British Musicals: ‘Wasted’ (2018)

British Musicals: ‘Wasted’ (2018)

Book and Lyrics by Carl Miller

Music by Christopher Ash

History

‘Wasted’ is a musical by Carl Miller (The National Theatre’s ‘Emil & The Detectives’) and Christopher Ash (founder member of ‘Showstopper! - The Improvised Musical'). Seen through the lens of a rock documentary, the show is an access-all-areas account of the struggles, heartbreaks and triumphs of the three Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Emily & Anne, and their brother Branwell.

Following ‘work in progress’ performances at the West Yorkshire Playhouse and Park Theatre London in 2016, the world premiere of the completed show was at the Southwark Playhouse on 6th September 2018, in a production co-produced by Big Finish supremo, Jason Haigh-Ellery. Leading the cast as Charlotte was Natasha Barnes, best known for covering for the indisposed Sheridan Smith in ‘Funny Girl’ in the West End a couple of years ago. Joining her were Siobhan Athwal as Emily, Molly Lynch as Anne, and Matthew Jacobs Morgan as Branwell.

Story

Brought up in a remote poverty-stricken town in Yorkshire, without money or opportunity, the Brontës fight ill-health, unrequited love and family feuds to write some of the most celebrated works of literature, including ‘Jane Eyre’ and ‘Wuthering Heights’. The lives behind the pages expose a struggling, squabbling, ferociously driven, drug-fuelled crash and burn trajectory from obscurity to celebrity, and ultimately their untimely deaths. The musical strives to explain how these ingenious women were left wondering whether their lives had been wasted.

In A Nutshell

The Brontës. They rock !

Production

Back at the Southwark Playhouse, having had to move performances due to accidentally booking for the captioned performance the day before which would have involved large proportions of the audience having to be staring at their phones throughout the show, I had a reasonably central seat. The tone for the evening was set by a parental advisory publicity postcard that I picked up at the box office. The show started with all four cast members entering in period costume and plugging their hand-held microphones into ports in the middle of the stage. This set the tone, as all items of set were related to concerts, with all documents being music manuscript paper and flight cases acting as writing desks. After an opening number that was slightly too Rock-y for me, there was a good run of songs that I enjoyed, which were slightly less loud, and so easier to hear the very clever words.

All four threw themselves into their roles – Athwal as the ‘Goth’ Emily (with more than a hint of Kate Bush), Barnes as the pragmatic Charlotte, Lynch as the initially virginal Anne, and Jacobs Morgan as the deluded Branwell who got the best jokes. 27 songs (including reprises) was a little too many, and I would have preferred a little more dialogue between scenes due to the high standard of the few instances that we did get. Certainly worth seeing for a new insight into the Brontës.

Wasted runs at the Southwark Playhouse from 6th September 2018 to 6th October 2018.

Favourite Song

I intend to cheat here and pick one for each Brontë. ‘Infinite Eternity’ for Charlotte, ‘My Soulmate’ for Emily, ‘No-One to Marry for Miles’ for Anne, and ‘I Am Gonna Be…” for Branwell.

Did I Buy The Cast Recording ?

No, there wasn't one available.

 

 

Links

Production Website: https://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/show/wasted/