Why Would We Care? – Union Theatre

Why Would We Care? at the Union Theatre, London.

Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩

We open with a chorus extolling ‘Best Town Ever’ then an onstage funeral plunges us into Stephen King territory. Pearl’s uncle the Mayor has died. A pregnant Pearl and husband Ted, visiting for the funeral, are persuaded to go and join the community at the nearby town nicknamed ‘The Glow’, whose main source of income appears to be making medicines.

Leaders of The Glow, Cecil and Marion, are persuasive, telling them that privacy of the individual is respected above all, which appeals to Ted and Pearl as they are not married. The motley inhabitants soon appear, Clara the local nurse and midwife whose husband suddenly dies, Arthur who professes to have a son and a late wife, Rufus and Lillie.

There are great songs from composer and lyricist John-Michael Mahoney and great singing. Arthur’s ‘Soon I’ll See Her’, Rufus’ ‘Need a Man, Don’t Feel Bad’, Clara’s ‘Confession’. However, they tend to stop the action in James Connor’s production and rarely come as a natural progression of the dialogue. And characters suddenly change as they go into song and start to dance. Or a passionate song suddenly has the ensemble appear as some kind of ghostly backing singers. The claustrophobic nature of the town is difficult to conjure as the set (no credit) uses the entire space of the Union stage, so entrances and exits take forever, killing any sense of urgency and growing fear. Perhaps with pools of lighting and better focused direction, more could have been achieved?

Gaby Coleman as Marion, the town leader’s wife, follows in a line of manipulative townswomen, from Cora in Anyone Can Whistle and Penelope Pennywise in Urinetown, though this musical sadly lacks the bite of either of those two musicals as Coleman tries to convince us of her machinations. The convoluted plot had me desperately trying to make sense of it – attempted murder, attempts to persuade Pearl of her husband’s inadequacy, a violent beating for besmirching the town’s image by getting drunk and vomiting in a fountain. Is there a greater significance to the portrait of Cecil (or is it his father?) that dominates the set? When Ted assures Arthur that he will not kill him as he stated he would, but needs a finger or two to prove he’s done the deed, I was half expecting blood and amputation.

Act II opens with a choral song, ‘Give it Away’, ominous and foreboding, but the mood doesn’t sustain. The badly behaved Lillie’s  beating, reminiscent of the Judge’s flagellation in Sweeney Todd, is horrific. Then the horror dissipates as Ted and Pearl sing a duet, ‘Perfect Woman’. The talented cast works hard to maintain their characters, but the uninspired choreography lets them down.

Mahoney is a talented songwriter, but he needs to get a dramaturg or playwright with experience of book musicals so that the songs grow from the situations, rather than feeling it’s time for a song. Ted and Pearl have a superb duet, ‘I’ll Love You Till You Leave’, but the sentiments have already been expressed in the preceding dialogue. Cutting the text would give the song a greater impact.

As the story winds to its end we get a moment of real frisson as mass suicide by the town is instigated. Fortunately the pills proffered to the front row, of which I was one, are withdrawn by a hasty interruption, some loopholes in the plot remained unanswered, the coffin reappears, a ghost makes an entrance and a powerful chorus ends the show.

With some rewrites, cuts and a better book, this is a musical with promise.

It’s saved by powerful singing from Taylor Quinnell as Pearl, Joseph Dennington as Ted and Camile Reid as Lillie. Houston Mcdowall as Arthur, Alex Webster as Clara and Riain Cash as the villainous Rufus are also memorable. Sadly, I didn’t care or believe in any of the characters they bravely attempted to portray.

Leon Ferguson