Mack And Mabel

Chichester Festival Theatre, Oaklands Park, Chichester, Monday, July 13, to Saturday, September 5

IT’S hard to imagine now with its multi-million dollar budgets and impossible feats captured on CGI, but a century ago the film industry was much more of a Wild West affair.

Mack Sennett was one of the first wave of directors heading to California from Brooklyn, building his own studio in the desert and using a mix of improvisation and moxie to create his pictures.

Best known for his skills at comedy he worked with Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and the comedy team who took their name from his studio complex The Keystone Cops, as well as creating the Sennett Bathing Beauties and specialising in custard pie fights.

The true story of Sennett, and the starlet he created and began a tempestuous affair with - Mabel Normand - was immortalised in 1974 with the musical Mack And Mabel, penned by Michael Stewart and Jerry Herman ten years on from their massive hit Hello Dolly.

Jonathan Church, artistic director at Chichester Festival Theatre, admits on its US debut the musical was something of a misfire.

"It got eight Tony nominations, but it didn’t quite meet the heights Hello Dolly had previously,” he says of what had been a hotly anticipated musical.

“In the UK it had a completely different history – I remember seeing the first production at the Nottingham Playhouse which starred Imelda Staunton [a Chichester favourite after starring roles in Sweeney Todd and Gypsy].

“It’s a show Michael Ball and I have been interested in for a number of years – this felt like the right moment.”

Ball plays Mack, opposite US actor Rebecca LaChance making her UK debut as Mabel.

“Mabel has got to be funny, believable as a film star and romantic,” says Church. “It’s a complicated set of things we needed from one actress. We didn’t find anyone we fell in love with in the UK, so we took our search to New York.”

They spotted LaChance in Carole King musical Beautiful, where she was understudying the lead character.

When it came to rehearsing the piece Church admits there were lots of different elements they had to take in – from cinematic inserts to the trademark slapstick physical comedy, for which they enlisted the help of Brighton-based comedy group Spymonkey.

“With the humour of the time you realise there was a certain amount of grotesqueness,” says Church. “It’s all about hitting people on the head, or dropping pianos on them. Violence was seen as terribly funny in that era.

“When you’re really violent, as in the Tom And Jerry cartoons, it can be really funny – and if you hit somebody and make it look painful it’s twice as funny than if you just try to make a comedy out of it.

“Mack was the master of the pie fight, so we had rehearsals where we had Michael Ball standing there getting pies thrown in his face. It’s not every day you get to do that.”

On stage the production has tried to create the atmosphere of the early film set – reflecting Mack’s first love.

“I saw a wonderful clip of Laurel and Hardy being filmed,” says Church. “The cameras weren’t roaming around – they were fixed, so where they were being shot was a small area in a huge studio. There would be 20 people standing behind the camera, and a little backdrop with two people in front of it. It looked beautiful on camera.”

The show also recreates some of the techniques used, from a horse’s head on a stick to recreate the impression of riding, to an aeroplane flight where the wind blowing on the pilot’s face is created by waving a big plank of wood.

With an impressive line of West End hits coming out of Chichester over the last few years, ranging from Church’s own Singin’ In The Rain, to Kiss Me Kate, Sweeney Todd and last year’s Gypsy, the director admits there is a pressure to deliver.

“You don’t want to let the side down,” he says. “What is interesting is both Gypsy and Mack And Mabel are not quite as well-known as others we have done before. The audience is following us – they trust us enough to watch stories they don’t know.

“A lot of the audience won’t know what happens next, which is surely very exciting.”

Starts 7.30pm, 2.30pm matinees, tickets from £10. Call 01243 781312.

 

Watch the trailer below: