It seems fitting to me that Golf the
musical should be premiered in St Andrews in Fife, often thought
of as “The home of Golf”, close to the legendary Old Course
and where golf’s ruling body the Royal and Ancient Golf Club is
based. Where more
fitting then than St Andrews for a world premiere??
Oops sorry a European
Premiere!
 In
early spring 2003 Eric Krebs went to Michael Roberts, playwright
and lyricist, convinced that a show about golf would work.
After some persuasion and
Eric’s persistence, Michael took up golf and the
rest, as they say, is history. Well is history in the USA anyway,
as “Golf the Musical” took off and hasn’t looked back. It
began its performances on October 8, 2003, and had its official
‘Off Broadway’ opening on November 19, 2003, closing almost
seven months later. It has since toured the States regularly
having two or three casts circulating at any given time.
Apparently 50% of the male population in America are
fanatical golfers thus adding to the shows popularity.
Admittedly thankfully I am not a golf
widow, I rarely if ever watch the game, sorry sport, no game,
whatever! I didn’t even know that ‘The 2005 UK Open
Championship’ is to be played in St Andrews in July.
So why go and see ‘Golf the Musical’?
Well it is a musical, it is being
performed close to home and Geoffrey Abbott is one of the four
performers in the show.
Well it is more a review than a musical,
strictly speaking and I’m sure the golfers would have got more
out of the show than I did, but I actually enjoyed it very much.
The four performers are all extremely talented and most of the
material is excellent, the odd one or two what was that moments.
The set very much like my Idea of an almost perfect dogleg
fairway, A long sweeping length of perfect grass and
a bunker. The Direction, musical staging and choreography thanks
to Rita Henderson and Stephen Wrentmore add extra comedy an added
focus and air of expectation as to what was coming next.
The Cast Geoffrey Abbott, Peter
Alexander, Carrie Ellis and Steven Kynman all have the ability to
be able to flow through the various scenes, displaying songs about
golf, skits about golf, jokes about golf oh and ball jokes, lots
and lots of ball jokes. Each
one as talented if not more talented than the other, each
performing beautifully and wearing the obligatory golfing
fashions, you know plaids, mismatched colours, strange patterns oh
and one or two unexpected creations!
There were several memorable moments, the
meeting in limbo of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, both avid players of
the game, the various golfing widows laments and last but
definitely not least the prayer of the man who wants to be ‘a
scratch Golfer’!
Add to that a massive orchestra
consisting of the musical director Jon Beales on piano and Fiona
Ewen percussionist plonk in the middle of the stage like some
obstacle or patch of rough between the fairway and the pin yet
very much an integral part of the course.
In this production there are few Bogeys,
the score is no Handicap, from Tee-off to Albatross no one gets
the Yips, they have a Vardon Grip of the proceedings hitting the
Sweet Spot in almost every scene and thankfully don’t score a
hole in one as the show would be over so much quicker than it was.
As for me, I learnt quite a bit about
golf but will stick with watching the show thank you. My one
regret not asking Eric Krebs what he thought of the Scottish
production as he was there on the night.
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