Last night I visited the Union Theatre for the premiere of The Remains of the Day by Alex Loveless. This was a valient and romantic effort to bring Kazuo Ishiguro's novel to the musical stage but it was always going to be a difficult job. In musical theatre, when the emotions hit a certain height the characters sing. Quite often, if the emotion is beyond expression in song, then the characters dance. It's a simple formula that can be universally applied. Remains of the Day is a novel about the suppression of emotions in favour of duty, so a musical adaptation need special care and a little more delicacy than appears in Loveless score.
The musical structure requires a good deal of work and the focus is off kilter. There are more musical numbers about the impending war and Darlington Hall than there are about the central, unresolved love story and we never really hear Stevens and Miss Kenton sing a duet until the middle of Act Two. When they do finally sing, it's rather lovely but sadly too little, too late.
Remains of the Day is a musical ready for its first workshop before an audience, not its London Fringe Premiere. Hopefully Loveless, who shows promise as a composer, will see the gapping holes in his work and darn them appropriately.
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