Venue: Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London
Cast: David Bedella, Dujonna Gift, Mica Paris and Kjersti Long 

A European premiere of a new musical is always an exciting evening, I went into ‘A Little Piece of You – An A-Typical Musical' with high hopes given the star cast and having heard some of the songs. It is a shame this show did not live up to expectations and left me feeling confused and disappointed.

It has been listed as a concert performance, however it had full set, ensemble and costume; it feels more low budget West End than high budget concert. I fear the enormity of the venue is part of the undoing of this show, it would have been better suited possibly to a more intimate venue.

This musical is a creation of Kjersti Long and her father Jeremy. It first began life three years ago when 14 year old Kjersti wanted to share her music with the world. It cannot be said she doesn’t know how to write a song, with vibes of Paramore and Alanis Morrisette, every song is packed full of emotion and big vocals. The album makes for great listening, but maybe it should have stayed as a stand-alone album as it feels the story has been shoe horned around the great songs. The plot follows Shannon (Mica Paris) and Britt (Dujonna Gift), a mother and daughter, as they navigate the generational trauma which effects their everyday and learn how to communicate with each other. The secondary plot line is that of young pop star Sydney (Kjersti Long) who is the idol of Britt and who has a sad demise very near the beginning of the piece. 

This piece tries very hard to be emotional and thought-provoking but it never quite gets there, the story becomes more confusing with a time jump back to the 70’s and then another back to the 60’s, with our leads becoming their own grandparents. This makes for some clichés and weak writing and unfortunately, it seems the script was not given as much thought as the songs.

It's not all bad though, the casting for this show is wonderful, with Dujonna Gift and Mica Paris at the helm, you are in for an evening of powerhouse vocals which threaten to blow the roof off the theatre. It is however a shame that Mica in particular isn’t given more text to play with; the character feels very one-dimensional and Paris is often left feeling wooden. The casting of David Bedella is inspired as the positive father trying to keep the women in his life going. However he is wasted here, he does not sing at all and the few scenes he is a part of he has maybe 2-3 lines and then leaves which is a shame because David is an incredible actor who has been criminally underused here. Dujonna is the shining light in this piece, she does her absolute best to bring the character of Britt to life and does well playing the introverted teenager, and her singing is life-changing. She truly is living her best rock star life with this role.

The casting of writer Kjersti in the role of Sydney shows off her fantastic voice well, however the character exits the story fairly early on, yet she is still featured heavily throughout but as she is not part of the main narrative there are times where she is on stage for lengthy periods with no clear purpose other than sitting in a corner.

I so wanted to love this show, it has all the elements of being a show-stopper but sadly it fell flat on this occasion. I hope with some work on the script to give it more direction and clarity it could well be a success.

You can find out more about Little Piece of You, here.

Review by Rosie