1.0 out of 5.0 stars
I pride myself on being a straight shooter and saying things the way they are and the last musical I went to was absolutely abysmal. So, I need to share this with you, to get it off my chest, but at the same time I still have enough of a heart that I will not name which show it was. (If you try to guess, remember I see shows right across Australia)
If you think it was yours, perhaps some self-reflection and a thorough debrief would be wise.
It was a well-known classic done by a mostly amateur group, but that’s no excuse. If you are going to charge $60 for a ticket then you are putting yourself in a certain category and you need to be somewhat good. For as little as $9 more you can see a professional show in Sydney so I feel it is fair to judge accordingly here if they are going to demand these prices.
First of all, the show was done with little creativity. It hadn’t been modernised enough. One song was the exception, and that one went down really well with the audience. Everything else was painful. This musical can be done (I’ve seen it) really well for a modern audience whilst still respecting the original, but this lacked imagination and effort.
Secondly, they didn’t mic their actors. For a show that is very wordy, with tricky language, it needed to be understood, and no mics was a problem. The humour lies in the satire and if you can’d understand it there’s no point. It relied on the fact that people know the show already, something that ensures it will eventually die out rather than be enjoyed by future generations.
There was hardly any choreography or dancing, with actors mostly standing motionless to sing a song, more like the national anthem at a sports event than a musical.
The acting was terrible as they managed the impressive feat to somehow combine no acting with ridiculous pantomime over-acting at the same time.
The timing was all off with no genuine back-and-forth or natural banter between characters. Rather it was people saying lines, not bringing characters to life. They constantly waited too long after their colleague’s line was over before starting theirs. This is hard to endure for an entire show.
In a similar vein, the band was too slow to start songs, delaying after the cues and leaving actors hanging in an awkward freeze before they could transition to singing.
The overture had characters on stage throughout but was slow and boring, as indicated by the audience carrying on their conversation waiting for the rest to begin.
For about 10 seconds there was a spark in this show as two characters finally delivered a couple of genuinely funny lines at the correct pace with a more believable connection. It showed how the whole thing should have been done.
The one other good bit was the quality of the orchestra and the fact that the vast majority of people could actually sing. But that alone isn’t enough. This wasn’t a recital, it was supposed to be a musical. Years ago, this was the first musical I ever saw live and it got me into this art form. I had hoped, recently, that it would do the same for my kids. Instead we ended up bored, tired, and wishing we’d left at interval to get ice cream instead. I will not be wasting my time and $60 going back to this company’s productions any time soon.
