Songs For A New World

C too    31 July-11 August, 13-25 @ 22.00    Rubber Duck Theatre

Originally produced off Broadway in 1995 with a cast of four, this is an ’abstract musical’, a series of songs connected by theme rather than narrative. The performers do not play the same characters throughout but nevertheless have consistently developing character arcs. This production, intriguingly, has an extra female performer and consequently divides the material between the performers somewhat differently.

The production is very basic and the set is functional. The performances are mixed vocally. The women sing better than the men, and, taking a more flexible approach to voice production, there could certainly be a way that this cast could embody the whole score, but there were times when they struggled.

The musical direction of this is very slick and it’s inspiring to experience a show with a good live band on the fringe.

Composer and lyricist, Jason Robert Brown, has said of his show, "It's about one moment. It's about hitting the wall and having to make a choice, or take a stand, or turn around and go back.” The situations and the musical styles are wide and varied but the writing has a core strength of integrity to it and the songs are great.

Well worth seeing.