Look, it's Martin Guerre at the Watermill

This summer the Watermill Theatre in Newbury will revisit the Boublil/Schonberg musical, "Martin Guerre", which will play from July 11 to September 1. The show will be directed by Craig Revel-Horwood, who was at the helm of last summer's critically acclaimed staging of "The Hot Mikado" in Newbury. Musical direction will be handled by Tony award winner, Sarah Travis, who - along with former Watermill guru, John Doyle - pioneered the actor/singer/musician style of musical theatre at the Watermill, notably with the production of Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd", which eventually found its way to Broadway in 2005. 

"Martin Guerre" takes its inspiration from a 16^th century story - part truth, part legend - handed down by generations in the Basque region of France. A man returns to the small village of Artigat claiming to be the same Martin Guerre who left the village and his young wife years before to go off to war. As the drama unfolds, a passionate and heart-breaking love story develops at the heart of a tale of religious prejudice and conflict, in which the soul of the local community is laid bare. Totally enveloping all of this is one of Claude Michel Schonberg's most lavish and breathtaking scores.  

Nevertheless "Martin Guerre" has never enjoyed the success of the French duo's other musical theatre epics, "Les Miserables" and "Miss Saigon". The original 1996 West End production, starring Ian Glenn, Matt Rawle and Juliette Caton and directed by Declan Donnellan seemed to suffer from problems in its complex book. A major re-write followed and a brand new production directed by Connall Morrison opened at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in November 1999 with a cast headed by Matthew Cammele, Stephen Weller and Joanna Riding. The production received some very positive reviews, with James Christopher in "The Times" commenting: "Miracles happen. Martin Guerre is now a great musical." This production turned into a successful UK tour but a planned transfer to Broadway never happened and the show seemed to disappear into relative obscurity.  

If Mr. Revel-Horwood and Ms. Travis can repeat the magic of last summer's "Hot Mikado", maybe 2007 will see "Martin Guerre" finally achieving the success that its outstanding score deserves.