The Arden Theatre School's 3-year degree course in Musical Theatre tasks their second year students each year to devise, compose, and perform their own musical. And when most of the students are hardly even out of their teens yet, this is quite a huge ask, but a genuinely excellent one, as it gives these students a huge and necessary immersion into the world of Musicals and just exactly what goes into getting one from someone's brain to having it performed in front of a live audience. Most Musicals have a minimum of three to five years to go through this process, and here it was done in roughly as many months!
'To Have And To Holiday' is more of a song-cycle or revue musical, but it is truly upbeat and tongue-in-cheek. It tells the story of two families from this country, flying over to some exotic beach location to celebrate the marriage of their son and daughter respectively. However, once there, the 'holiday' element of the location takes over, and the drunken, loutish Brits abroad stereotype is played to the hilt.
Much of the humour in this musical went over my head I have to admit. Seemingly there were many 'in-jokes', and humour based around contemporary popular culture, which, when in one's mid-fifties, didn't exactly 'fly'! Mono-dimensional caricatures populated the hotel, and there was very little in the show which gave the cast the opportunity to create any relationships with each other.. the characters were introduced in song, and then most of them never appeared again, and so we never really knew who was getting married to whom, or who the protagonists were; and since the students are 20 at most, they did not have the requisite 'baggage' and gravitas to convincingly play older characters, and so lampooning was very much the order of the day; and when only one of the cast is male, this made it harder for an 'outsider' of the school to understand and appreciate. And who were the two Australians (along with large inflatable crocodile) and why were they there?!
I have seen (I think) five of these second year devised musicals before - this being my sixth, and have enjoyed every one. They have all been very different, but have all relied heavily on comedy to mask their immaturity, some with much more success than others. The songs here were performed live by one male student (uncredited) on the keyboards, whilst this was at times ameliorated by guitar or percussive instruments by one of the student performers. Again, I enjoyed all the songs, and they all fit the purpose superbly, making for an engaging and entertaining session; it was just a pity that the storyline was so flimsy and thin on the ground.
Lighting was excellent, creating a beautiful tropical sunshine daylight / evening as required. Sound levels were generally good, and the choreography and mise-en-scene worked well. Costuming was appropriate in the main, and it cannot be denied that these students put their everythings into their characters and the show in general, making their fellow students in this afternoon's audience howl with laughter.
Boxes were certainly ticked, and their project was completed with skill. As an in-house presentation it was fun, upbeat, and excellently presented. From a purely objective audience member's perspective it was facile, immature, lacking any real story, and failed to hold one's interest. That was a real pity. The cast are obviously extremely talented, and I truly look forward to watching their third year show next year, when they will perform a known and published work.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 30.3.23
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