Bright songwriting talent – Eamonn O’Dwyer’s material was performed in the concert Next, at the Battersea Barge, London
Next UK was performed at the Battersea Barge, London.
Next – or NEXT: Now Entering the Crossroads (X-roads) of Theatre, if you indulge the rather clunky and contrived acronym – is a showcase of emerging musical theatre talents that enjoyed a successful rollout in New York in 2009 and which has now made it across the pond. To launch the UK chapter of this not-for-profit group, the organisers Laura Kaye Thomson and Alicia Krakauer decided to splash out – quite literally – at the Battersea Barge, hosting an evening that turned out to be an inspiring and uplifting celebration of new songwriting and young musical theatre talent.
The original NEXT was conceived as a “concert series dedicated to helping talented new artists meet and collaborate with the most promising emerging songwriters”, to quote their Facebook mission statement. “Each concert exclusively features the work of a specific composer or lyricist and a rotating group of talented young performers.” The concept is built on such a strong and simple proposition – pairing up a new writer with young performers – that it feels like it should have been around forever, so well done to Thomson and Krakauer for making it happen here in London.
With the UK launch, the concert wasn’t limited to just one composer; instead, we were treated to a string of nine and no fewer than 27 performers (including a band – of piano, cello and cajon – led from the keys by MD Daniel Griffin), mostly drawn from musical theatre students and recent graduates. Quite how so many people squeezed into the green room of the Battersea Barge is a marvel in itself, but like the audience for this sell-out show, they were presumably crammed in like sardines.
Despite the tight squeeze, and the incessant bobbing and creaking of the Barge, it was a fantastic evening with some truly magical moments. There’s no room here to document all 26 songs, but each of the eight composers must have felt they’d been done proud by their enthusiastic performers, such was the quality on offer.
A few notable call outs are in order, though. The gig opened with Corrine Priest – recent recipient of the Stephen Sondheim Society Student Performer of the Year Award – showing why she was a worthy winner, performing ‘I Like It’ by the Off West End Awards Best New Musical nominee Finn Anderson. The young Scot, whose show Streets wowed audiences at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and in London at the Cockpit and Hackney Empire (his recent show Alba – A New Musical played at Edinburgh this year), also closed the first half in style with the show’s stirring ‘300 Feet’, powerfully performed by our host Alicia Krakauer and Mountview Postgrad Matthew McCabe.
Priest also got the biggest reaction of the night with her tipsy rendition of Eamonn O’Dwyer’s fabulously outrageous ‘Something For the Pain’ from The House of Mirrors and Hearts – an absolute corker of a song about an alcoholic desperately cajoling a friend into joining her for a drink.
Indeed, O’Dwyer emerged as the brightest of the songwriting talents, with each of his numbers showing a maturity and level of craft that will surely see him propelled to great things. Heck, if there’s any justice in the world, he should be able to retire off the earnings of ‘Something For the Pain’ alone. Even the plainest of his numbers was a notch above, with ‘Portrait of His Mistress’ standing out as a particularly fine song, thanks in part to Oscar Conlon-Morrey’s moving interpretation, and ‘Beauty in the Breaking’, a wonderfully rich conclusion to the event by the quintet of Kimberley Bliss, Kim May, Kane Oliver Parry, Magnus Tönning Riise and event co-organiser Laura Kaye Thomson.
Composer Tim Connor was well represented, and rightly so, starting with the bittersweet ‘Mum Makes It Better’ (from Heart of Winter), sung by Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama graduate Jay Worley; although written for a one-woman show, the song sat well with the talented Worley, another finalist from the Sondheim competition earlier this year.
Mountview graduate Becki Thompson sang Connor’s ‘Colour in My Cheeks’, also from Heart of Winter, and for his next two songs, the talented singer-songwriter took to the piano and self-accompanied. Of particular note was ‘6.59’ from the soon-to-be-workshopped Stationmaster, an intricate and minutely-observed song from the perspective of the titular stationmaster excited by the coming of his first train of the day, made all the more special by Connor’s impassioned delivery.
From the piano, the ever-reliable and ridiculously talented Theo Jamieson accompanied Ellie Smith in ‘I Can See’ from his work-in-progress musical about a super-talented teen – a work that sounds like it could well be autobiographical, other than the fact that the protagonist is a 13-year-old girl named Shelby! And Alex Young, who’s better known as a performer, surprised me at least by revealing herself as talent songwriter, providing a few folksy numbers penned with Kate Marlais from their proto-musical Here.
And bravo to Gus Gowland for bringing us ’Reflection’ from Pieces of String, sung by the devilishly good Emma Odell, and to Scott Morgan for, among others, the premiere performance of ‘The Life I Never Planned’ rendered beautifully by Christopher Cameron and Magnus Tönning Riise.
‘Next’ is rarely the word that a performer wants to hear, especially when auditioning, but this night proved the exception. Was the title a sideways nod to ‘Next’, Stephen Sondheim’s anthem to progress from Pacific Overtures? Perhaps. But what’s sure is that this enterprise is all about the future, and is a must-have on the London theatre scene. Not only is it inspirational and encouraging for the writers and performers, it’s a real treat for audiences privileged to be there at the start of something big. Here’s to the next NEXT!
Craig Glenday
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