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| Photo credit: Pamela Raith |
★★★
Are You As Nervous As I Am?, which opened at the Greenwich theatre, is a brand new British musical that shows us the Journey of two sisters, Peggy & Janet, forced apart by their abusive mother. The show mainly focuses on Peggy Starr, a famous singer, and the re-connection of the two sisters as they both face the struggles of adulthood and lightly touch on some more serious issues such as abuse and alcoholism, of which could have been explored further.
The musical arrangements by Dr Matthew Malone are second to none with beautiful songs that accompany the script well. “With All My Heart” is gorgeously sung by Katie Elin-Salt who plays Peggy Starr brilliantly and is one of the highlights of the production. The relationship between Peggy and her mother was executed fantastically too, with Peggy’s mother's presence noted when bad decisions were being made. This was an excellent and detailed touch that I personally love.
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| Photo credit: Pamela Raith |
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| Photo credit: Pamela Raith |
The production itself felt more like a movie biography that translates well to a certain extent. This is probably down to the writer, Simon Spencer, previously working largely in Film & TV and now dabbling in theatre. I have to admit I was not keen on the cliffhanger ending to Act 1, I felt like I just wanted to press ‘Play Next Episode’. Although the songs are brilliant, the book may need reworked to improve the flow from dialogue to songs as it very much felt like the songs placed into the show.
Designer, Kevin Jenkins, has created a clever and effective set design which easily facilitated scene changes perfectly. One thing to note is that there is a lot of scene changes within this show which makes the pace seem a little lost in places, but this did not take away from the enjoyment of the show. Mike Robertson’s lighting design was naturalistic and suited for the production, I especially loved the lightbulbs that were embedded around the front of the set.
The entire cast was faultless, including the young person playing Peggy as a child. Everyone seemed to have such a genuine connection and the chemistry was brilliant on the stage. I want to give a special shoutout to Bill Ward, who played Bob, as he did a phenomenal job at conveying the change to his controlling and abusive personality which was very believable. Of course, this all couldn’t have been done without superb direction by Phoebe Barrans.
Overall, I hope that the production continues to develop, and I hope some changes are made to fill in some of the holes in the plot. With the nature of the production, it leaves me with the question of whether this musical should actually be created into a movie instead of continuing to develop as a stage show. Either way, this brand-new musical will go places, and everyone should be proud of what they have achieved so far.
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