On Saturday evening, the audience at the Kulturhaus in Mersch was treated to a divine performance of Call Me Madam, the Irving Berlin musical theatre production.
Luxembourg has received a number of high profile productions over the years, most notably at the Grand Theatre and at Rockhal, but this time Mersch was privy to a production worthy of any West End or Broadway stage. From the opening curtain, the audience witnessed something very special, most notably the start of two young careers, those of Emily-Jane Ashford (as Princess maria) and Calvin Hudson (as Kenneth Gibson, the Ambassador's press attaché). Not only were they both superb individually but they gelled supperbly through their characters. Watch out for those names in the future!
But the production was not just about the young couple. Edda Patri starred as Sally Adams, the US Ambassador sent to the Grand Duchy of Lichtenburg, a gregarious character known for throwing great parties. She certainly turned heads when she entered the room and her acting was perfect for the part, but who didn't quite get the high notes when delivering the lyrics accompanied by the 9-piece Luxembourg Chamber Orchestra (OCL). Cosmo Constantine, the Foreign Minister, was played by Astrit Alihajdaraj, another actor who would be welcomed back any time to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg due to his sterling performance of the career politician who falls for the Ambassador.
While the performances - acting, singing and dancing - in this professional production were outstanding, the production was made complete by both the costumes and the set design which enabled each scene to have a slightly different configuration. It needed very few props - a desk and telephone and a couple of chairs and some cushions and, of course, glasses of bubbly for the parties, but what set it apart was the projection of historical photographs on the curtains between scenes - something that was very clever technically and also fascinating for the audience.
The Kulturhas offers superb acoustics, with the orchestra's tunes and actors' voices finely balanced, enabling every word to be heard with absolute clarity from any and all seats. The other actors all delivered great performances, including Timothy Lone who is well-known to the Anglophone theatre-going public in Luxembourg. The dancers from the Sara Eden school of dance in Esch-sur-Alzette and the chorus from the Schankemännchen asbl both contributed to a thoroughly engaging production which saw Julie Fraser (well-known for her active role in the NWTC) assisting Claude Mangen in directing the production which has three more performances - see below.
And during the interval the bar even served "Sally Adams" cocktails!
The acclaimed muscial Call Me Madam, with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, was a tremendous success on Broadway during the 1950s. The play was inspired by the life of Perle Mesta, the wealthy Washington DC socialite known for her extravagant parties. "The Hostess with the Mostess'", as it famously says in the musical, supported Harry Truman during his presidential campaign. After his success in the elections, Truman appointed Mesta to be the first US Ambassador to Luxembourg, where she spent four years from 1949 to 1953.
Howard Lindsay's interpretation of Perle Mesta's life story brought forth Sally Adams, glamorous Grand Dame and tenacious businesswoman from Oklahoma, who becomes the American Ambassador to the fictional Grand Duchy of Lichtenburg. The tiny country is in deep financial trouble, hoping for a loan from the United States...
Prior to the performance, Paul Lesch, historian and director of the documentary Call Her Madam, and author of Playing Her Part, Perle Mesta in Luxembourg, delivered an introduction to the subject in Luxembourgish.
The remaining performances are as follows:
Sun 13 Dec @ 18:00 @ Kulturhaus in Mersch
Sat 16 Jan @ 20:00 @ Cube 521 in Marnach
Sun 17 Jan @ 17:00 @ Cube 521 in Marnach
Tickets cost €28 (reduced €15) and are available from www.luxembourg-ticket.lu or tel: 470895-1.
Photos by Geoff Thompson
