Writer and Director: Olly Medlicott
Fame often has a dark side – the road to success filled with conflict and compromise. The music industry is a hotbed of binding contracts and sleazy agents preying on young, eager musicians, luring them to sign their rights away and change their whole image to fit into the mainstream.
Fictional band ‘The Outside’ are no different – Billy and Jack have been singer-songwriters for years, releasing their eclectic music online to a small pocket of fans. When they get picked up by an agent, they’re excited that they’re finally en route to bigger and better things, but the adjustments are a lot more than they expected. Their music needs to be one set genre, their duets, although good, are not fit for a mainstream audience. They’re encouraged to hire a female singer and demote Billy to keyboard, but Mara’s arrival causes romantic rifts and tension in the trio, threatening to split them apart. The price of fame is high, what are they willing to sacrifice to keep it?
Writer and director Olly Medlicott (who also plays the agent) has crafted a really unique production that features original songs alongside an intriguing narrative. The characters are well-written, with each of their motivations and backstories clear and believable, with easy influence from many horror stories from the music industry. There are a variety of interesting and important themes that are touched upon during the show such as homophobia, drug misuse and abuses of power, which could be developed slightly more to really drive the points through. Currently, although each theme and storyline is mentioned, it struggles to break past the surface level and go deeper to really engage.
Surprisingly and unfortunately, given that it’s such a huge part of the production, musically is where this show falls flat. Momentum is quickly built with the intriguing plot and character interactions but is quickly diluted by the interjection of each similar-sounding song. Although the lyrics do help to progress the narrative by giving insights into their thoughts, feelings and situations, often the songs are slightly too long, with not much personality in the performances. The formulaic approach of scene, song, scene, song etc, gets repetitive quickly, and without any adjustments or additions to the performances such as background acting or even slightly amended lighting, it feels more like an open mic night, with the introduction of some spoken word, rather than a fully integrated production.
Charlie Purbrook is visually fantastic as Jack – the brooding, charismatic rockstar struggling to come to terms with his newfound fame. Vocally, he’s not as strong as the other actors, making his solo songs hard to listen to. His chemistry with Billy (Will Mugford) and Mara (Emily Sawtell) is good, the three of them portraying an upcoming music band well. Mugford is impressive – his solo song ‘I’m Ready’ is a stand-out within the show, showcasing his musical talent both on the keyboard and vocally. Sawtell utilises the stage well, her performance throughout is very animated and energetic.
This has the essence of being a strong production, its unique subject matter automatically drawing an audience in. With some adjustments and fine-tuning, this could easily become a hit in the future.
Runs until 15 July 2023
The Reviews Hub Score
Mediocre Musical
