With music and lyrics by Jeff Bowen, book by Hunter Bell and directed with great imagination by Robert McWhir, [title of show] is a toe-tapping, finger clicking, tune humming original and very quirky musical, and is a joy from start to finish. As the audience you are watching a show being created in front of your very eyes. Composer and lyricist Jordan Fox who plays Jeff and Michael Vinsen who plays Hunter enlist the help of Kirby Hughes as Heidi and Natalie Williams who plays Susan, to put a musical comedy together in only three weeks. They want to submit it for inclusion in a New York musical festival and hopefully enjoy the success this will bring.
This is a wonderful look at craving and the need for success and at the same time showing distain for some of the rubbish that finds its way on to Broadway; that safety can often be found in adapting other works that were made for TV, film or book rather than trying to create an original work.
This is a smart, cheeky and classy show with the two ladies showing great comedic skill. Fine melodies and polished performances made this show. A special mention has to be made of choreographer William Spencer whose dance sequences were so in keeping with the characters’ capabilities and with fabulous use of the Above The Stag theatre space. Bowen and Bell have written a fun musical about friendship and it is a delight that as the audience we were allowed to become part of that friendship.
Lastly it is to the producers’ credit that work of this nature is given a London platform. Thoroughly entertaining, and for lovers of original musicals a must see. A very well crafted exercise on how to put on a show. New York razzle dazzle comes to Vauxhall.
Photos by PBG Studios
****
[title of show] runs to Sunday 10 March at the Above The Stag, 72 Albert Embankment, Vauxhall, SE1 7TP. Box office: abovethestag.com
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