. Once in the land of the dead there's brief, fun appearances from an angry Amazon (Evonnee Bentley-Holder,) a group of horny acolytes and a revolving cast of guest stars (this week Sooz Kempner) as Pluto.

Unfortunately this is where the show's energy comes to a crashing halt and could have done with some major cutting to keep the production on track: The leadup to a battle of words between Shaw (Martha Pothen) and Shakespeare (Bart Lambert) is interminable, the battle itself dragged out long after it's made its point. Xanthias disappears for most of the second act, losing the entire dynamic the show was built on, and the brief appearance by the titular chorus of frogs hasn't properly established they're meant to represent reactionary forces, so when this is constantly referred to in the climax it makes no sense. There's also a lot longer gaps between songs, and unsurprisingly these have been one of the big draws, the standout being Dionysos' "Ariadne."

There's no denying Rankcom has thrown as much as possible at the show, with a strong cast, energetic choreography from Matt Nicholson, and colourful, quirky designs by Libby Todd (the frog chorus gave me Yeast Nation flashbacks, and I loved the idea of Herakles wearing a boxing robe with gloves over his shoulders as the cape made of a lion's mane and paws.) But the musical has big structural problems even its creators have acknowledged, so not dealing with them leaves the fun of the first act to limp home in the second.

The Frogs by Stephen Sondheim, Burt Shevelove and Nathan Lane is booking until the 28th of June at Southwark Playhouse Borough's Large Theatre.

Running time: 2 hours 40 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: Pamela Raith.