Test largely passed. TV fiction «Sea Outside» has its own quality stage musical of the same name. Waiting for the fourth television season (from February 1st on RaiPlay, from the 14th on Rai2), the audience welcomed this theatrical “digression” very well. And after the crackling debut at the Augusteo in Naples on 14 December, the dates in the Neapolitan capital have multiplied. Naturally they all sold out, replicating the overwhelming television success. Thanks to L’Altro Teatro, led by Gianluigi Fabiano and Giuseppe Citrigno “Mare Fuori, the musical” arrives in Calabria and Sicily: two dates at the Cilea in Reggio, 23 and 24 January, three at the Rendano in Cosenza, 26, 27 and January 28th and two at the Duemila theater in Ragusa, March 22nd and 23rd.
He masterfully directs the musical Alessandro Siani. Making his debut in theater direction, the Neapolitan artist managed very well to give a strong personality to his show while maintaining the story and characters that were so popular on the small screen. And it wasn’t easy. After a boom like that of the television series, the public’s desires are rather “conservative” and the balance between the “old” and the new walks a fine line. To be clear, the difference is expected to be “only” that of seeing one’s favorites at work within an inch of one’s nose. Well, Siani was very skilled because he managed not to distort the pathos, events and characters while telling the vicissitudes in a different way. That gaze towards the infinite “sea outside” that can be seen from the prison for minors in Nisida seemed even more full of hope, of redemption, of redemption.
«Together with the entire cast of Mare Fuori we face this new challenge and reflect on this wasted youth, the daughter of a bitter and unacceptable destiny – said Alessandro Siani –. The eyes of the children, the voices, the music, the soul and the bitter laughter are ready to embrace the public.”
And then there’s the soundtrack. The showpieces of the series are inevitable. With the audience ready to get up to sing “O mar for”, “Tik-tok” and “Origami all’alba” together with the protagonists. But there are also many brand new pieces that promise to become hits. In the middle, the story of the events that led the boys to prison, children of ruthless juvenile delinquency, Camorra labourers, unaware victims of a mocking fate, slaves to a destiny that seems inevitable. There are 22 artists animating the scene, some coming directly from the television series such as Maria Esposito, who plays Rosa Ricci, Enrico Tijani in the role of Dobermann, Antonio Orefice and Giuseppe Pirozzi, Totò and Micciarella respectively, and Antonio D’Aquino who is Milos . Among the stars is Andrea Sannino, alias Beppe Romano, the educator of the juvenile prison where the story is set.
Actor and singer, Sannino was already the protagonist, in 2010, of the very famous musical «Once upon a time… Scugnizzi», by Enrico Vaime and Claudio Mattone, son of the film «Scugnizzi» (1989) by Nanny Loi who was the first to tell, also from Nisida prison, the ugliness of the Camorra and its “recruitment” of Neapolitan kids. And as for the entire cast, it is also a significant test for Andrea Sannino to compete in a musical so full of expectations.
It’s not always easy for a transposition to work, and this happened to the musical “Mare Fuori”. Try to reveal the secret of this success…
«The age of the protagonists! We tell a drama, a tragedy that takes place in a juvenile institution, and this brings together a generational category that can identify with the risks that such a choice entails. Although “Mare Fuori” reveals to us that it is often not a choice, but rather random dynamics that bring kids to places like Nisida.”
With all due respect to maestro Stanislavskij, how much of your adolescent experience as a street boy is there in the interpretation of Beppe Romano, the educator?
«Actually yes, there is a lot of me in Beppe, because I come from Ercolano, a complicated, wonderful reality, but still the province of Naples. And looking the discomfort in the eyes helped me in the interpretation. I drew a lot into myself without many difficulties other than that of holding my own against a great actor such as Vincenzo Ferrera who plays Beppe in the series. I heard him and he gave me some valuable advice.”
Among the performers of the musical there is also Giulia Luzi in the role of the director of the juvenile institution, famous for having given the voice to Hannah Montana, the protagonist of the Disney fiction of the same name, and for having participated in two very popular Italian series such as «I Cesaroni” and “A doctor in the family”.
Giulia, how did you prepare to play such a delicate role as that of the director of the juvenile prison where the story is set?
«With Alessandro Siani we decided to create a role from scratch that took things from both directors of the series (who are different people). If we want to find a physical resemblance I’m certainly closer to Sofia, but then I do things that are perhaps more typical of Paola. It’s a role very distant from the ones I’ve played so far, but I wanted to play a character that could make me measure myself against my more adult and more mature side.”
In Italian latitudes, musicals have not yet managed to break through. A good number of them are produced, but the attendance on the bill, in the various theatres, is still low… why?
«Perhaps because there are few important investments. I’m among the theatrical elite because I did Romeo and Juliet and Notre-Dame de Paris. “Mare Fuori” is a musical with a large investment, but also a very timely operation at a time when the series is reaching a peak of popularity and consensus. Let’s hope it makes proselytes…”.
