Carmen Jones
I was delighted to see the final performance of Carmen Jones at the Royal Festival Hall - a hugely energetic, exuberant and enjoyable production, making great use of the space and providing the opportunity for us to appreciate the talents of many of our black artists.
I was grateful to the creative and production team for spending time with me before the performance and was pleased to meet Simon Ash, the Company Manager, Andrew Quick the Production Manager, David Curl the Stage Manager his deputy James Bartnum and the two Assistant Managers Carole Kuster and Lee Henderson.
I heard about the challenges of being one of the first productions after the refurbishment and negotiating plasterers trying to plaster a wall whilst the cast and production team - numbering over 100 - were working to put together an ambitious production!
Space is clearly hugely challenging when one tries to adapt the concert hall for musical theatre and that was wonderfully managed, one of the triumphs in the refurbished Festival Hall are the acoustics, and ensuring a proper balance between the first class orchestra on stage and the talented cast was one of the few difficult challenges which again was brilliantly negotiated by everybody.