Composer Jason Robert Brown has had plenty of success on Broadway and in London, most notably with the musical Parade. The yearning for artistic success, the effect when it comes, and the way it can unbalance and corrode relationships is the theme of this girl meets boy musical about actor Cathy (Samantha Barks) and would be writer Jamie (Jonathan Bailey) who fall in love. But the relationship takes a tumble when he becomes a feted novelist almost overnight and she fails to achieve the stardom or even professional fulfilment she yearns for despite years of struggle. One of the best songs in an often wryly witty evening is Cathy’s internal monologue while performing an audition song.
The internalised nature of many of the songs, which have a similar lush lyricism as the score for Brown’s song cycle Songs for a New World, works against dramatic impetus. But Brown ups the ante by having the protagonists tell their stories in opposite directions, the two characters only inhabiting both the same physical and emotional space right in the middle of the story as they decide on marriage.
The effect is often poignant: one is leaving the relationship as the other is celebrating its very first kiss. Barks and Bailey are passionately full-throated and sometimes touching, but Brown – who also directs – comes near to scuppering his own musical with a clunky design and video inserts that constantly detract from the main event.
At St James theatre until December 3. Box office: 0844-246 2140.
