Book, Music and Lyrics: Carmel Owen
Director: Christian Durham
It may seem like a good idea to make a musical about Claude Monet’s early life, but unfortunately, Charing Cross Theatre’s new production is a turgid affair. To reflect the shock to society of Monet’s work in the late 1800s, the songs should shock too. However, Carmel Owen’s show relies too much on insipid musical theatre songs, mainly sung as duets.
In Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George, about artist Seurat, the late American composer matched the pointillist style with short notes and swift refrains, but there is no attempt to give the music in A Mirrored Monet an Impressionist sound (perhaps jazz could have been an option). Instead, the songs sound all the same and are cloyingly and predictably cosy.
Admittedly, the musical is not only about the struggle Monet faces in the French art world in 1866; its main narrative thrust concerns his relationship with Camille, first his muse and then his wife. They are introduced by Manet (Aaron Pryce-Lewis, who, with his tenor, gives the best performance of the evening), but snobbery in their families means that their marriage is a poorly financed one, and the couple find it difficult to make ends meet.
Meanwhile, along with Renoir (Sam Peggs) and Frédéric Bazille (Ritesh Manugula), Monet tries to make his way in the official French Salon, which is vigorously gatekept by journalist Louis Leroy and the Marquis. However, this story offers low stakes as we know that he eventually succeeded.
Framing the young Monet’s battle to sell his work, an older Monet, hearing the guns of World War One from his house in 1916, prepares for a meeting with Matisse. As he dithers and battles with artist’s block, he recalls his past, observing key moments from his life, starting with the first time he meets Camille, to their year in London and beyond. Other stories emerge that may have formed a more fertile and less familiar basis for the musical, such as Bazille’s early death in the Franco-Prussian War, which he joined to smother accusations of homosexuality or, indeed, the burgeoning artistic career of Blanche, Monet’s stepdaughter and daughter-in-law.
As the three main characters, Jeff Shankley (Old Monet), Dean John-Wilson (Young Monet) and Brooke Bazarian (Camille) all put in solid performances, but the real star of the show is Matt Powell’s video design that floods the wooden set with colour, giving a sense of the plein air that was such a hallmark of these painters.
Runs until 9 May 2026
