“We’ll make it”
Over the next month, Aria Entertainment and the Landor Theatre in South London
are hosting a whole season dedicated to new musical theatre writing – From Page to Stage – which features showcases, works-in-progress and workshops from a
wide range of writers from across the globe. The programme also includes this
world premiere of The Route to Happiness, a new intimate three-hander from
Alexander S Bermange which runs for a week. And as befits a season of this
nature, the show marks an interesting progression for Bermange as a writer,
though not one without its challenges, and offers a brilliant showcase for some
of our excellent talent.
The Route to Happiness opens with three Londoners having their respective
dreams of love and marriage, unlimited wealth and enduring fame dashed by
circumstances and follows them on their attempts to build their hopes back up
and get back in pursuit of the things that they think will make them happiest.
So former banker Marcus seizes the opportunity to manage wannabe celebrity
Trinity despite her lack of obvious talent, whilst also romancing author Lorna
after an impromptu meeting at a wedding where she believes she may finally have
found the one.
Bermange’s previous writing has drawn heavily on the 80s and 90s musicals of
his youth and his sweeping balladry and stirring anthems can be sampled on
an extraordinarily well-cast CD of his songs Act One. And he indulges this in
writing a similar suite of songs for Lorna, played here with full-throated
verve by Shona White, whose determination to cling on to the hope of love seemingly
drives her every move. There’s a strong comic edge to his writing too which
comes out best in the gentle teasing of dim wannabe It-girl Trinity, unwilling
and unable to accept that fame might not happen for her but given a beautiful
warmth by Cassidy Janson, surely one of our strongest musical theatre
actresses.
And in the avaricious Marcus, Bermange stretches himself with a new mode of
writing for him, a more modern and complex style which complements the other
two both in forming a separate musical identity for the character and in
creating a fascinatingly multi-layered sound in the group numbers, full of
interesting harmonies. Niall Sheehy manages the often discordant lines of
Marcus competently but struggles to make him a really engaging character and
here, it is clear that the book needs a little more attention.
There isn’t a sufficient depth of character to sustain the show over its
current length – all three protagonists are overly focused on a single
emotional note and the lack of deviation leads to a slight weariness by the
end. And though Bermange’s song-writing is never in question, the incorporation
of passages of sung dialogue sit awkwardly in amongst the rest, somewhat
disrupting the cohesive flow of the material. But there’s much to enjoy here,
not least the top-quality unmiked singing, Bermange’s accompaniment from the
piano with Justin Homewood on bass and Robert McWhir’s clear-sighted direction
which sees the Landor stripped back most effectively.
Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes (with interval)
Booking until 24th February
Labels: Alexander S Bermange, Cassidy Janson, Landor, Niall Sheehy, Shona White