Posted: 5/22/21 at 4:39pm
Anyone see this version from the Southwark Playhouse in London? This was not on my radar until last week when it announced a West End Transfer.
I wasn't really crazy about it. I love the show, and a production where Cathy and Jamie alternate accompanying each other on the piano is a genius idea, but the concept is so half-baked in this production. You have a "real" pianist in the pit playing the bulk of the part, while the actors mostly play simplified accents, usually with only one hand.
I love Jason Robert Brown's music because it's so percussive and physically demanding to play. You watch him perform live and he throws his whole body into his songs. His music is so well-suited for an actor-musician show, and this production robs that physicality from the score, making the two actors playing the piano kind of pointless.
The performances weren't that great either. Molly Lynch was flat in a lot of songs, and her acting was kind of hammy, even for a character who is an actress. Oli Higginson was the better singer and piano player, but his performance lacked a lot of depth. With his wind swept hair and ruffled untucked tuxedo shirt, he looked more like a member of NSYNC rather than a neurotic romantic who becomes blinded by fame.
