The Lowry, Manchester – until Saturday 17th February 2018. Reviewed by Julie Noller
5*****
Teddy was the winner of Best New Musical at the Off West End Awards in 2016, it’s set in an era of austerity (a word well used by today’s media outlets and politicians) and post war London, devastated by the Blitz. Teddy and Josie dress up for a night on the town, teenagers free from restraints, Teddy marks the birth of rebellion. Music and mayhem bring to life the London of the 1950’s as depressive and bleak 1940’s darkness rocks and rolls away.
The decor is impressive, the auditorium is decorated with lightbulbs, the stage is split in two. It’s a simple set there’s the space for Johnny Valentine and the Broken Hearts to dazzle us with their rock and roll tunes. On the other side from the bold brash Americans stands smokey London the playground of the lost generation desperately trying to find their feet, wanting to break free from the oppression that has been left for them and stands amid the bombed out buildings. Scaffolding well that’s just somewhere to climb, sit and smoke. It’s a place to scorn at those who dare to look at them and let’s not call them kids! In the middle of the stage stands a lost and lonely abandoned Aga, just another toy but a sad reminder of long missed families.
The cast is small but far from simple. The story explosive. Josie (Molly Chesworth) is in her room, getting ready for a night with friends that involves getting drunk, smoking and dreaming of never returning home. Her father catches her creeping out he’s abusive and a drunk but he won’t stop her. She sweeps out the door her hair perfected, her lips cherry red. She carries the air of defiance, this generation of woman as after the First World War craves even more freedom and they aren’t afraid to pout and sneer. Teddy (George Parker) well he too is in his room, his hair is swept, slicked into the perfect quiff adding inches to his height. His Edwardian Jacket with it’s splash of colour and velvet collar being his pride and joy. We don’t see an insight into his home life until later when he returns home and riffles through his mother’s belongings for his fathers keepsakes, his eyes seeking the German gun that quite possibly many soldiers returning home from war had.
Both Teddy and Josie feel alive deep inside when they hear music especially that of their American hero Johnny Valentine the suave and sophisticated rebel played by Dylan Wood. The Broken Hearts are a trio of serious musicians, Buster Watson (Harrison White) who dazzles the keyboard and brings to live the electric sounds. Sammy ‘The Sticks’ Smith (Andrew Gallow) such an animal he needs to play behind a screen as explained by Jenny O’Malley (Freya Parks) she is the bands bassist, don’t call her a cutie pie, don’t expect her to be weak. She’s a strong willed woman and isn’t afraid to show it.
The story is simple it’s a boy meets girl tale. It should be happy ever after but reality is rarely that. Teddy and Josie are ultimately just teenagers doing what the generation before them had never dared – having fun. To their parents they’re still kids, a label thrust onto them and detested. They are Teds, lavish threads lovingly kept having been passed down to them are their peacock feathers. There’s no money to flash for this is an era of deep deprivation. Music is their release, it is freedom. Both hear of Johnny Valentines one off gig in London and it becomes a fight to gain entrance by any means. That means involves a gun, pawn shop and money by any way necessary. Violence is part and parcel of life for them, the big greasy monkey who coverts Josie getting in their way more than once. Teds trashing a cinema before Bill Haley’s tune Rock around the Clock had heralded the start of Blackboard Jungle, they escape the police. Life catches up with them at the gig, violence catches up with them after awkwardly sharing a dance together and possibly their first kiss ever. The grease monkey reappears not actually onstage but told by both Josie and Teddy it’s as if we are looking back as they tell the tale. Suddenly a bang rings out and we know Josie has the gun, why was it loaded? The story ends sadly, we don’t know what happens to them, I’m going to dream like they do… A true Hollywood style ending, life will be kind, miraculous and they’ll do what they talk about in their separate cold dark police cells. They’ll run away to America, change their names, drive a cherry red convertible very fast turning heads all the way. If Teddy was set today we’d be watching reality television shows and the X-Factor generation. What goes around comes around we just all believe that as teenagers we are the first to be misunderstood, seeking freedom, but Teddy’s really were the start of teenagers before them they were children and then adults. Enjoy the story and more so enjoy the music, feel the music as Teds did, forget the oppression around you and enjoy life, just try not to be angry as those rebellious teenagers did.