The Merry Widow at the Theatre Royal in Glasgow review

The Herald Scotland

01-05-2025

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On the other hand, this production looks gorgeous.
The set and costumes, by takis and Lise Bondu, are sumptuous, there is a superb design change between Acts Two and Three, and fine projected animation at the start (after a house-keeping announcement that is also all part of the production). The huge cast includes excellent chorus-work and too many delightful cameos to list here – even if the New York/Italian accents are variably executed, the good ones are very good.
The best performances among the principals come from Henry Waddington, as 'Don' Zeta, and Alex Otterburn as his 'consigliere' Danilo, in some ways reprising their double act as Dad and Eddy in the company's 2017 staging of Turnage's Greek. Both understand the tone of the production perfectly – if the rise of the stage musical was what did for the golden age of operetta, Savournin and his associates simply assume it is all the same thing.
On the first night, both Paula Sides, as the widow Hanna Glawari, and Rhian Lois as Zeta's wife 'Valentina', now an ex-showgirl married to the mob, didn't always match the assurance of the men in performance, although they sang well enough.
In fact the best of the music often came from the pit, the Orchestra of Scottish Opera conducted by music director Stuart Stratford (introduced as 'Stick-man Stewie'). With guitars and mandolins alongside the harp, the large band often sounded better balanced than the many singers onstage, not only in those details but also in the string soloists and impressively crisp brass.