Southwark Playhouse Borough
Playing until 30 November 2024
Photo credit: Danny Kaan
Review {AD-PR Gifted}
An autobiographical depiction of Title of Show’s creation process, this one act musical follows Hunter (Jacob Fowler) and Jeff (Thomas Oxley) as they scramble together materials, to create an original work to submit to a musical theatre festival and how they then took the show to Broadway. With input from their friends, Heidi (Abbie Budden) and Susan (Mary Moore), the group recorded every conversation that took place into the making of this musical and well…turned it into a musical.
Given the premise, this show demonstrates incredible sincerity on the joys and hardships of creatives and actors, especially those early in their careers. The dialogues draw upon each individual’s desperation for the show’s success and what they do to cope with their own situations, including side-gigs or uninteresting roles to make money and adjust your materials, no matter how much you like it, to make producers happy. Indeed, Hunter and Jeff’s view are at odds on the latter, creating fricking among the four friends. The ridiculousness of the creative process borderline on absurdity, driving the characters themselves mad, but exceptionally humourous at the same time. For example, when Hunter tries to explain to the other three why they need to reduce the number of times they swear, a swear word was used and because they are keeping everything, they end up adding more swear words!
The centre plot of the production will be familiar to theatregoers, referencing specific people in the industry, theatres and Broadway and Off-Broadway. Even though this will appeal to the theatre loving aficionados, the reliance on this familiarity also hinders its potential to reach the rest of the audience and some of the jokes will inevitably be lost on them. However, there is ample material like puns and funny play on rhymes in the dialogues and musical numbers for musical theatre novices, and it is likely that one can understand enough to get a good laugh out of the show. In addition, given the process, I would have expected back and forth changes on more occasions as they develop their script and musical numbers. As it stands, the whole thing seems to go a bit too smoothly and well-structured, perhaps undermining the spontaneity of the show’s development.
The four actors in this show have a wonderful dynamic, bringing their respective roles to life. Jacob Fowler’s Hunter perhaps gets the most punchlines and puns, for example, referring himself as a ‘procrastibator’ due to his tendency to procrastinate and watch porn instead.
While the tunes are generally complementing the plot, bringing an upbeat energy to the overall show, but the melodies and lyrics are both quite forgettable and I struggled to find the hook that draws me further into the story. However, it is wonderful to see the musical director, Tom Chippendale, appear on stage next to the actors, playing role of Larry, the show’s original musical director, and makes the occasional, but always funny one-line jabs at the actors for excluding him from conversations or photoshoots. This is funny because musical directors are usually positioned in the orchestra pit and tucked away from sight!
This is not the first and certainly won’t be the last show that is about a writer writing about a writer writing a show, from recent memories, the likes of A Strange Loop and Why am I so Single also come to mind, but this story sets itself apart by focusing more on the actual creative process and maintains an upbeat and positive message throughout, despite the group of friends’ challenges.
Creatives
Book: Hunter Bell
Music and lyrics: Jeff Bowen
Director: Christopher D Clegg
Musical Director: Tom Chippendale
Set Design: Hazel Mcintosh
Lighting Design: Alistair Lindsay
Sound Design: Ieuan Watkins-Hyde
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