Vanara – Hackney Empire & Touring

Emily Bautista and Jacob Fowler in Vanara ar the Hackney Empire, London. Picture: Jane Hobson 

Vanara continues at Hackney Empire, London until 31 October 2021 before embarking on a UK-wide tour in 2022.

Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

So many world premieres of new plays take place in small theatres above pubs or tiny Edinburgh back rooms. How heartening to see a brand-new musical with not only the ambition to fill the enormous and beautiful Hackney Empire, but with a creative team and production epic enough to make it feel like it belongs there. Vanara is based on a concept by Tony Cucchiara, with a book by Michael Conley, music by Gianluca Cucchiara and lyrics by Andrew James Whelan.

Vanara’s promotional material leans heavily on words like “epic” and “cinematic”. At its world premiere, that language is proven to be justified. The huge team responsible for this show has done a fantastic job in translating this tale to the stage, and for a production that feels like it could be a DreamWorks feature film, that is no small feat.

The show has been in development for several years and has previously seen workshop performances and a concept album featuring the likes of Eva Noblezada, Rob Houchen and Carrie Hope Fletcher. It tells the story. You know the one. That story. It’s bad form to give spoilers in a review, but if I tell you that there are two warring tribes and a young woman and a young man from each camp lock eyes in an early scene, you can probably fill in the rest of the plot yourself with 99% accuracy. In this show, the action is transposed to a sacred forest in a distant land, but all the narrative beats are familiar. A predictable plot spread over two and a half hours can be a chore, but fortunately there is enough going on in this huge show to maintain interest.

When the action inevitably turns more violent as the story progresses, Eleesha Drennan’s choreography is stunning. Hordes of actors swirl around the stage, colliding and retreating as the epic score blasts out from the seven-piece band (brilliantly led by musical director Tamara Saringer). The dynamism of these group scenes justifies the large-scale premiere at the Hackney Empire, and they make the lonelier solo ballad moments stand out and resonate all the more.

Drennan co-directs with dramaturg Adam Lenson, and it is hard to pick fault with this team’s stylish and effective decisions. There are some inspired moments of blocking (an under-appreciated theatrical artform), and the production certainly gets its money’s worth from the Hackney Empire’s impressive double-revolve. The set and lighting work of Libby Todd and Sam Waddington are well-coordinated and create a distinct atmosphere of a familiar but somehow alien world.

The cast is impeccably well-rehearsed and executes the complex choreography with elegance. As Ayla, Emily Bautista leads the show beautifully. She fully understands how to communicate her character’s inner journey to the enormous auditorium. Her singing and acting are passionate and heart-wrenching and she brings the audience along with her until the very end of the play. Her father Crohm is imbued with considerable gravitas and dignity by charismatic baritone Cavin Cornwall, though he defers to his wife and the tribe’s leader Tonah – the wise and compelling matriarch played brilliantly by Carole Stennett.

Jacob Fowler plays love interest Mohr as likeable and relatable, though the book gives him fewer moments of deep audience connection than Ayla. Also in his camp are his parents Utza and Tahl, played as a delightfully more playful couple by Samantha Mercer and Glenn Carter. As a bridge between the two tribes, Johnnie Fiori as The Oroznah delicately walks the line between enigmatic spirituality and humour. She also provides the valuable service of keeping the audience up to speed when the book gets too bogged down in its own mythology.

The score is an interesting one. There are some truly moving moments and Cucchiara and Whelan deftly avoid the common Act II trap of abandoning music in favour of easier-to-compose dialogue. In the bombast there are echoes of Schönberg and Boublil’s work, but the compulsion to modulate key every other line to heighten the drama is a trick that does begin to get repetitive after the first four or five instances in each song.

There is also a slight feeling of disconnect between lyrics and music, but for the most parts the songs come across well. It is wonderful to see the entire cast given a moment to shine, and this leads to such beautiful moments as Kayleigh McKnight’s two gorgeously performed solos as Mohr’s abandoned intended, Sindah. It is possible that an hour could be cut off the running time if every character didn’t have to sing a four-minute ballad every time their mood changed – and the show might even find a broader appeal if it did so – but this show is proudly a musical and, shockingly, I like musicals. Kudos to its creators for embracing the medium.

Throughout, there is a stubbornly serious tone, which is perhaps necessary to communicate the show’s epic ambitions, but which does little to humanise the characters beyond their archetypes. It is a long time after the curtain goes up before the explanations of Vanara’s world cease and we are allowed to glimpse any character’s personality. The cast shine in the light-hearted moments between apocalyptic prophecies and lengthy explanations of inter-tribal trade etiquette, but these moments are few and far between. There is a comic song in Act I intended to lighten the mood, but this is an oddly retrograde “aren’t men and women different?” number that feels out of place in this millennium, let alone in this show.

Another odd choice is the show’s exoticising of these abstractly ‘tribal’ people, particularly via costume and orchestration. By having these fictional groups who live on Earth in ordered societies yet are unable to control fire – a skill that had been around for hundreds of thousands of years before Homo sapiens even existed – and who occasionally crawl around the set on all fours and swing from the staging… it just feels a little off.

In the band, Sophie Creaner plays some beautiful, delicate flute lines and Tristan Butler’s percussion is exciting and vibrant, but the slightly touristy “world music section of HMV” vibes can be troubling. Elsewhere, Jen Green’s orchestrations are brilliantly conceived and elevate Cucchiara’s compositions and she may just be the glue that holds the entire show together.

This production’s appeal could be much wider than just musical theatre lovers. For all the criticisms above, Vanara brings to life an exciting world and delivers a positive message about cooperation in the face of environmental difficulties. Theatrically and narratively, Vanara may be less mysterious and other-worldly than its fictional setting, but only in order to bring as many people along for the ride as possible. With this level of epic ambition and the skill of the cast and creatives, Vanara could easily be somebody’s new favourite musical. With its feel of a blockbuster movie on a stage, it could even convert a musical theatre sceptic, and how glorious is that?

Ian Bowkett