Accidental Feminist - Review

Above The Arts, London


****

Kira Morsley

At London’s Above the Arts Theatre and for one night only, Kira Morsley was on top form during her solo cabaret show, telling a packed audience of how she accidentally became a feminist.

The Offie-nominated vocal powerhouse took to the stage for over an hour, delighting with anecdotes from her childhood growing up in Australia, of being bullied, working in an industry where image is important, and her experiences of being a woman. Now she’s a feminist who takes pride in her appearance, who loved both My Little Pony and Transformers as a child and didn’t realise there were differences between men and women (besides the obvious) until she was in her teens.

Accompanied by musical director Rhiannon Drake on keyboard, Morsley’s song choices neatly accompanied her tales and featured a number of showtunes including There Are Worse Things I Could Do from Grease; Little Known Facts from You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (used to describe “mansplaining”) and amusingly The Internet Is For Porn from Avenue Q, to reinforce how the media defines what is considered sexy. She also took inspiration from Sara Bareilles, performing King Of Anything and the inspiring Brave.

A highlight of the evening was Waving Through a Window from Dear Evan Hansen, performed so beautifully and emotively that the audience were in need of the interval that followed to compose themselves. Morsley was pitch perfect throughout the show and it is clear to see that she belongs on stage.

“Women are speaking out and we’re actually getting heard,” Morsley said towards the end of her performance. And while the show was for the most part very well directed by Geri Allen, it might perhaps have benefited from a few more anecdotes from Morsley's life and her actual experiences with feminism. 

The evening was inspirational, seeing a successful production from a woman who is clearly comfortable in her own skin.Having once wanted to be a surgeon, Morsley admitted that that choice would have led her into a predominantly male profession. Thankfully, what might have been the world of medicine’s loss has been musical theatre’s gain.

Reviewed by Kirsty Herrington

Musicals Shared With Friends - Review

Union Theatre, London


****

For the past decade, writer and lyricist Robert Gould has been slowly fashioning a body of musical theatre compositions, seeking to introduce more varied and original writing into the industry and collaborating with a number of talented composers - Christopher J Orton, Alex James Ellison and Rob Eyles to name a few.

Following the release of his 2014 album Words Shared With Friends his reputation has grown, and a Sunday night at the Union Theatre saw a 16 strong cast showcase a range of Gould’s work from across the years. 

Highlights from the evening were excerpts from The Wonderful Musician, two specific numbers from Gould’s most recent project performed by Hywel Dowsell and new graduate Danny Michaels. The pair sang Music Turns Me On  and  As Long As I Have Music respectively, giving very different performances and taking the audience from hysterical laughter to silence and awe. 

Unsurprisingly, the two shows in which Gould had collaborated with composer, Christopher J Orton were to prove the evening's favourites. Giving excerpts from Elephant Juice, Orton and Gould’s musical that tells of 6 characters who incidentally all confess their love to the wrong person or at the wrong time, Shaun McCourt and Brendan Matthew gave an effortlessly breath-taking duet in Perfect Stranger, alongside Lets Just Stay Friends which was given an  emotional rendition by Aled Powys Williams.

Following its successful, sell out run at Ye Olde Rose and Crown Theatre earlier this year, songs from Orton and Gould’s My Land’s Shore that told the tragedy of the Merthyr uprising, were to offer some sensational moments performed by the original London cast.

Michael Rees stunned the audience to silence with a flawless rendition of A Lonely Voice, Rebecca Gilliland gave an emotional and magnificent performance of The Way Things are and Still Even Now. A particularly strong performance was that of the all-female trio comprising Gilliland, Emma Hickey and Kira Morsley singing I know I Love Him. Together with McCourt performing the title song from My Land’s Shore, the extract showed a stunning example of some of the duo’s finest creations. 

Concerts like these should be given their dues for they enable the “musical theatre world” to find new bearings and discover exciting new writing.

Praise to Gould, his collaborators and the stunning performers he trusts with his work.

Reviewed by Charlotte Darcy and Ben Stephens

My Land's Shore - Review

Ye Olde Rose And Crown Theatre, London


****


Music and lyrics by Christopher J Orton
Book and lyrics by Robert Gould
Directed by Brendan Matthew

The company

Whisky aficionados will know the name Penderyn as that of a distinguished single malt distilled in south Wales. But in My Lands Shore, Christopher Orton and Robert Gould’s new musical, one learns so much more about the history surrounding Dic Penderyn (aka Richard Lewis), a martyr to the cause of Welsh worker's rights and suffrage.

The time and place is Merthyr Tydfil in the early 19th century, when Welshmen mined the coal and smelted the iron that built Queen Victoria's Industrial Revolution. Trade unions were as nascent as employers were ruthlessly exploitative. Branded as the show's world premiere, its development has in fact seen Orton and Gould themselves labour through workshops and concert presentations for 15+ years to reach this first fully staged production.

And much like a fine whisky can offer nosings of different scents and influences, so too are there echoes here, not unsurprisingly, of Les Miserables and also The Hired Man, although where those two shows spanned nations and decades My Land's Shore, keeps its focus tighter. While Penderyn’s story is ripe for a musical theatre treatment, there are times when Orton and Gould's writing fails to reach emotional depth. The death of a child for example should make an audience weep - here however the writers kill a kiddie so early in the first half that unlike the cared for tragedy of Gavroche's death in Les Mis, we've barely had a chance to get to know this youngster, let alone grieve their untimely passing.

Where My Land's Shore soars however is in its stirring ensemble numbers and an unwavering excellence throughout its company. Aidan Banyard leads convincingly as Richard Lewis, the supremely principled miner. Enjoying an unconventional romance and marriage with Rebecca Gilliland's Angharad, the pair solo impressively. Gilliland defining a magnificent opening with The Way Things Are as Banyard offers a powerful take on the title song. Their duet, Love On The Edge Of Our Tears is likewise, poignantly played.

There's as impressive supporting work from Michael Rees as Lewis' brother (actually named Lewis Lewis) and from Kira Morsley as Rebecca his wife, both beautifully and majestically voiced. Likewise Taite-Elliot Drew as the bad-guy Jenkins makes an impressive career debut, even if, as his character faces an anguished guilt late in the show, it is again hard for the audience to care too much about him.

There are nuggets of Celtic gold to be mined from the show’s ensemble. Hywell Dowsell as the blustering bastard industrialist Josiah Guest is a neatly fleshed out cameo and there is a moment of exquisite vocal magic as Raymond Walsh's Sean, his beautiful Irish voice backed up by Ashley Blasse's guitar work, breaks hearts with Air For A Wise Celtic Fool.

Brendan Matthew uses the compact space well with an excellent creative team. Aaron Clingham's musical direction brings out the lush charms of Orton's melodies, Joanna Dias multi-layered set is an imaginative use of wood that so easily suggests location, be it miners' cottages, chapel, or a riotous town square and there's fine choreography from Charlotte Tooth, especially amidst the raucous routine of Isn't It A Sin.

Unquestionably a flawed masterpiece, My Land’s Shore represents the stunning potential that exists in new British musical theatre writing. Matthew and Clingham have served the text well, delivering a fascinating narrative and stirring songs in an inspirational production that’s deservedly playing to packed Walthamstow houses. There’s still work to be done, but this show deserves to go on to greater things.

Runs until 26th February

Photo credit: David Ovenden

Phantom

Rose & Crown Theatre, London

***

Book by Arthur Kopit

Music & lyrics by Maury Yeston

Directed by Dawn Kalani Cole

Kira Morsley sings as Kieran Brown looks on

Phantom is the "other" musical based upon Gaston Leroux's classic  horror-romance, The Phantom Of The Opera. Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit wrote their show for Broadway in the early 1980's but whilst under development Andrew Lloyd Webber's show opened  and plans for the Yeston/Kopit production were suspended. It was not until 1991 that the show first played to an audience and this production at Walthamstow's Rose & Crown Theatre marks its UK premiere.

It is an ambitious project from director Dawn Kalani Cowle. Set in, under and on the rooftops above, the Paris Opera House it demands spectacular settings and whilst the scenery is simply defined in the show, Cowle broadly succeeds in creating the story's different locations on a shoestring budget.

Perhaps the only similarity between this show and that other mega musical is that both productions have the Phantom's tutelage of Christine and the love between teacher and ingenue as a central theme. That though is where the similarities end, as this Phantom's plot and also its villains are a refreshing alternative. To say any more of the story would be to spoil, but to learn that the disfigured, ghostly Phantom, is in fact just a man called Eric (albeit with a "k"), does give the show a Pythonesque moment of mundanity that the writers could never have foreseen.

Kieran Brown a seasoned West End trouper, is Erik the Phantom. Masked throughout, his performance offers a great display of acting through voice, movement and also via his eyes that are clearly visible (excuse the pun) in such a close up venue. Vocally, whilst Brown is subtly good, Yeston does not give him showstopper numbers and he rarely makes the spine tingle.

Christine however, played by Kira Morsley is a soprano treat. The flame-haired Australian stuns when she sings and hers is a performance to relish. Her admiration for her masked maestro is convincing and her ability to combine the fresh-faced naivete of her character, with a deep understanding of the power of love is what musical theatre is all about. See this  show if for no other reason than to experience the vocal delight that Miss Morsley provides.

Other notables are Pippa Winslow's wonderfully wicked Carlotta, whilst Tom Murphy's theatre-manager Carriere gives a well performed explanation of the Phantom's back-story and Elizabeth Atkinson's Belladova is a cameo role that is fabulously played.

A modest flaw is Aaron Clingham's band. He needs to drill his hard-working musicians with   a touch more polish and whilst the ensemble numbers were a joy to hear, too often the music drowns out some of the solo performances.

It's a credit to Cowle, the theatre and the company that there is such talent to fill this off West End venue. This is a grand show, well cast and with lofty aspirations.

Runs to 31 May 2013