All photos: Eliza Wilmot

There’s a lot to be said for a musical about being thirteen and wanting a really good Bar Mitzvah being done by young performers who are exactly the right age. When this show, which dates from 2007, ran on Broadway the cast were adult. On the other hand it’s a huge challenge for a single actor  (Edward Flynn-Haddon – as Evan) to take centre-stage alone at the beginning and somehow kick it off, especially when there’s an initial problem with sound balance and his words are inaudible. Or at least that was the case from my seat in the third row.

Because his parents have just divorced, Evan is whisked from busy New York, where his friends are, to make a new start with his mother in a small town in Indiana, “The Lamest Place in the World”. What follows is very recognisable story about making friends, burgeoning obsessive interest in the opposite sex and finding ways of surviving in the rough and tumble of everyday teenage life with all its awkwardness.  Everybody wants to go out with the Kendra (Rebecca Nardin – charismatic). There’s also a gentle inclusion story because one of the boys, Archie (Ethan Quinn – interesting) is disabled by a degenerative disease.

Cadogan Hall is, of course, a concert hall not a theatre and this is a semi-staged production with the very large ensemble seated on chairs in angled rows with the band (immaculately led by MD Chris Ma on keys but sometimes too loud) upstage at the apex. The action takes place in the downstage triangular space without props or set – apart from the occasional use of chairs already there.

Songs are interspersed with spoken dialogue which comes with the usual problem of young actors grappling with American accents and often losing clarity. Some of Jason Robert Brown’s songs are lovely, however: “Tell Her”,  well sung by Eward Flynn-Haddon and Ivy Pratt as Patrice, for example, really delivers some evocative harmony.

Timi Akinyosade stands out as Malcolm. His dancing draws the eye and he sings with gusto as well as being convincing as a lad about school closely bonded with Samuel Mehinick’s Brett. The latter gives a fine performance too – snarling, threatening and eyeing up to conceal his vulnerability.

The choreography is this show is magnificent. Despite the huge ensemble and the limitations of the space Corin Miller makes every single movement shine with joie de vivre and I was impressed by the professional stillness of the ensemble when seated.

This show starts rather creakily, probably because of youthful nervousness and inexperience, but warms up pretty rapidly so that 90 minutes later the post curtain call, full cast, dance is exuberantly, infectiously vibrant – and exhausting to watch for anyone over the age of about 16!

First published by Sardines: https://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/review/13-2/

Commissioned by NYMT in 2017, this revival showcases the talents of an enthusiastic, talented young company and, as ever, it’s the imaginative direction (lots of slow motion with chairs, for instance) which really lifts it.

Richard Hough’s feel-good, happy ending story is a long way from the historical facts about Henry McCarty – aka Billy the Kid – an outlaw who shot and killed eight men before being shot at age 21. Instead we meet a very young Billy (Charlie Wright) who, in a neat framing device is trying to find the courage to face down an aggressive group of bullies in his 21^st century school.

Daydreaming as an escape, while the teacher recounts the events of the 1860s, Billy becomes a forceful, but ultimately moral, hero in his own story as we flash back colourfully to the saloon bar and the sauve-qui-peut of the days when the whole town was under a protection racket. With a hint of the Wizard of Oz the bullies and the nineteenth century gang are all played by the same actors. Other school characters reappear in different guises in his dream – a group of five leggy, sporty, all-American cheerleader types become a very good troupe of saloon bar dancers, for example.

And behind all this is Ben Morales Frost’s enjoyable score with all the off beat sequences and lyricism which evoke the world of late nineteenth century cowboy country. The inevitable hoe down scene is a delight. It isn’t quite Aaron Copland but it’s great fun.

Charlie Wright – only 14 and physically quite small – steals the show as Billy. He gives us wistfulness spliced with strength and pragmatism finally overcome by wisdom. It’s quite a nuanced performance and his singing is both sensitive and mature.

The support cast is strong and the piece is written to give lots of characters a moment in the spotlight so we hear a number of good soloists amongst whom Sophie Muringu stands out as Mary, the bar co-owner who becomes a moral support in Billy’s life. She sings beautifully and her acting is totally convincing.

We’re in Lincoln County, New Mexico and the atmosphere is spot on with some sultry lighting and wheel-on-and-off sets, the movement of which is integrated into ensemble action. The southern accents are harder for a young cast to nail and some of the vowel sounds are inappropriately distorted but these young people have worked together for only a short time and it really doesn’t matter much.

One of the things I like very much about NYMT  shows is the use of a vibrant youth band  and the habit of bringing them all on stage at curtain call. They play beautifully in this show and Olivia Howdle’s eloquent violin work really stood out for me.

This review was first published by Sardines: https://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/review/billy-the-kid/

Photo: Steve Gregson

The story of young love thwarted by circumstances is a well worn path with landmarks such as Orpheus and Eurydice, Tristan and Isolde, Abelard and Heloise and, of course, Romeo and Juliet. This time we’re in Chartres at the end of the Second World War for a two-hander in which a German boy and a French girl are clandestinely enjoying each other’s company. It’s very sweet with a lot of charm and wit but it also packs quite a gutsy punch because of course it can’t end well – although playwright Rita Kalnejais gives us alternatives to ponder.

Otto (Freddie Wise) and Elodie (Katie Eldred) meet in a room in a house abandoned by a Jewish family – an irony because although Elodie knew and respected Mrs Levy, Otto idolises “Mr Hitler” and believes that the future with a “clean” nation of Germans looks wonderful. Another irony is that Germany has already lost the war. The D day landings have happened and the Americans are in Paris but deluded, indoctrinated Otto is convinced that he will be part of the force to march into Britain the next day, During the night that Otto and Elodie spend together, Katy Hurstwick’s sound design provides Lancasters overhead and a lot of menace – all outside the cocoon that the lovers are in – with the egg she has rescued and is incubating in his cap because chicks are a symbol of new life and hope.

Under Chirolles Khalil’s direction Wise and Elded work exceptionally well together. They have mastered the use of awkward, evocative silences for example and there’s a great deal of wordless communication – sometimes funny, often poignant and always effective. Eldred makes Elodie fresh, truthful and yearning – her character’s epilepsy, notwithstanding. It is very clear why Otto is so taken with her despite her being, effectively, on the “wrong” side. Wise (hair dyed blond to make him look more stereotypically German) brings a tragic vulnerability to Otto. He is really only a boy doing what he’s told and believing what those who’ve trained him have told him. Both actors are Drama Centre graduates (Eldred in 2018 and Wise in 2017) and clearly ones to watch.

Jermyn Street Theatre – almost at full capacity on press night – is the smallest producing house in London and it’s good to see it in good form, punching well above its weight again after all the problems of the last 18 months.