Book, Music and Lyrics: Gus Gowland
Director: Tania Azevedo
There is much to love about Gus Gowland’s new musical Mayflies. For a start, there’s a narrative that is in parts funny, in others gut wrenching – the tale of a two-year online relationship that goes fleetingly offline (almost akin to the life cycle of a mayfly) has a familiarity to it that anyone attempting to navigate the past three years in the world will feel.
Another big plus is the incredibly talented rotational cast who have been directed to convey a relatability and sense of realness by director Tania Azevedo – at this particular performance Nuno Queimado (who was previously alternate Hamilton in the West End production) and Rumi Sutton (who previously covered and played Heather Duke in Heathers, also in the West End and on tour) were on stage. The third member of the cast is Emma Thornett (War Horse, Bedknobs and Broomsticks), so all three have experience, and this slick production was an ideal vehicle for a demonstration of their acting and musical talents.
The production was also incredibly satisfying to look at – on the face of it the set was a fairly non-descript mid-market hotel room, the likes of which most of us have seen before, but above, below and around it were levels of staging that the actors used beautifully, constantly buzzing about the different areas, all of which were perfectly lit. Much of the lighting itself was created by a multitude of feathery hanging lamps all over the stage, which moved up and down and turned on and off, as reminiscent of mayflies as the two characters were as they flitted around each other between scenes.
Given that this production is described as a musical, rather than a play with music, the quality of the lyrics and songs was always going to be incredibly important. In this area Gowland did not disappoint. Clever, funny, often poignant lyrics were married with piano and guitar accompaniment, tinged with influences of Dear Evan Hansen, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change and even Rent. The songs felt very comfortably ‘off Broadway’ in the best way.
The characters themselves were quirky, funny, likeable and believable… to a point. It was easy to fall quickly in love with the vibrant May and to will her and Fly to get together, to be part of one big love story. Each character had a back story, subtle personality traits and character nuances that came through as the story unfolded, examined in more depth through the songs. Particular highlights were Fly’s song about running on empty, and May’s song about not looking back over past relationships, which were raw and real, leaving the actors wiping away tears and the audience sometimes doing the same.
With all of these ingredients, this show has the potential to be fantastic, and in parts, it is. The end, however comes to soon and feels like it would benefit from development, there was definitely a hard stop to the relationship between the two characters, which could ultimately have been explored further. The hour and a half show runs straight through with no interval – but this is one of those productions that may actually need an interval and two acts, in order to develop the end of the narrative a little more with further material. Whether Gowland has more songs up his sleeve to add in is another matter, but the possibility of more beautiful and clever lyrics could never be a bad thing.
This show is absolutely worth seeing once, possibly twice, as you could see it with a different cast, but the songs stand up on their own and should be added to a music download app near us, post haste.
Runs until 13 May 2023.
