Picture: Simon J Webb, Jack The Lad magazine
GUY: A New Musical continues at the Bunker Theatre on 20, 23, 27 and 30 June and 4 and 7 July 2018.
Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩
GUY is being presented as part of the Bunker Theatre’s Breaking Out season. It is staged simply on a black multi-purpose set (there are different shows running consecutively with a half hour turn over in between) and it is bang up to date – a musical for a generation who cannot conceive of what life was before the internet. Or the lottery of trying to find a compatible partner, sexual or otherwise, in social situations.
Seann Miley Moore, best known for his standout performances on the X Factor, gets star billing and though we never get to hear the full range of his voice, he proves a consummate actor.
Brendan Matthew as Guy is endearing, like a young Johnny Vegas, as he explores the trials of internet dating without the benefits of a gym-honed body and sings ‘Is Your Body Who You Are?’ while opening his crisp packet.
Steve Banks and Adam Braidley show their versatility in a range of parts, and are moving, funny and joyful, switching from muscled masculinity to camp and drag.
The plot revolves around Grinder, Catfishing (using a fake online identity), and reconciling online personality with the person in the flesh. There’s a nice twist and a happyish ending. Director Sam Ward and choreographer Yukiko Masui keep the staging fluent and truthful.
Stephen Hyde (music) and Leoe Mercer (book and lyrics) have written the show in what they term as electronic-pop, and the music is attractive and more complex than one would expect.
At times it resembles a Mozartian recit channelled via hip-hop, and there are duets and trios. A song about the ‘rhythm of my heartbeat’ is particularly catchy. It is reminiscent of William Finn in a pop idiom.
Lyrics are interesting, but sadly they are not always audible. This might have been due to the sound system or the inexperience of the actors to project them in this pop/conversational style which often sets the vocal line rather low; this was only the second performance, they would have gained a four star review if they had been intelligible all of the time.
Everyone behind this production is to be commended, and the powers-that-be behind Breaking Out made the right choice for including it from their 45 applicants looking for a London showcase. It will grow over its next London performances before it tours to Manchester, Buxton and Birmingham.
Go and catch it and its four young talented performers. I anticipate we’ll be seeing and hearing a lot more of them and the work of Hyde and Mercer in the near future.
Leon Ferguson
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