Kidults! The Musical continues at the Bridewell Theatre until 26 October 2024. The show is also playing at the Courtyard Theatre from 29 October to 2 November and at 229 London from 4 to 6 November.
Star rating: one star ★ ✩ ✩ ✩ ✩
Mark Tunstall’s poems about adolescence, school and growing up make a rather uneasy two hours of plotless theatre.
There’s some dialogue, spliced together with musical solos, duets and ensembles based on the words which are quite poignant and witty in places. Imagine a second-rate version of TS Eliot when he was in Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats mode.
Lulu Chen is the composer but some of the songs have been composed by others which may, in part, account for the unevenness and lack of cohesion.
This was the first-ever performance of this show so I won’t dwell on the clunky cueing, the ragged entries to many numbers and the ensemble singing which wasn’t in tune. Presumably, these things may improve as the show beds in.
I hope director Tunstall was taking plenty of notes although he was also pretty busy on stage as ‘Narrata’. No, I don’t understand the silly spelling either. In the role he strides about looking like a scruffy ringmaster, spliced with Emcee and Harold Steptoe, using a pretty unconvincing East End accent.
Meanwhile, we meet, disparately, young people in love, dealing with bereavement, bullying or being bullied, reflecting gloomily on the problems of the world and, oddly distributing bags of popcorn and marshmallows to the audience. Ah yes, the audience. It just about outnumbered the cast of 16 and six band members but it was pretty close.
The music is one of the best things in this show. Composer Chen plays, a lot of it thumpingly, a rather less than grand baby grand piano downstage left near the entrance that the audience uses at the Bridewell Theatre.
On the upstage balcony, a long way from Chen, are the other five players making a good sound with some excellent guitar playing. Unfortunately, the balance is wrong. It’s often far too loud and drowns out the words of the songs which are anyway not generally articulated with the clarity they need.
All this muddle is a pity because although it feels like amdram this purports to be a professional production. Within it, moreover, one or two performers stand out as having real talent. Hazel Park, for example, is brilliant as Sally. She commands the stage all the time she’s on it with her totally present dance moves, assertive voice and expressive face.
Oral Norville is enjoyable as Quiet Thomas too and Kelly Townsend brings a suitable ambiguity to No-Name Jones.
Susan Elkin
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