By Jeeves (2001) |
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By Jeeves (2001) |
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| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Drama |
Interviews-Cast Featurette-Making Of |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 2001 | ||
| Running Time | 140:56 (Case: 135) | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | RSDL (102:40) | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 2,4 | Directed By |
Alan Ayckbourn Nick Morris |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Universal Pictures Home Video |
Starring |
John Scherer Martin Jarvis |
| Case | ? | ||
| RPI | $34.95 | Music | Andrew Lloyd Webber |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None | English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) | |
| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles | None | Smoking | No |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | Yes, end titles over end of programme | ||
Fans of P.G. Wodehouse may cringe at this, but this is one musical that definitely does not take itself seriously. By Jeeves! is a musical by Alan Ayckbourn and Andrew Lloyd Webber based on the Jeeves stories by P.G. Wodehouse.
The show opened in Scarborough, UK in 1996, transferring to the Duke of Yorks Theatre and the Lyric Theatre in London. The North American premiere of By Jeeves was at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam in December 1996. A revised Goodspeed production played on Broadway at the Helen Hayes Theatre in 2001. What we are seeing is a filmed version of the Goodspeed production held at the Pittsburgh Public Theater (the performance season ran from 9 February to 4 March 2001). However, the set was specially constructed for the camera, the audience is "fake" and the performance was actually filmed in Toronto, Canada.
I found this quite light-hearted and humorous. The introduction and opening titles are rather clever. The camera takes the point of view of a member of the audience entering the "Little Wittam Community Hall" to attend a performance of "An Evening With Bertram Wooster" featuring Bertram Wilberforce Wooster, tenor vocalist and banjo. We are greeted by the vicar - Rev. Harold 'Stinker' Pinker (Ian Knauer), buy a ticket, get served tea and cakes, and meet various people cleaning the chairs and decorating the hall.
The comedy of errors begins almost immediately with the vicar's awkwardly phrased introduction as he nervously destroys the stage furniture before introducing the star of the show - Mr. Bertram Wooster (John Scherer) himself, but not before introducing just about everyone else contributing to tonight's performance.
However, disaster strikes before Bertie is able to complete his first song. Unfortunately, his banjo has been stolen, and a replacement from the nearest shop is at least two hours away. Bertie hastily confers with his faithful butler, Jeeves (Martin Jarvis), who suggests that he tells a story to the audience. The various people we met earlier are now co-opted as "actors" to assist in the re-enactment of an episode in Bertie's colourful life, and various items from the backstage are used as improvised "props" for the story.
The story, as you can imagine, is somewhat complicated, involving a weekend stay at the house of Sir Watkin Bassett (Heath Lamberts). Two of Bertie's friends, Gussie Fink-Nottle (James Kall) and Bingo Little (Don Stephenson), are in love with Madeline Bassett (Becky Watson), daughter of Sir Bassett, and Honoria Glossup (Donna Lynne Champlin), Bertie's former girlfriend. However, they are both too shy or too stuck for words to declare their love. Their solution is to enlist Bertie's help in a rather complicated scenario involving switching identities and muddled pretences. Poor Bertie tries his best to help them against his better judgement, as well as figure out why Stiffy Bing (Emily Loesser) has announced in the papers that Bertie and her have recently become engaged when he doesn't recall any such event.
The whole story is orchestrated and directed by the ingenious and unflappable Jeeves. Being a musical, the various characters often break into song. The question is: will the banjo arrive in time before the story ends? I found this rather light-hearted and entertaining, but also rather foolish. Well, at least the songs are hummable.
Surprisingly, this is a widescreen 1.78:1 transfer (16x9 Enhanced). I would have expected this to be in full frame given that it was probably intended for broadcast TV, but presumably this is the intended aspect ratio, judging by the editing monitors in the "making of" featurette.
The transfer comes across as fairly soft and lacking in detail. Colour saturation is very good, although with the use of stage lighting the scenes can look somewhat garish. There are some instances of saturated highlights, leading me to suspect the performance was captured on videotape rather than film.
I did not notice any instances of compression artefacts, which was good given the length of the feature and the presence of extras.
Unfortunately, there are no subtitle tracks.
This is a single sided dual layered disc (RSDL). The layer change occurs in Act II (Title 3) Chapter 3 at 24:22. It is rather disruptive as it breaks Jeeves in mid-speech.
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There is only one audio track: English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s).
In general, the audio comes across clean and crisp, though mastered at a fairly loud level (dialog normalization +4dB).
Dialogue was clean and clear throughout, and I did not notice any issues with audio synchronization.
The surround speakers are fairly actively used throughout the feature, but mostly used for ambience. The subwoofer is only lightly used.
As this is a musical, there is often a lot of singing - solos, duets and ensemble. These are well reproduced on the audio track.
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Extras include a featurette and a number of cast interviews.
The menus are 16x9 enhanced but static.
These are a number of short interviews done with members of the cast. All the interviews are presented in 1.75:1 (16x9 enhanced) and Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s).
Interviews include:
I liked the fact that in many of the interview segments the actors poked fun at themselves. I also found it strange to hear the cast speak with American accents after seeing them perform with English accents.
This "making-of" features interviews with cast and crew, and covers topics including casting, background, set construction, music rehearsal, and behind-the-scenes footage. It is presented in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.75:1 (16x9 enhanced) and with Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) audio.
Interviews include:
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
This title does not appear to be currently released in Region 1, which I found surprising.
By Jeeves is an Alan Ayckbourn/Andrew Lloyd Webber musical based on the Wooster/Jeeves stories/books by P. G. Wodehouse. It is light-hearted and funny, with some memorable songs, but may not quite be your cup of tea.
The video transfer is a bit soft but otherwise okay.
The audio transfer is okay.
Extras include a featurette and cast interviews.
| Video | |
| Audio | |
| Extras | |
| Plot | |
| Overall | |
| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Panasonic DVD-RP82, using Component output |
| Display | Sony VPL-VW11HT LCD Projector, ScreenTechnics 16x9 matte white screen (254cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials/Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Ultimate DVD Platinum. |
| Amplification | Denon AVC-A1SE (upgraded) |
| Speakers | Front and surrounds: B&W CDM7NT, front centre: B&W CDMCNT, surround backs: B&W DM601S2, subwoofer: B&W ASW2500 |