Giles Woodforde previews the stage version of a hit movie using the latest in digital technology

Seeing the hi-tech musical Ghost, I was reminded of a scene outside Oxford’s New Theatre many years ago. A mother and her daughter were looking at a poster advertising the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company. “What’s that?” asked the girl. “Well,” replied her mother, “It’s like the cinema — only it’s real people”. The comment was appropriate, as the film version of South Pacific was playing just down the road, the first film to be shown in Oxford in 70mm.

Ghost started life as a film in 1990, but now cinema has merged with the “real people” described by that mother: the stage version of the show combines latest digital film techniques with live actors including an unforgettable scene where an actor seems to walk through a moving New York subway train.

The technology is cutting edge and involves digital screens. But is Ghost’s journey from screen to stage something new? No, but since Gigi in the 1970s, the pace has quickened — Mary Poppins, 42nd Street, Fame, Footloose and Dirty Dancing to name a few.

Next up is the film Shakespeare in Love: not strictly a musical but due to open on stage in the West End next summer. Ghost would have been difficult to stage without modern technology. The storyline involves lovebirds Sam and Molly, who are mugged as they walk home one night. Sam is killed, and left trapped as a ghost. In another special effect, you see the body, then seconds later you see Sam’s ghost standing several yards away played by the same actor. With the help of a fake medium, Sam’s ghost tries to reach Molly. “I’ve only got two or three scenes before I become a ghost,” says Stewart Clarke, who plays Sam. Several reviewers have felt that the actors are at risk of being upstaged by the special effects.

“When you’re on stage you can’t see what’s on the screens,” says Rebecca Trehearn, playing Molly. “I don’t feel I’m having to compete with the technology.”

“We work in harmony,” says Stewart. “It’s a nice relationship between actor and the technology. Considering how much technical stuff there is, very little has gone wrong.”

Ghost the Musical
New Theatre, Oxford
February 25 – March 8
Tickets: 0844 871 3020 or www.atgtickets.com/venues/new-theatre-oxford