{"id":11656,"date":"2021-04-01T17:17:34","date_gmt":"2021-04-01T17:17:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/laughfrodisiac.com\/?p=11656"},"modified":"2021-04-01T17:17:36","modified_gmt":"2021-04-01T17:17:36","slug":"how-to-make-treason-into-a-full-fledged-musical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laughfrodisiac.com\/2021\/04\/01\/how-to-make-treason-into-a-full-fledged-musical\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Make “Treason” into a Full-Fledged Musical"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It’s Theatre Thursday! Today’s show is the concert stream of “Treason” the musical, recorded at Cadogan Hall and shown earlier in March with an encore last weekend.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I knew previously about Guy Fawkes: Bonfire Night. Gunpowder Plot. V for Vendetta masks. After watching the concert stream of the new concept musical “Treason”, based on the events and players in England’s 1605 gunpowder plot, I also know that his name was Guido. (All I can hear is his name replacing Sweeney Todd: “not Guido…not Guido Fawkes! the demon plotter of some! thing!”). The show focuses not on that mysterious man but on the group of his co-conspirators, yet it wasn’t so much intent on history as it was expressing the emotional beats of the stories of those involved. With some critical and editorial touches, “Treason” could achieve that intention, and maybe even become a successful full-fledged musical. But it needs work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Gunpowder Plot was essentially a group of Catholics plotting to assassinate King James I by blowing up the House of Lords, ostensibly because of anti-Catholic persecution but who knows why men do anything. “Treason” begins at the end of the plot, when conspirators are executed and their wives are mourning. Without having met anyone yet or heard anything about the events, this reverse prologue feels unearned. This flat opening exemplified the quintessential problem of telling instead of showing. Completely cutting these first two songs will give the show a chance to begin in a more energetic, dynamic way – with the group of conspirators starting to chat and meet and plan. We could get to know them naturally, as they get to know each other. Start with showing – showing the men talking and plotting. With this odd, stale beginning, it felt plodding, and only started to get moving at the thirty minute mark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Treason” is billed as “a historic tale of religious persecution and brutality”, but honestly, none of it felt as weighty as that tagline makes it out to be. There’s a lot of talk talk into our earholes about how persecuted the Catholics were, and how they were the victims, but without any nuance of the historical situation (surely it’s important to note what came before…maybe someone named Bloody Mary?) it’s coming across as “these poor yt mens tried to blow up a building and kill people and they GOT STOPPED!” We need a reason to not be like “…and?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think a full version of this show would succeed if it focuses on Catesby as the main character with all the other conspirators are interesting side characters. As is, it tries to put too many characters on equal footing, but splitting the spotlight with the others ends up diminishing all of their stories. It would be more compelling with a clear main character. Don\u2019t half ass so many things. Whole ass one thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course a full musical would flesh out the format more, but even so I can’t see how opening with the aftermath and mourning and then repeating that segment in its entirety when the plot reaches that point is worth it. It doesn’t have any emotional power to have the audience realize “oh we already saw this bit…now it’s making chronological sense…so they are repeating it…cool.” It was the same two songs they repeated too, so if they really want that to work, they have to work on those songs too. There’s a lot of promise but they aren’t great yet. The song meant to be an emotional wallop, where Lucie Jones sings about kissing her husband’s white cold corpse in the cold hard ground is…I mean…those lyrics. We were like “ugh please stop saying how you want to kiss his cold corpse” I mean YEESH. There are a few instances where the lyrics need a little polishing, like when the men start plotting and Catesby hints at taking the lead and things feel like they’ll get moving but they blow it by singing this song in which the men literally say the word ‘blow’ 483 times. We started joke-singing along with it just repeating the word ‘blow’ and we were right<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, is every single musical portrayal of a British king going to make them the hokey joke comedic part from now on? It kind of felt obviously derivative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okay that’s a lot of negativity and I was supposed to be putting more positivity out there this year. This feels very first draft but really there’s a lot of potential, and with some obvious changes, some critical reformatting, and some work on the music, this could be as epic as they want it to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s Theatre Thursday! 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