Musical not as bad as they say

The 1939 film was a huge success. Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Haviland, Hattie McDaniel and Butterfly McQueen all gave memorable performances.

In London, the film played for four years right through World War II. It went on to be a huge blockbuster again on its rereleases in 1948 and 1968.

The question is, why would anybody want to turn Gone with the Wind into a musical in the first place? And why would anybody want to finance it and stage it? The last attempt to do so in 1972 was disastrous.

How can any stage version compete with the film?

Margaret Martin's musical got a bad press before it had even opened. I saw it a week after the critics had mauled it and, needless to say, it wasn't as bad as my colleagues had made out.

Trevor Nunn is one of the great directors, especially adept at manipulating huge casts. If anybody could make a musical version work, he would be the most likely contender.

The trouble is that his production goes on. And on. And on. I thought that it would never finish.

The script is written in the manner of the RSC adaptation of Charles Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby. The actors speak Mitchell's narrative.

The production inevitably cannot begin to do justice to the film's famous crane shot of the dead and wounded lying in enormous numbers in the Atlanta railway yard.

The burning of Atlanta is disappointing. I bet that they did this sort of spectacle so much better at Drury Lane Theatre in the Edwardian era.

Darius Danesh and Jill Paice are absolutely fine, but never for one moment do they erase the memories of Gable and Leigh.

The score has no big hit number to boost it up to the level it should be.

So, what's the point? There is no point.

Plays open-ended. Box office: 0844-412-4650.

ROBERT TANITCH