Review: Dead Man Walking

Dead Man Walking by Jake Heggie & Terrence McNally
State Theatre
27 September 2007

This the full text version of the review which appears in The Daily Telegraph.

The lead-up to the premiere of Dead Man Walking has been so long and exhaustive for the musical and opera communities that a lot is riding on the success of this enormous production.

Burgeoning producer Nicole Alexander has been pounding the pavement for so long trying to get this major operatic event off the ground, she has practically become a permanent fixture of the arts pages for the last two years.

Her powers of persuasion have meant that the production has attracted the financial backing of radio presenter Alan Jones, the production support of Andrew McManus, the directorial talents of Nigel Jamison as well as the musical powerhouses Kirsti Harms, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Anthony Callea and Hayden Tee.

Entering the magnificent State Theatre it becomes obvious that nothing has been spared on this epic and theatrically expansive production. With a striking set (by designer Dan Potra) that reaches out from the stage with two enormous steel structures, the audience is transported to the Angola State Penitentiary in Louisiana. Aside from the fact that a certain actor was loitering with the audience while in costume, it immediately becomes clear that this is unlike any other operatic event you have been to.

Dead Man Walking is based on the auto-biographical novel by Sister Helen Prejean who documents her experience as a spiritual adviser to a death-row inmate convicted of the brutal killing of two teenagers. The book was consequently turned into a haunting film by Tim Robbins and starred Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon.

This operatic version by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Terrence McNally is a fitting accompaniment to a story which avoids making judgements on whether the death penalty is right or wrong, but elegantly shows the events that lead up to the institutional killing of the murderer. Although a bit drawn out in the first act, director Nigel Jamison appropriately fills the dramatic gaps with some excellent video footage by Scott Anderson that capture a Hitchkockian quality to the plot.

With over 120 people in the cast and orchestra, Jamison along with conductor Paul Kildea coordinate a production that employs an appropriate style that matches the stark grey of the prison where much of the opera is set.

Much of the promotion around this production has centred on the photogenic Teddy Tahu Rhodes who plays the convicted Joseph De Rocher. But this production, more than anyone else, belongs to the touching performance of Kirsti Harms who plays the central character of Sister Helen.

Supported by strong principals and a huge chorus, this is an opera that will not necessarily have you singing for days, but it will certainly hover in a corner of your imagination and force you to reflect on what is, at its core, a devastating story.