Adapting a musical is no small task. There are the songs, the characters, and the storyline to think about – not to mention all the die-hard fans who will complain that they liked the original better no matter what you do, or the critics who can’t be pleased either way (no comment). But this hasn’t stopped Jay James-Moody and Squabbalogic, and thank the musical theatre gods for them.
Alan Jay Lerner’s 1965 musical On a Clear Day You Can See Forever is weird (and somewhat problematic) in a lot of ways. Leading lady Daisy can tell when the phone’s about to ring, and she talks to flowers to make them grow really fast. Played by Barbra Streisand in the 1970 film adaptation, she’s a gruff, ditzy fiancée who can’t shake her addiction to cigarettes. Her beau, Warren, just wants her to be “normal”. Then she meets a snobby French hypnotist who regresses her to one of her past lives: a posh, clever English woman named Melinda. Surprise surprise, the hypnotist falls in love with Melinda. But he can’t stand Daisy’s inability to, erm, have an English accent or act like a “proper” lady? Okay, Doctor.
What a pleasure it is to know that Squabbalogic are finally back on stage making interesting, quirky musical theatre
This version, adapted and revised by Jay James-Moody, is determined to make a few changes, similar in gender-bending but otherwise distinct from a 2011 musical adaptation by Michael Mayer. First up, it’s set in 2023, not the 1960s. Daisy is now David (whose friends call him Daisy, played by a pink-haired Jay James-Moody) and the hypnotist Dr Bruckner (Blake Bowden, Phantom of the Opera) is an American, who has just lost his wife Melinda. David’s inner hot girl, also named Melinda (the always brilliant Madeleine Jones of Muriel’s Wedding The Musical fame), is not from the late 1700s, but is instead a pants-wearing, opinionated woman from the year 1923.
All this, plus the addition of a talented and cheekily outlandish three-person chorus (Billie Palin, Natalie Abbott, and Lincoln Elliott), makes On A Clear Day immediately more complex than its 1965 counterpart. Songs have been added, rearranged and recontextualised to support the new story. For example, the ever-strange ‘Go To Sleep’ from the film is now sung by Daisy’s confidante Muriel (a powerhouse Billie Palin) rather than as a form of scolding herself in bed.
The new orchestrations by Natalya Aynsley similarly modernise and simplify the tunes of the original without losing their sweet, nostalgic Broadway tone; and with only a keyboard, cello, double bass and drum set. Some songs feature fun onstage assistance from Lincoln Elliott on the ukulele and guitar, and the sound design by Oliver Brighton adds some kitschy tones to signal changes between hypnotic and “regular” states.
The set and costume design concept by Michael Hankin, realised by Bella Rose Saltearn, is a series of mid-century shelves that gradually grow flowers throughout the show, a nod to the Doctor’s office in the film. The shelves as entry and exit point for the mystical Melinda inside Daisy’s head aren’t always practical, but the idea is a good one. Costumes are at their best when they are well-coordinated and hint at some aspect of the characters who wear them – as with the chorus of singing “flowers” and Dr Bruckner. However, the costumes could be pulling more weight to establish a time period or overall vision.
This adaptation takes some big strides towards bringing On A Clear Day into exciting, new territory. But it’s still worth noting that the central conceit is based on the idea that Dr Bruckner is violating a number of professional and personal boundaries of Daisy/David’s. He consistently hypnotises David for lengthy periods of time, doesn’t tell him what he does while he’s under, and even goes as far as sharing a kiss with David while he is in a regressed state as Melinda. Sexual assault underlies one of the story’s major plot devices (consent can’t really be given if someone is technically asleep), and this production hasn’t quite addressed this fault.
Nevertheless, flipping the character of Daisy/David from a straight woman to a gay man hints at some layers of queer complexity between Warren and Daisy, as well as Dr Bruckner and David. Dr Bruckner isn’t sure if he’s searching beyond time for his own dead wife Melinda or actually falling in love with a man (despite his questionable actions to find out). Melinda’s husband in 1923 (Edward, also played by James Haxby) is unashamedly bisexual, running around pleasing himself with his many open-secret affairs. Warren is no longer simply a bit of an arsehole who’s trying to rain on Daisy’s parade, but rather an endearingly neurotic queer man who is trying to appear as normal as he can so that he and his love can make a life for themselves in a homophobic world.
Whilst it doesn’t solve all the problems of the 1965 original, Jay James-Moody’s On A Clear Day is undoubtedly a step in the right direction. It’s some tricky subject matter to adapt, as with many much-loved romantic comedies, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t at least try. Squabbalogic’s heart is very much in the right place, and what a pleasure it is to know that they are finally back on the Reginald Theatre stage making interesting, quirky musical theatre.
On a Clear Day You Can See Forever is playing at the Seymour Centre, Chippendale, until April 15, 2023. You can find tickets over here.