It's not often one goes to the theatre feeling far more excited about the venue than the show you are going to see!
This is no reflection on Storyhouse director Alex Clifton and writer Glyn Maxwell’s bold and ambitious adaptation of what is often regarded as the first ever stage musical.
But when you have waited ten years for a major venue to open in the city centre, it almost doesn’t matter what you go to see and when the building turns out to be as magnificent as Storyhouse, any production would struggle to live up to the sheer exhilaration of wandering around this amazing complex before the show gets under way.
Probably the biggest compliment I can pay the cultural centre itself is that the moment you walk through the doors, it feels like coming home.
Even though Storyhouse was packed with theatre and cinema-goers on Sunday night, it remained a relaxed and welcoming environment where it was never difficult to find a place to sit, usually surrounded by part of the new library’s extensive collection of books.
Inside the main Storyhouse auditorium, the thrust stage was dominant in the 500-seat mode as it will be for all the in-house shows until it is transformed into an 800 capacity theatre for the autumn touring productions.
The smaller incarnation has the dual advantage of providing the artistic team with a huge space in which to work and the audience with a feeling of being up close and personal to the action even in the back row (which is where I was sitting).
Up to now, director Clifton’s extraordinary impact on the Chester cultural scene has been via the Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre and there will continue to be a close relationship between the two performance spaces throughout the summer.
Even though The Beggar’s Opera is the one show in the opening season that is remaining exclusively indoors, its staging had very strong echoes of what we have previously seen in the park (although its consistently bawdy nature means it is entirely unsuitable for the family crowds which flock to the open air offerings).
For example, from the opening scene, many of the cast seemed to spend as much time sitting next to members of the audience as they did standing on stage, starting with the scene-stealing Beggar (Caolan McCarthy) who drunkenly staggers in and then scares off an elegantly dressed harpsichord player before taking over the instrument and being joined by a rag tag band of musicians.
Within minutes, Maxwell’s lyrics - set to composer Harry Blake’s admirably varied music - are referencing Curzon Park, the River Dee and Northgate Jail and the characters make it clear they are all here to tell their stories, no matter how grand or notorious their background - a glorious and triumphant statement of intent on behalf of the all inclusive Chester Storyhouse.
Despite its significance in the history of musical theatre, I confess I had my doubts about the choice of The Beggar’s Opera as the opening production. The thin story and broad characters have not dated well since its 1728 debut and while the title and its main protagonist of Macheath or Mack the Knife have some recognition value, it is probably more due to Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera than John Gay’s original.
But it is also often referred to as the most adaptable musical ever which Clifton, Maxwell and Blake prove beyond all doubt as they continually insert local references from start to finish, peppering the action which some extremely tuneful and brilliantly performed songs that are genuine crowd-pleasers.
The show only really stumbles when it attempts to reflect some of the darker themes which inevitably lie at the heart of a tale which involves murderers, thieves and prostitutes in which a father at one point openly expresses sexual desire for his daughter - all of which jars tonally with the raucous and irreverent humour which otherwise dominates.
A vast range of characters demands attention throughout which makes it an even greater achievement for Charlotte Miranda-Smith and Nancy Sullivan to rise so imperiously above the rest of the crowd to win the hearts of everyone in Storyhouse with their irresistable portrayals of love rivals Polly Peachum and Lucy Lockit.
And I absolutely adored the climax when Clifton and Co had the audacity to take a leaf out of La La Land’s book and provide us with two completely contrasting endings - taking it a step further by even allowing the audience a say in how this particular story should end.
The Beggar's Opera resumes its run on Sunday, May 21 and can be seen until August 19. Visit www.storyhouse.com for details.
