The Son: An Effective, Infuriating, Tragic Look at Awful Parentingby Randi / October 17, 2019I can’t even pretend to do my usual joking around or easing in to the review with a funny story or quip. Islander, the new Scottish folk musical at the Southwark Playhouse, is a perfect show. It’s flawless. There’s not one line, one beat, one twist of the story that isn’t purposeful, genuine, and portrayed with an artistic verve that I haven’t seen in a UK-bred work in ages. This tiny little amazing show, performed in the Southwark’s ‘Little’ room, a claustrophobic black box theatre, is showing up every major West End musical right now with its intriguing, unique sound and its captivating story. You all know how much I adore pointing out the things I would fix or change in shows to make them tighter, deeper, better/faster, higher, stronger. That’s my favorite thing, to consider how I could take a good show and make it great (or a bad show and make it watchable). The only thing I can even think of for Islander is that they moved this black trunk, the only set piece, around a lot for no real reason. THAT’S IT THAT’S ALL I GOT.
Straight from this summer’s Edinburgh Fringe, where it won a Best Musical award, Islander (conceived and directed by Amy Draper) is a four-hander (see previous posts; change approved) telling of life on a remote Scottish island from the perspective of a young girl (Bethany Tennick) named Eilidh (not how I would have spelled ‘Alie” either) and, well, everyone else she comes into contact with (Kirsty Findlay). Eilidh’s quiet, secluded life bursts open to fascination, first when she discovers a beached whale calf, and then when a mysterious young girl arrives on Kinnen (I’m going to be spelling everything wrong, okay? those accents are HARD) claiming she’s from the mythical floating island of Settesea. The connection between the two visitors is other-worldly, thrilling, and keenly conveyed, like Islander as a whole. But the way they get this supernatural, mythical storyline (with a book by Stewart Melton) to seem completely grounded and believable makes this show truly brilliant. At times it feels poignant and political, a commentary on perhaps our own Brexit struggles. At times it feels like a coming-of-age story (complete with a pretty funny way to portray a phone ringing.) At times it feels like a small town drama with all the frustrations and problems you’d expect. And it all works together.
The friendship between the two girls amid this vibrant portrait of life on the remote island, completely with a wide range of well defined characters, are all impeccably done. Findlay’s ease in dipping in and out of the various characters she inhabits is a masterclass in character and voice work, like watching a young Tatiana Maslany but live on stage (and if she were an amazing singer). Together with Tennick’s wide-eyed innocence as Eilidh, the two create a thriving town of believable, indelible characters with nothing but their own talent. No sets, no real costumes, no props, just the words they’ve been given and what they can do with them.
And what they do with them is made into magic with the distinctive musical sound created by Finn Anderson. His music is beautiful and often moving. And the way it’s performed is the key here. The two performers create an immersive sound using a soundboard with looping technology, so we see them in real time take one phrase of sound and add on and on and on until they’ve created an entire world of incredible music informing all aspects of this seaside village life. The two are both wonderful, truly talented singers, but they do so much more than sing. They create the sound of water dropping from a dilapidated ceiling, they create the sound of a turbulent storm, they create the sounds of whales and the sounds of angry crowds and they somehow know exactly what buttons to push to get it all to record and stop and start flawlessly and I got confused just trying to watch what buttons they hit and how it worked and I was like WHAT IS HAPPENING THIS IS MAGIC for the entire 70 minutes.
Like a famous predecessor from the Fringe, if there is any justice this show should Fleabag its way into the consciousness of the entire civilized world. It’s beautiful, magical, and absolutely enchanting (and not as raunchy/unsuitable for watching with your family). This is the musical I’ve been waiting to come out of the UK since Matilda, a remarkable show that I can’t find any fault with. Islander ends its run at the Southwark on Saturday but with any luck will continue somewhere else.
INFORMATION
The show is 70 minutes but like all London theatres nowadays, they hold the curtain until every latecomer has arrived, which I cannot stand. I will pay extra to the theatre that starts the show when it says and tells latecomers YA BASIC. Also throw people on their phones out, okay? That’s the theatre I want. Anyway this audience was pretty great. It’s hard to be rude when you are in the round and everyone can see you!
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A good musical justifies the use of music — it should be an important component of the show that helps to tell the story better. And the creators’ answer to the necessary question of ‘what purpose does the music serve?’ cannot be simply ‘to make the show a musical’. I feel like this fact is why UK musical theatre is not taken as seriously as it is in NYC – because if you’re adding music just for the sake of adding music, which seems to be sooo ofteeennn theee caaaase, and not so the music actually serves a purpose, it’s not going to be good, it’s not respecting the art form.
To justify musicalizing a movie, you need to answer the above AND be able to offer something to the question of ‘why don’t I just watch the movie instead?’ Even with ‘Mean Girls’ on Broadway, which was heavily not great and obviously unedited and needed at least 20 minutes cut from each act which were chock full of similar sounding songs…okay I’ll stop since this isn’t about Mean Girls but anyway, even there, it was able to justify its stage existence through some great characterizations (everything Kate Rockwell did, Taylor Louderman’s existence) and hilarious lines (everything Grey Henson said), and it justified being a musical with some actually good songs that served the story and characters well (World Burn, Meet the Plastics, a few more). Even though 7 songs were carbon copies that served no purpose, overall it justified its existence as a separate entity from the movie.
Why am I talking about ‘Mean Girls’? Because despite its flaws, it was able to answer the two questions above. ‘Back to the Future: The Musical’, which somehow (f-ing London) won the OLIVIER, was not. With its lackluster score full of cliched lyrics, it reminded me more of the stage adaptation of ‘Pretty Woman‘, and we all remember how that trainwreck was.
I really wanted to love this, and I waited so long, throughout many months away, to see Roger Bart, who I adore, as Doc. But I thought it was quite obviously unedited for a supposedly finished product. The score comprises hackneyed lyrics and no original melodies. And Roger is – I’m sure directed to be – going way too overboard in going overbroad. It’s the kind of performance that breaks the 4th wall for no good reason, where he’ll stick his tongue out to the audience and the drunk of their ass audience CHEERS for it, where he stops a song and asks the ensemble dancers who they are and tells them to get out of his house. I guess I just don’t get that kind of unearned hackneyed comedy. It feels very British and despite my passport that’s not me! He had some good moments but it’s all TOO MUCH. In that regard, most of the humor felt very lowest common denominator, which British audiences seem to always adore, possibly stemming from their expectations of panto-vibes at regular musicals.
While the rest of the audience was going gaga for it and everyone seems to absolutely ADORE it and that’s wonderful for y’all and so who cares what I think, I was disappointed. I felt BTTF really needed a run-through with a dramaturg, as so many shows do but for some reason never get. (As always, I volunteer as tribute to do this, as well as to catch things like when people say ‘asbest-TOSS’ when trying to do American accents. (We use a schwa on the ‘tos’.)) I’m sure that someone watching with a critical eye would have, on the very first run-through, cut Jennifer’s first song (did absolutely nothing and with only platitudes for lyrics) and the painful “my myopia is my utopia” song that George sings in the tree. Also it’s weird that George has more songs than Doc! Maybe if Doc had more genuine work to do, they wouldn’t have had to pad his part with super strange hamming for cheap audience laughs. The new thread of him feeling sad and emo about his dreams felt unearned and unnecessary. Guy KNOWS that he built a WORKING TIME MACHINE.
I’ll give it this: it looked amazing. The special effects and projections are great, as is the all-important car — indeed the best part is the car’s special little ending. Actually, the best part is that Olly Dobson sounds EXACTLY like Michael J. Fox. It’s truly uncanny. The cast is working hard and largely charming, led by Olly. The energy of the group numbers is great, and that energy lifts this show out of its drecky basement for a short bit, like in the hey mama welcome to the ’50s song. (We had the short-lived hope that that this song would commence a flip of the tone of the show to be more sardonic commentary in line with the lyrics, but alas, it was not to be. That would have been interesting!) The ’50s girl-group sounding songs Lorraine sings, and even Biff’s song, were decent, reflecting the sound of the era, which could have been a great way to steer and coalesce the score in general. Mayor Wilson’s song and Bart’s opening number for Act II were also fine, totally made by the performers’ energy, but still sounded like early drafts of songs that could/should have been better.
The rest of the songs were either full of hackneyed lines that made me cringe or were simply unnecessary to build the characters or propel the story. The book was equally painful, and that’s after you account for the fact that the source material is essentially about a “17-year-old high school student whose best friend is a disgraced nuclear physicist (“and they never explain it! and this guy’s either 40 or 80, even we don’t know how old this guy’s supposed to be!”) who goes back in time and (“and he stops the Kennedy assassination?” “oh that would have been a good idea!”) and tries to f*ck his mom. We thought that’d be fun for people! But he doesn’t get to, he doesn’t get to, because this family friend Biff tries to rape the mom in front of the son, then the dad’s gotta beat the rapist off of her, and also we’re gonna imply that a white man wrote Johnny Be Good so we’re gonna take that away from them!” Even aside from all that, and the idea of time travel, the musical book manages to do its own damage and show the awkwardness of the base story even more starkly, mostly via LCD humor and about 20 minutes of extraneous bloat in each act. (Seriously, it should not be this long.) And the placement of “Power of Love” vs. in the movie doesn’t work.
Overall, the only evident answer to the question of ‘why is this a musical?’ seems to be ‘to make a big spectacle musical that rakes in cash’ (seriously, the tickets are insanely priced, like Broadway-style insanity). With such a trite score and scene after scene that doesn’t pass the smell test and the best part being that Olly sounds just like Michael J. Fox, the answer to ‘why shouldn’t I just watch the movie instead?’ is, actually you should.
OH! I almost forgot the ‘best’ part, but never can because it’s seared into my memory along with the endless list of London shows with unnecessary Jewish jokes that had nothing to do with the story and where the audience laughed in a way that felt predatory: When Lorraine thought Marty’s name was Calvin Klein, one of her girlfriends said “is that Jewish?” as they walked offstage, and the audience laughed! Because that’s a funny joke! I honestly thought that maybe ONE show in this town wouldn’t have a discomfiting Jewish joke and even more discomfiting audience reaction but serves me right for thinking that.
INFORMATION
Start; 19:35
Act I ends: 20:46
Act II ends: 22:12
Actually that’s when the curtain call ended and I left to pee, but they sing more songs so that everyone is up and dancing and leaves happy, so who knows how long that went on for.
Literally the worst, drunkest, most on-their-phones-and-talking-to-each-other audience I’ve maybe ever encountered.
Tokyo Rose: New Musical has Potential but Needs Attention, + VEGAN PIZZA!
It’s Theatre Thursday! Today’s show is Tokyo Rose, a new musical that played the Southwark Playhouse until October 16.
A new musical about a true story out of World War II recently played the Southwark…and I’m not talking about Operation Mincemeat! Seriously, if this is the new direction that Southwark Playhouse is going in, I’m not complaining. What a fun niche to specialize in! Today’s actual show, Tokyo Rose, has been making the lower rounds in the past few years and after some edits and extensions, it has hit London. It has promise and potential, but it needs further work to capitalize on that.
Tokyo Rose tells the story of Iva Toguri, the Japanese-American who became a wartime radio personality in Japan and was accused, convicted, and later pardoned of treason for possibly sharing Axis propaganda. Above all, Iva was an American-born young girl whose parents send her to Japan IN THE MIDDLE OF A GOTTAM WAR because her aunt is dying and her mom wants someone to be there with her sister, even though auntie and Iva never met ever and did I say it’s the middle of a GOTTAM WAR? Iva’s mother couldn’t go ostensibly for documentation reasons and that’s very sad but like how unbelievably stupid do you have to be to send your Japanese daughter to Japan IN THE MIDDLE OF A WAR? (Also, I did further research and apparently Iva didn’t have a US passport either when she left…um…oh gosh. Maybe the mother just thought since Iva was a citizen she wouldn’t have any trouble? JE. SUS.) True Japan wasn’t yet in the war against America (that would come mere months after Iva’s arrival overseas) but for crying out loud it was already at war with China and Manchuria and Inner Mongolia and French Indochina and MORE and had already signed up with Germany and Italy by this time! I MEAN WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?
This makes it hard for me to believe that this family could really be this ignorant of what her trip would mean. But the musical does not portray her story as though there is any grey area around Iva’s intentions, or her alleged traitorous behavior as something for us to determine for ourselves. Instead, this show is firmly and unshakeably putting forth that she was the victim of horrible injustice with endless bad luck. And it’s probably true, that it was just a series of unfortunate events and bad decisions that led her to being found guilty of treason against the USA, but man, those are some REALLY bad decisions.
The musical tells of how Iva was just an adorable little college student ready to study medicine and become just the cutest little doctor you’ve ever seen, but then the parents make their horrible decision and off she goes to begin a life of injustice and survival. The book is pretty well constructed: It begins with her treason trial and tells the story of her life through flashbacks, coming back and forth to the trial along the way. (We have enough to talk about so I am not going to rail against the creators for not being legal experts in the portrayal of the trial, but can I just mention that the trial occurred in San Francisco, so not everyone needs to have southern accents.) Although I have one huge recommendation re the trial: At one point late in Act II, the judge says ‘we will now take a 20 minute recess.’ MY GOD, how did the people involved not make that line the interval break! I MEAN COME ON YOU DON’T NEED TO BE A DRAMATURG FOR THAT ONE! Would be absolutely hysterical.
Also — the whole part of her being on the radio in Japan – you know, like the main thing she’s known for – is very confusingly done. It wasn’t clear what was happening and what if anything was going to come back to bite her, so if you didn’t know the facts coming in I imagine you’d be lost. Especially since her big ‘ooh I’m broadcasting to soldiers’ moments were loud club numbers that didn’t tell story.
And so where the show needs to focus its revisions is mainly on the score. This score makes this show effectively the shrieking Olympics. Maya Britto as Iva can sing her heart out, but wow, she shouldn’t have to destroy her voice. People complain about how badly Wicked ruins voices but all these new British scores trying to be like Six are way too heavily reliant on belting, and oftentimes it’s just shrieking. And this is very clearly trying to be like Six and & Juliet and too many more. Anyone training in classical musical theatre nowadays would not be able to do this stuff long-term. But even more frustrating, the existing score is a lost opportunity for an original original score. This shit is taking place in the 1940s, and instead of amazing Big Band numbers and a take on the Andrews Sisters, we get dance club and flashing lights. I get that the whole ‘historical tale with modern music’ is a genre now but at this point in this genre’s hopefully not-too-long shelf life, it just feels tired.
And unfortunately, the lyrics don’t do the same-sounding songs any justice. The lyrics are primarily generic platitudes, repeated over and over, like greeting card messages. It’s a bit cringey too often. I think it full out needs a new score, maybe minus 2 songs (like Iva’s big 11 o’clock number, that was fairly strong.)
One more thing I found a little eek-face is that, in the last section, they kept repeating how Iva could be the first person ever pardoned after a conviction for treason, and framing it like it was this huge moment for justice to finally be done. But, guys, her situation was very specific. Hers was a huge injustice, but they said it like everyone’s was, like it was always a criminal charge that shouldn’t exist? But everyone else convicted of treason deserved it. It was a weird thing to harp on as though treason were an unfair thing to be accused of, you know?
Honestly this show has a lot of potential because the story it tells is interesting. I hope it works on the telling and gets to do it again.
INFORMATION
Yes we are incredibly behind schedule, sorry that this already closed but hopefully my opinions can guide revisions (lol fat chance).
It was almost exactly 2 hours 30 minutes, beginning at 7:30 and ending at 10:06. It’s felt a little too long.
Southwark, like every other London theatre, does the whole ‘we recommend you wear masks but we can’t make you’ farce and so most people were not wearing masks. (Luckily the people behind us were.) Aside from that, the audience was…pretty bad! Lots of phones and talking and, our favorite part, during Iva’s big climactic moment, there was an important silence and this asshole near the front decided to OPEN A CAN OF SODA during that moment. I just. what are people. burn it all down.
PIZZA
SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE HAS A PIZZA OVEN NOW. And they have vegan options (not just one!). And it was really good! They said they use Sheese cheese, which no one has used in years since Violife etc came on the market and honestly I am really happy with that decision. It’s much better than I remember and no one else is using it so it’s a strong choice. We are seriously going to have pizza there before every show. Could not be more excited for a theatrical development (except for mask mandates).
