Romans have taken to its dance routines and Eurovision-style pop, but what would Pope John Paul II make of the new musical about his life?
IMAGINE PÁDRAIG PEARSE at the Glasnevin graveside of O'Donovan Rossa making his famous "the fools, the fools, the fools, they have left us our Fenian dead" speech. As he works his way into the moment he hesitates for a second, then steps forward to belt it out, singing to the accompaniment of a lavish soundtrack that is part Walt Disney and part Eurovision Song Contest. To some extent that is what you get with Non Abbiate Paura (Don't Be Afraid), a musical based on the life of the late Pope John Paul II. The scene: St Peter's Square in the Vatican City on October 16th, 1978, the day of John Paul's election. People look up to the balcony where " Habemus papam!" has just been pronounced. JPII launches into his acceptance speech, one of the most famous speeches of his 27-year pontificate. At first he jokes with the crowd, apologising for his Italian and famously saying: "If I make any mistakes, you will correct me." Then he moves on to his "don't be afraid" admonition, urging the faithful to "throw open wide the doors to God". At this point he pauses, then steps forwards to belt it out, with non abbiate pauragetting the full symphonic backing. You have never seen John Paul II like this before.
Perhaps you can blame Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. After all, they came up with the idea of Jesus Christ as a superstar, and if you can make a musical about the Son of God, then why not make one about a recent pope, especially one whose charisma, theatricality and flair for soundbites earned him the nickname God’s Showman?
But the problem with Non Abbiate Paura– written by Don Giuseppe Spedicato, a priest from the small town of Novoli, in Puglia – is that although it is very strong on Fame-style dance routines and song-contest pop, it is rather less credible when it tries to tell the story of one of the most influential figures of the last century.
It is not that the music, the singing and the acting are not good; it is that, for all the Rice-Webber precedent, a funky, loud, stridently rhythmic musical seems totally inappropriate. You may tap your feet, but does so much low-brow tack communicate much about the Christian message?
These observations might seem less than generous about a work that attempts to follow the salient chapters in the life of “Lolek”, as John Paul was known: his brush with theatre in his youth; his early years in a Poland first overrun by the Nazis and then dominated by the Soviet Union; his ordination; his election as pope; his globetrotting; and, finally, his “multimedia” funeral, in 2005.
Certainly, the night your correspondent saw the show at the Teatro Italia in Rome, the audience could not have been more receptive. Every song, every dance routine and every heartfelt monologue – there are a good many of them – generated wildly enthusiastic applause.
One would have to say, though, that judging by the brisk business being done by the flower stall outside the theatre, there were plenty of friends and family in the audience, all getting ready to give their hero or heroine in the 21-strong cast a Hollywood-style floral tribute.
Non Abbiate Pauradid just two nights in Rome last weekend before preparing to move on to Gallipoli, in Puglia, from July 18th to 25th. It returns to Rome from September 26th to October 24th before setting out on an Italian tour that runs through to next year.
If you are tempted to see it, let me remind you that this is an all-Italian show: as well as Italian dialogue – normal enough – the music, the attempted storytelling and the dance routines belong to an I-wanna-be-famous generation that takes Big Brotherand not Dante as its reference point.
Who knows what John Paul II would have made of it all? One suspects he is looking on with benign but puzzled interest.
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