Rating: ★★★★
Venue: Southwark Playhouse Borough
Cast: Jacob Fowler, Abbie Budden, Mary Moore and Thomas Oxley
Venue: Southwark Playhouse Borough
Cast: Jacob Fowler, Abbie Budden, Mary Moore and Thomas Oxley
Jeff and Hunter, two struggling writers, hear about a new musical theatre festival. However, the deadline for submissions is a mere three weeks away. With nothing to lose, the pair decides to try to create something new with the help of their friends Susan, Heidi and Larry on the eighty-eight. With the cast in place, Jeff and Hunter begin a conversation about what to write about. Eventually, Jeff suggests they write about what to write about. They make a pact to write up until the festival’s deadline and dream about the show changing their lives.
[title of show] is a musical that follows its own creation as, over the span of 90 minutes the two writers Jeff and Hunter battle to write a musical for a theatre festival with a looming deadline. They struggle for a unique idea before settling on the topic they know best - writing a musical! Jeff and Hunter make a pact that they will write a new musical to submit in an upcoming theatre festival. However they’re fighting against the clock as they only have 3 weeks to put together original material and make sure they’re performance ready.
Every number is packed with incredibly clever references to other shows or musical theatre in general, running right down to the structure of the score, arrangements and the way the numbers are crafted.
The four-hand cast are joined on stage by Larry, the show's musical director, played by Tom Chippendale, the show's musical director who flawlessly supports the show and adds brilliant moments of humour. Thomas Oxley as the more withdrawn and outwardly anxious of the writing duo is the perfect counterpart to Jacob Fowler’s Hunter.
My favourite moments of the show were Abbie Budden and Mary Moore’s powerhouse vocals combined in ‘What Kind Of Girl Is She’ and later in ‘Secondary Characters’, as well as Abbie’s smooth, gorgeous tone getting time centre stage in ‘I Am Playing Me’. In a character that seems on the surface quite obnoxious as the only one on the team with professional experience, I loved getting to witness the character arc of Heidi’s vulnerability as Abbie Budden masterfully takes us on Heidi’s emotional journey. We watch her come to understand that maybe it’s better to have a bigger part in a smaller show, than losing herself trying to make it to Broadway.
The centre question of [title of show] is after a successful off-Broadway run, can they get their show all the way to Broadway? Well my question is after only four exclusive shows at the Phoenix Arts Club earlier this year and a very successful all-be-it far too short two-week run at the Southwark Playhouse, will we be seeing a West End transfer in this show’s future?
Full to the brim of of musical theatre Easter eggs and references galore, this is a show for the theatre kids.
You can book tickets to [title of show], here.
**photo credit: Danny Kaan**
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