Songs From a Ledge – Old Joint Stock Theatre, Birmingham

Amy Kakoura in Songs From a Ledge at the Old Joint Stock Theatre, Birmingham. Picture: Graeme Braidwood

Songs From a Ledge continues at the Old Joint Stock Theatre, Birmingham until 22 November.

Songs From a Ledge, is a new musical by Amy Kakoura and Andrew Sharpe. It seeks to chart the lives of two women in different times, but linked by family. Kakoura plays Maria Lynwood, a great jazz and blues singer whose career spans much of the 20th century; Jessica Duncan is her great-grandaughter, Annalie, tasked with writing a book of Maria’s life.

Both women have their problems – Maria will do, indeed has done, anything to get by on her journey to the top; Annalie’s life lacks purpose and she is in a relationship that seems to be going nowhere. Both women are in difficult mother/daughter relationships: Duncan also plays May, Maria’s daughter who, inexplicably to Maria, prefers the company of books to music. After an unfortunate incident, they become estranged. Kakoura also plays Ruth, Annalie’s mother, a successful and, frankly, scary, character, who initially has very little time for her daughter, although she does at least try to see her point of view.

The storytelling is episodic; the two protagonists have met only once, well before Annalie’s timeline in the show. This leads to a series of monologues and songs: Maria attempts to justify herself to Annalie, while the latter’s confusion is explored and ultimately resolved. There is little interaction between characters: the scenes in which mother and daughter are together are few, reducing the opportunity for director Lana McIver to introduce light and shade. This makes both acts feel overlong and occasionally lacking in pace. Nevertheless, light and shade is very much to the fore in the set and lighting design. The two halves of the traverse stage and the carefully designed lighting and costumes evoke the timelines of Maria and Annalie very effectively.

The third character, Phil John’s Doc, belongs squarely in Maria’s timeline. His initially unrequited infatuation with Maria is well told. His piano playing, full of ripples and emotion, is pretty good too.

While there may be some issues around the narrative – questions raised and not resolved, for example – the same cannot be said of the score. The opening number, ‘Tears’, immediately establishes Kakoura’s credentials as a powerful singer, portraying Maria as an individual damaged and sometimes desperate. Kakoura imbues Maria with stage presence and it is easy to imagine her as the great jazz diva.

Duncan establishes Annalie’s confused and aimless character in her quirky patter song, ‘I Bought a Cat’, and her other numbers follow a similar vein. The band, consisting of Andrew Sharpe on piano and Becky Eden-Green on saxophone, provides a fine accompaniment to the action, only very rarely overpowering the singers’ voices. But as well as the power ballads that are Maria’s stock in trade, we also witness more introspection and hear some very moving a cappella singing.

The book is ultimately a little unsatisfying as we don’t feel we’ve got fully under the skin of Maria. Nevertheless, the soaring vocals of Kakoura and the contrasting, more hesitant ones of Duncan are truly glorious, demonstrating the potential for Songs From a Ledge to become more rounded.

Glen Whys

www.oldjointstock.co.uk/whats-on/songs-from-a-ledge