Chiswick Playhouse – until 7 August 2021
Reviewed by Alun Hood
3***
It’s always a pleasure to see creatives appear in their own work: assuming that said creative has the necessary performance chops, it’s probably the nearest to their original intention, their vision of how a particular line or lyric should land, that we are ever going to experience. This proves especially true at the moment over at Chiswick where, thanks to half of the cast of four being forced into Covid isolation, Ben Barrow and Lucy Ireland are co-starring in their song cycle From Here… and pretty terrific they are too.
To be fair, they did both train as actor-musicians at Guildford School of Acting, so they’re hardly inexperienced stage performers, but they have killer voices, charm to spare, and such chemistry with each other and with the remaining cast members Grace Mouat (SIX, & Juliet) and Andrew Patrick-Walker, that all thought of them being last minute replacements goes out of the window almost from the first bars of music.
As writers, they clearly know their Musical Theatre too: a funny number about a bored teacher who lives for the end-of-day bell, contains so many specialised MT references it makes the head spin, and is reminiscent of Maltby & Shire’s masterly ‘Miss Bird’ from Closer Than Ever except that where that mousy protagonist daydreams of rampant sexuality, here she escapes into the tawdrily glamorous world of amateur theatricals.
This is performed with the requisite relish by Mouat who proves just as adept at the lower octane material here as she is when sweetly but powerfully belting her face off in the two West End shows that put her on the map. She’s undoubtedly a major talent, with an innate warmth and likability. Patrick-Walker is equally good, and of all the cast members probably faces the biggest challenges: a hugely amusing turn as an appealingly neurotic nerd losing his cool in a stranded tube carriage and swearing undying love to an indifferent co-worker is a far cry from an intense young gay man with mental health issues questioning his relationship suitability, but Patrick-Walker nails them both, plus much more besides, with an appealing stage presence and an exciting modern tenor voice.
Billed as “a new British musical”, From Here is really more of a revue, like a UK equivalent to those Jason Robert Brown or Maltby & Shire shows which take snap shots of relatable contemporary life, all bound together by a common idea rather than a linear plot and consistent characters. Apart from a vague nod to the passage of time in a single human life, it isn’t terribly clear what Barrow and Ireland’s central idea actually is, and woolly programme notes like “will this be your fairytale end or do you need to start again?” don’t help.
Without that strong through-line, the songs -some of which are truly wonderful- tend to hang in the space, extremely pleasantly but robbed of true dramatic punch. There are exceptions, the most notable being the astonishingly accomplished “Monster Under The Bed”, mentioned above and devastatingly put across by Andrew Patrick-Walker, which is about as searing a depiction of an unquiet mind as one could imagine in song form.
The nicely melodic score (exquisitely played by Ian Oakley’s three piece band) is a little ballad heavy and could use a bit more grit and edge. This is a shame as when Barrow and Ireland show us their fangs -as in the sequence where a beatific healthful living advocate hilariously unravels as she finds her day doesn’t go quite to her Zen-like plan, or a tart duet for the two men about the irritations of flat-sharing with a friend- From Here goes up several gears and becomes really rather fabulous.
As it is, Annabelle Hollingdale’s slick staging features a lot of gazing wistfully into the middle distance, which gets a bit tedious. The brief pieces of choreographed movement feel nicely organic however, and never too much for the space.
According to the programme, Ben Barrow and Lucy Ireland are scheduled to tour internationally in Footloose soon, and I really hope that during that time they get to create lots more musical theatre as, on the basis of the several moments when From Here genuinely soars, they are serious talents to watch. It’s also important to note that this show was created during the pandemic and mostly over Zoom which, in itself, is worthy of applause, as are many other things about this short but appealing production.