by Sheridan Smith had not planned to take a holiday until Christmas. The Bafta-winning actress, in the midst of a professional revival, was set to play the leading lady in the West End musical until July 27 and, two days later, schlepp up to Newcastle for a drama series new tv recording.
Her plans have changed. After mixed reviews, poor ticket sales and reports of audience members leaving early in droves, Smith’s musical Opening Night has announced it will close two months ahead of schedule. Smith, 42, will receive an unexpected discharge in a few weeks.
That blow will be much harder to take because her portrayal of alcoholic Broadway star Myrtle Gordon allowed Smith to exorcise her own well-publicized mental health and drink-related demons. Most notably, she took an abrupt break from playing Fanny Brice in the 2016 revival of Funny Girl, citing stress and exhaustion.
Opening Night is a musical remake of John Cassavetes’ 1977 film of the same name by Ivo van Hove, the iconic Belgian writer-director, with songs by Canadian-American crooner Rufus Wainwright. It follows Smith’s Myrtle as she is filmed by a documentary crew (with live pictures on screens in the Gielgud theatre) and prepares to star in a production of The Second Woman. She stumbles towards opening night due to her alcoholism, her troubled marriage and being haunted by the ghost of a fan who was run over in a car shortly after meeting Myrtle.
The similarities to Smith’s own career are obvious, and she admitted as much before the curtain came up. “It’s kind of like therapy,” she told one interviewer. “It’s very cheap. It was very cathartic, just to get it out.”
Opening Night should be upon us. Smith is up for the Olivier this weekend with Shirley Valentine, van Hove coming off the back of a commercial success in the form of A Little Life directed by James Norton and Wainwright can be a formidable songwriter. Instead, it was one of the biggest West End flops since Trevor Nunn’s misguided Gone With the Wind in 2008. ,” says her production source.
The show polarized critics, with national papers awarding it everything from one to five stars. The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish awarded two stars because “the evening lurches from one number to the next” but praised Smith for “capturing potential” and said he hoped it would succeed because he took risks. avoid many creative productions.
Meanwhile, the audience was left with a plot that is often described as confusing and aimless. “I had no idea what was going on,” says one iconic punter who saw it this week. “I was completely confused from the start to the interval, and I left at that point. I feel bad for Sheridan. She’s a very good actress, but she was set up to fail.” Another who didn’t return after the intervention says: “It wasn’t engaging or exciting, I couldn’t follow the story at all and the songs were rubbish.”
Those close to Opening Night argue that Smith was the shining light, even if the rest of the show was poorly received. “She gave a great performance every night,” says one of the show’s producers. “Even those reviewers who didn’t really like the show, there isn’t one that didn’t give it full praise.
Will this harm her standing? “It’s strange to consider it completely the opposite: it puts Sheridan in a bold category, a risk-taking category,” he says. “Let’s face it, Shirley Valentine isn’t much of a threat. She showed that she is willing to do something artistically challenging. Something that was also evident, from a personal story point of view, was facing the demons and pulling out. Any producer who asks if Sheridan is a bit of a risk taker will be able to say ‘Not really.’ She took on one of the most personally challenging roles and gave it her all.”
The real blame may lie at van Hove’s door. “Ivo will probably be the one to be questioned. He’s always been a strange, strange man and to some extent he was strange, strange but it worked in a commercial way,” says the producer. “I think he’s going to have more challenges because of it.”
Smith was born the daughter of country and western singers, in Epworth, Lincolnshire, and began performing at a young age. She was a member of the National Youth Music Theater until 1999 when she made her television debut as Emma in The Royle Family, and then Janet Keogh in Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps for eight years. Her highest profile role yet is when she played Rudi in Gavin & Stacey, Smithy’s sister (played by her real-life boyfriend at the time James Corden). Smith is also a regular on stage, and has a reputation as one of the best singing voices of an actress of her generation.
Smith’s magnetic presence, whether on stage or screen, and her ability to play seriously (Hedda Gabler at the Old Vic or the 2022 BBC Four Lives series) were quickly embraced by fans and critics alike. silly (The Lenny Henry Show and Benidorm). Her emotions are never far below the surface, making her an engaging watch, no matter who she’s playing.
Smith, unusually for such an actor, comes from a less conspicuous part of the world and seems to have been grafted more than some of his peers from more fashionable backgrounds. Her mother, Marilyn, “got into me: the show must go on”, she once said.
She is also proud of her roots. The local papers are full of stories about Smith going back to her hometown and getting chips and gravy from a takeaway.
But things started looking up for Smith in 2016, when she had a public breakdown. She missed curtain calls, alienated audiences and struggled with alcohol abuse after her father, Colin, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. “I was running from a lot, straight to the bottom of a bottle. I wanted to quit on my own,” she said two years later.
In addition to her Olivier nod for Shirley Valentine, which was her first major stage role since the horror Funny Girl, Smith has recently appeared on Netflix in the unexpected series Cleaning Up, about an office cleaner who turns to trade insider to pay for her gambling. debt, which is the third most popular show on Netflix this week.
Musicals are a risky business these days, especially those as esoteric and experimental as Opening Night. A lot of people have said that it needed more work, or that it could have benefited from launching at a lower profile venue. “Was it imperfect? Definitely. Was it flawed? Yes,” says another producer. “But to have that kind of work in the West End is what we should aspire to even if it could be done better. The alternative is commercial fluff like MJ the Musical, which received average reviews but is doing very well.”
One of those involved in the creation of Opening Night says the show would never have gotten off the ground without casting an actor of Smith’s stature. “All the power to Sheridan for using her star power to light something different,” he says.
Even during the previews the show was bumpy, and major changes were made before press night. One feature that didn’t make it into the final production was an extended vacuum scene. “Like any musical, it’s risky and difficult and honestly, until you put it in front of an audience, you don’t know what you’ve got,” says one producer. “During preview there were a lot of changes.”
Smith was trying to promote the show this week, even though the writing was on the wall. “He’s so tall and so smart and that’s what made me want to do it. Because it’s so different to anything else I’ve done,” she told Heart FM. “I definitely have the theater buzz back again. I love it.”
She was also asked what her favorite role was over the years and she mentioned Mrs Biggs, the ITV series about Great Train Robber Ronnie’s wife, before turning back to Myrtle Gordon. “I know this is happy but this part I’m doing right now is the hardest and most uncomfortable part I’ve had to do emotionally and physically,” Smith said. “So I think I’m very proud of this part.”
The creators of the short-lived musical can convince themselves of one fact: when Cassavetes’ film was released it was also a flop. It has since become a cult classic. Smith may still get a second chance to make a first impression with Opening Night.
