I think this marks the 5th consecutive year that I have watched this project... Second year students on the Musical Theatre course at Arden are, as part of their coursework, tasked with devising, writing, directing, choreographing, producing and acting in their own brand new world premiere Musical! For the students (majority 20 years old) this is a very 'big ask', but also a huge learning curve and superb experience for each and every one. Of the five I have seen, this has to rank as my favourite.
That is not because it was any better acted, sung or danced than any of the previous years' efforts; neither is it because I liked the storyline any better; but it is because I think in general it had the most coherence and cohesive plot which was kept simple and easy to understand, there were some excellently drawn characters, not too many, and the story was a fair and equal mix between comedy and evil, with a good dollop of love and a true 'Enid Blyton' ending. I feel certain that with the right R+D and a pushy producer, this Musical has got the makings of going further than just the class exercise it in reality was.
However, back to the show. The story, in a nutshell concerns a town (Youtopia) - somewhere in England - which has a Lady Mayor (Mamma) who runs the town her own special way. She insists that each inhabitant takes a Vitamin U pill every morning in order to keep them free from disease, healthy, and nauseously happy.. [a bi-product of taking the pill being that they suddenly acquire an American accent and behave like they're in a 1950s 'Happy Families' advert]. Enter a family from Birmingham, their father due to start work at the town's largest factory, and reason for both the town's wealth and happiness, 'Serco', the company that manufacture the happy pills, Vitamin U. His daughter however is absolutely not taken in by any of this and refusing to take her pill, starts to investigate. She falls in love with the boy next door, rescues the people who have been imprisoned for 'glitching'. [becoming immune to the pill or for not taking it], saves the town, and gives the mayor, her husband and their accomplice their come-uppances.
Most unfortunately the programme does not offer a cast list (?!) and so I am unable to credit the performers. All it does give is a list of song titles, their respective composers and choreographers. However, I will mention them here solely by their cast name...
The Lady Mayor - who for reasons best known to the cast was called Mamma and her husband, Ralph, worked together well. Mamma being a forceful and domineering presence making even her husband cower when she spoke, and Ralph's split-second switching between sadistic evil maniac and pill-popping happy-chappy was masterful. Our protagonist, Sophie, was just what a principal role such as this required; strong when she needed to be, soft when it was called for, and pleasing and easy to watch, having a sympathetic persona and excellent stage presence. Sadly her boyfriend Ben was vocally a little weak in comparison. Welsh-accented Father created a lovely character for himself, but it was the five girls dressed in quasi-matching red and white dresses from the 1950s who sang their way through the script as a Greek Chorus; the all-knowing, plot-developing songs and asides from these five who, almost stealing the show, were an absolute joy. Much was sung a-capella in 5-part harmony too. Very impressive.
Utilising the same set as the play 'The Laramie Project', and an on-stage keyboardist, the large and talented cast acted, sang and danced (and some even played instruments too!) their way through 90 minutes' of completely original material. The songs were an eclectic mix of styles, but somehow this didn't seem out of place at all. We went from an excellent Gilbert And Sullivan patter-song parody to a modern rap in the blink of an eye, with a waltz, a calypso, love ballad, and goodness knows what else in between. All the choreography was extremely good and well thought through, and costuming was also generally very apt and coordinated.
I take my hat off to these students. I honestly don't think that at that age, I would have been able to have made any really useful contribution to a team effort such as this; but I was delighted by the result of their culminated efforts and thoroughly enjoyed the Musical from Youtopian start to 'kiss my ass' end! Bravissimi tutti.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 28/3/19
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