The audience are greeted with an epic, huge, clunky set consisting of a steel ship and concrete blocks, and that pretty much sets the scene for the rest of the evening.
This new musical is epic at 3 hours long, and clunky as it jarringly jumps between so many different strands that aren’t drawn together until the last 20 minutes of so. Several numbers could, and should, be cut to make this show a more mangeable length. You will also recognise a lot of other musicals - Phantom, Les Mis, Half a Sixpence, Into the Woods, Matilda - in this show in terms of settings, characterisations, plots, staging, music, costumes, duets, company numbers etc. So much so that I actually came away with Into the Woods in my head! This show isn’t original in terms of its ideas, themes and structure - it is drawing on what works from the great shows, but sadly it isn’t doing it well and feels like an imitation.
The music isn’t memorable and seems to jump incongruently between genres, meaning that the musical as a whole doesn’t feel like a fluid and finished piece: it feels like it hasn’t quite made up its mind up as to what it’s going to be. The same feeling comes from the odd, and slightly uncomfortable, comedic moments that pervade the show.
Undoubtedly there is talent on stage, but it doesn’t feel like it’s used to its full potential. For example, John Owen-Jones is the Third Marquess of Bute, a part specifically written for him, and yet it doesn’t really make use of his incredible vocal talent, which is a real shame. Also, having been to Cardiff Castle that morning and learnt a little bit about the Third Marquess of Bute, the character that had been written bore little resemblance to the man himself - or at least the man according to Cardiff Castle and Wikipedia! There’s artistic licence and then there’s artistic licence!
And I may be going deaf, but this was yet another show where the ensemble numbers were practically unintelligible - what has happened to enunciation? Or is it that the sound balance is off? Whatever it is though, there were definitely a few numbers where I just had to watch because I couldn’t understand what was being sung.
Despite all this, it was still an enjoyable evening, and a pleasure to be one of the few to see this new musical; but this musical needs some serious tweaks and pruning before it is ready to compete with the big established shows of the West End that it is seeking to emulate.