FOR TONIGHT – A new musical: UK Concept Recording (Spotify and Apple Music)
Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩
Shenelle Salcido (book, music, lyrics, orchestration), Spencer Williams (book, music, lyrics) and Whitney Rhodes (additional book) have come up with a new musical based around a Romeo and Juliet theme but this time between Mirela, who is Romani and Haydon, a gadje (an outsider).
The story starts off in a very dark mood and it only gets darker and more depressing as the musical proceeds. The synopsis itself is four pages long! There are 25 musical numbers. It is far too long and could do with a blue pencil taken to it and made shorter and sweeter. There is nothing wrong with a dark story but it has to be made tight and compact, otherwise you lose the attention of your audience, especially when nothing much is truly happening apart from the lovers being separated and a father who blames the Romani people for a cholera outbreak 10 years previously.
Having said that, there is great promise with the music. At the minute there is too much of it and a lot of the music starts to sound the same. I was hooked during the first track ‘Away’, the beat and the build up during the number is a great start to the show. Up to about track five I was enjoying the music but then my attention started to wander. Even following the synopsis I was getting to the point when I just wanted it to finish.
The cast have excellent voices and they include: Simon Gordon, Amy Di Bartolomeo, Dale Evans, Erin Caldwell, Jade Davies, Luke McCall, Jake Halsey-Jones, Soophia Foroughi, Glain Rhys and John Ieuan Jones.
I understand this is the concept recording and as such I think they have done an excellent job. However, a heavy book and too much music really needs attention and then I am positive they will have a first-rate show on their hands.
Nick Wakeham
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