This Little Life Of Mine - Review

Park Theatre, London

**

Written and directed by Michael Yale 

With music by Charlie Round-Turner

James Robinson and Kate Batter

The strapline to This Little Life of Mine invites us to "be at the birth of a brand new British musical". This is all well and good, but unfortunately aside from being "brand new " and, to be fair, an astonishingly good performance from Kate Batter as leading lady Izzy, there is little else to redeem this show.

Michael Yale (who also directs) has compiled a glimpse into the lives of a young couple, Izzy and Jonesy (James Robinson) as they set up home in today's high rent, cappuccino infused capital, subjecting them to a handful of recognisable but cliched vignettes along the way.

Its all very humdrum and unremarkable and that's just not good enough. For a musical to transport its audience to the highs and lows of the human condition (and surely that is what good musical theatre is all about) there must be sharp, witty lyrics, memorable tunes and standout performances. Sadly, with only a few exceptions, Yale and his composer Charlie Round-Turner subject their cast to little more than a barrage of stereotypical set pieces, which in the second half descend into dire predictability.

Batter puts in a fine turn, with a striking presence and voice that sometimes hints at her desperation for a child. The shallowness of the script however suggests that a woman's creative input in this show has been much missed. Yale fails to convince us in his documenting the depths of desperately female angst. There is at times an awkward schoolboy clumsiness to his writing, highlighted in the naïveté with which he has his characters handle the profound sadness of a miscarriage.

Other writers tackle such complexities with aplomb. Across the Atlantic, Sara Bareilles offers an acute understanding of the modern woman in Waitress, whilst Jason Robert Brown's The Last 5 Years is a masterclass in understanding how a deeply loving relationship between two young people can both grow and yet soon be extinguished. 

Elsewhere Greg Barnett and Caroline Deverill make the best of the script in fleshing out their multitude of supporting characters.

Runs until 29th October

Photo credit: Charlie Round-Turner

Thérèse Racquin - Review

Park Theatre, London

****

By Émile Zola
Adaptation, book and lyrics by Nona Shepphard
Music by Craig Adams
Directed by Nona Shepphard

Greg Barnett and Julie Atherton

Thérèse Racquin, the new musical that wowed the Finborough earlier this year, makes a short journey across West London to be staged at the larger, though still intimate, Park 200 auditorium. French classics clearly prove a rich seam for composers. Where 30 years ago Boublil and Schönberg tackled Hugo's Les Miserables, so now do composer Craig Adams and writer Nona Shepphard take on Émile Zola's classic study on desire, guilt and most importantly the corrosive effect of these two emotions upon the human condition.

The story may be more than a hundred years old but it's a strong morality fable that responds well to Shepphard's "radical" adaptation and Adam's jarring melodies. This is no easy show to watch. The themes of lust, betrayal and hauntings, as well as some distinct nods to Zola's theatrical naturalism and all strung around a murderously macabre ménage á trois, demand an adult audience.

The performers are a treat. Who better than Jeremy Legat to play the cuckolded Camille, Therese's husband, with such sensitivity and marked understatement? Usurping his place in the marital bed, Greg Barnett plays the louche Laurent, Camille's childhood friend. Of swarthy peasant stock, muscular and vital, he is the alpha-male that Thérèse burns and yearns for. Proving a decaying and ultimately suspicious force within the home, Camille's mother Mme. Racquin is a cracking performance from the ever accomplished and occasionally menacing Tara Hugo.

The success of this show however, ultimately rests upon the slender and adulterous (though only in character, of course) shoulders of Julie Atherton as Thérèse. On stage for virtually the entire show, Atherton is silent for the first fourty-five minutes, before releasing her pent up desire for Laurent in the passionate I Breathe You In, sung as the two lovers consummate their lust. It is not so long since Atherton played Emily Tallentire in Leicester Curve's The Hired Man - she evidently plays the cheating wife well. In the final act, her contribution to the duet If I Had Known are spine tingling.

Some of the songs are inspirational. Thursday Night, sung by the company as they enjoy the weekly game of dominoes that old Mme Raquin hosts, suggested just a twinkle of Guys and Dolls' The Oldest Established, whilst Sweet Perfume Of Violets is possibly one of the most beautifully horrific songs in the canon, with Adams penning a truly haunting melody.

One criticism: Sat stage right of the Park's shallow thrust one can miss occasional visual moments. The Park is a very different space to the Finborough and it's not too late for Shepphard to tweak her blocking.

An imaginative use of a female trio as chorus adds to the harmonic delight of the production, whilst James Simpson directs a fine sound from the (mainly) string quintet. With Thérèse Raquin Shepphard and Adams have created invigorating and exciting new musical theatre. The show represents a cutting edge of the genre at its very best and brilliantly performed.

Runs until August 24th 2014