Preview > Song and dance about everything
Song and dance about everything
By Lee Randall
Published: 12/8/2009
This year's musicals include one about The A-Team
Once again, novelty musicals are all over the Fringe. What’s the attraction, asks Lee Randall
Take a cursory flick through the Fringe programme and you’d think all you need to make a show is select a word at random, scribble “The Musical” after it, and then, faster than you can warble four bars of ‘Bob’s Your Uncle’, you’ll be singing and dancing your way through August.
OK, I’m exaggerating, but every year now sees a fleet of novelty musicals hit town, making it the only time when life truly does imitate art, for it’s not unusual to walk past someone (usually young, wearing un-ironic leg warmers and a scarf) who suddenly bursts into song.
For that’s one of the most surreal aspects of this hugely popular genre, which asks us to suspend disbelief and cheerfully accept that otherwise sane individuals will “sing out, Louise!” when they have something urgent to communicate.
While it might sound silly on paper, don’t under-estimate the art form, says Chris Grady, programmer of Musical Theatre @ George Square: “If you can get drama and poetry and music together, all serving the process of delivering a message or an emotional punch, then it’s the most complete and complex of art forms. A musical can be incredibly accessible in the way that sometimes opera – which is also extraordinarily complete – can’t be. And while you are playing with people’s emotions by using music to enhance the drama, it can also just be fun.”
Music provides added punch and allows for greater artistic licence, he says: “If it’s really seamless and the music serves the story, then it can make even more of an impact. For instance, it gives you the chance to have two or three people singing completely different thoughts at the same time, and the audience still ‘gets’ it. If you had three or four actors speaking simultaneously, the brain can’t take it in. But with well-crafted musical pieces you absorb more information. Or you can have dream sequences where you know the character isn’t speaking aloud, but we discover what they’re thinking. These are all added bonuses of musical theatre.
“Think back to your favourite musical – perhaps you’re a fan of Oklahoma! or thrill to the Phantom of the Opera. Maybe you left the cinema humming tunes from Chicago or Rent? Whatever your preferences, it’s a safe bet that something inside you was deeply stirred by the sight of a troupe of actors moving in unison, singing and dancing their little hearts out. The appeal is visceral and instantaneous. So, knowing you only have an hour to capture the tourists’ attention and leave your mark, well, who wouldn’t want to put on a show complete with choreography?”
Throughout the Fringe, says Grady, “there are people who are putting together topical songs. There are lots of comics running around doing the same thing only without music. And just as you get good stand-up and bad, so you get good musicals and bad. In a way, the novelty musical could be described as a cabaret stand-up set. It’s when the one you think is a novelty musical packs a punch that you hadn’t quite expected, that’s when it gets interesting.”
Anthony Springall is producer and composer of Facebook: The Musical, a romantic comedy exploring the progress of five relationships born on the social networking site, and all based on true stories.
“Theatre is different for everyone,” he says. “Our goal wasn’t to create a giant goof, but to do this novelty musical justice. Facebook is a medium for communication and one of our themes is the way that people open up so readily when they’re behind a screen.” It’s a nice thematic fit, he explains, because we can say things through song that we might find difficult to communicate otherwise.”
Thea Cantelli is producing, and performing in Gingers! The Musical, which was inspired by a pictorial story that ran in the Guardian earlier this year. “The production began as a musical theatre module at university,” she says. “We wanted to explore whether all the bad press about gingers wasn’t the last ‘ism’ yet to be stamped out. We thought the medium of a musical would be interesting because it’s usually considered quite cheesy. We’re putting an ironic spin on it. We wanted to take the mickey out of the negative view of gingers, but also the idea of a musical itself. So, for example, a character might burst out singing an over-the-top song, while another character looks confused about it – as if one is in a straight play and the other in a musical.”
Another show that promises to have you singing and dancing in the aisles is A-Team – The Musical, written and produced by Gareth Kane and directed by Joss Bennathan, with music by Jethro Linley.
As Bennathan remembers it: “When Gareth phoned to say, ‘Are you interested in directing a musical version of The A Team?’ I said, ‘That’s a preposterous idea – and brilliant!’ KD Lang once said, on the subject of country music, that it needed to be approached with equal measures of kitsch and reverence. I knew that’s what we needed as well, but at the same time we want it to seem like so much silly fun that everyone wants to join in, in the same way that when kids were watching The A Team, they wanted to be whichever character was their favourite.”
Silliness may rule this hour, but there’s a certain serious intent behind Kane’s inspiration. “I love heroes and I love the 1980s in general. It’s my escapism. I’m not doing this ironically. I wanted to do a musical about Vietnam and thought that The A-Team lent itself to that idea perfectly because they met as part of the same crack commando unit during that war.”
“I never grew out of The A Team. I’ve got the boxed set of every single episode. But it all goes back to my fascination with heroes – Superman, Rambo and more modern heroes like 24’s Jack Bauer. Doesn’t every little boy want to be the hero?”
Kane is mindful that even people who swear they’ve never seen an episode of The A Team (that would be me, then) will come to his production with preconceived notions of what should be in it. “They’ll expect lines like, ‘I pity the fool!’”
“Erm, that line actually comes from Rocky,” pipes up Vincent Jerome, the actor tasked with charging around the stage laden with ropes of jewellery, doing his best Mr T impersonation. Luckily, he confides, his bling isn’t made from real gold, so he’s unlikely to wind up in hospital with a hernia.
Was it tough recruiting people who could not only act, but sing, too? Kane laughs. “Yes, and I needed comedians, actors and singers – who can also play an instrument! We needed ten people who could do everything, and play multiple roles.
“There’s also a car chase, bombs exploding, ladders that we climb up and jump off, all in an hour-long production on a stage just five metres across by two metres deep. My aim was to get everything that’s in an episode of The A Team into this show. We’ll even give you a helicopter, if you give us your imagination!”
A-Team – The Musical is at the Gilded Balloon Teviot, 5:30pm. Facebook: The Musical is at C, 10:30pm. Gingers! The Musical is at Musical Theatre @ George Square, 11:15am. All three shows run until 31 August.
