Elia Kazan’s 1957 film about a petty criminal turned television folk hero seems like a prescient story about the dangers of populism foretold, its excavation in this musical adaptation timely in itself.
Lonesome Rhodes (Ramin Karimloo, a West End and Broadway stalwart) is scooped up from a jailhouse by roving reporter Marcia Jeffries (Anoushka Lucas, back at the Young Vic after her fabulous turn in Oklahoma!) and plonked in front of a microphone as the voice of an everyman American. His country singin’, straight talkin’ ways lead to sky-rocketing ratings and he becomes a “demigod in denim” with an ever-growing sway over public opinion.
Dramatising the advent of television, it is a cautionary tale of power and the creation of a TV star. You might trace a line from Lonesome’s screen affinity with the masses to Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump.
That we are supposed to see Trump in him is spelled out repeatedly. Directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah, this musical has the seeds of a brilliant show for our times which never quite flowers, and ironically appears old-fashioned despite the contemporary resonance. Much of this is down to Sarah Ruhl’s simplistic book, which trades on one-dimensional characters and thudding lines. There is talk of immigrants for good measure. We are just short of being told Lonesome wants to Make America Great Again.
All the complexity of its themes – the corruptions of power and the connection between politics and television – is sucked away by sledge-hammer messaging. Similar shows on celebrity-led politics as entertainment and the mass appeal of screen preachers such as James Graham’s Best of Enemies and Tammy Faye work their themes in cleverer ways.
A twanging country score by Elvis Costello brings some vim, but lyrics do little to explore the production’s ideas. There is a quickly changing, multi-tiered set, designed by Anna Fleischle (from TV studio to bar to train compartment) and Karimloo brings slick West End professionalism, singing with range and power. Songs are infectious and well-performed all round, such as the titular A Face in the Crowd, alongside fun pastiches of advertising jingles in songs such as Vitajex.
Marcia’s role is revised from that in the film, in which she is, for the main, a spurned lover. She is a stronger and more independent woman here but woodenly drawn, telling us in smiley-faced tones at the start that we are going back in time to the start of television. Her anger when Lonesome betrays her with the baton-twirling Betty (Emily Florence) feels charged in Lucas’s performance, but unconvincing in itself because so little of the emotions between the pair are explored with any depth. She spells out the power balance in their relationship instead, telling him he has become her “Frankenstein’s monster”. Lucas gives a fine performance within the narrow limits of the role nonetheless, alongside Karimloo.
The show is efficiently put together as a whole but the telegenic charisma that Lonesome has in spades does not kick in on stage.
• At the Young Vic, London until 9 November
