Composed by Duncan Sheik in the gap between his Tony award-winning Spring Awakening and American Psycho, this sliver of a rock musical, set in a haunted lighthouse during the second world war, is perfectly pleasant but more spine-numbing than tingling.
Christopher (an excellent Fisher Costello-Rose) is a young boy whose fighter-pilot dad has been killed and whose grief-stricken mother has been committed to an asylum. Sent to stay with his aunt Lily (Dianne Pilkington) on the Maine coast, he longs to prove himself a patriot. When President Roosevelt issues an executive order banning foreign nationals from living in certain areas, Christopher finds himself on a collision course with his aunt, who values her Japanese handyman, Yasuhiro (Nicholas Goh).
So slight it’s skeletal, Kyle Jarrow’s book never settles on whether it wants to be a show about “othering”, a meditation on the way guilt cripples people or an improbable gothic revenge drama. Niamh Perry and Simon Bailey’s ghosts, lovers lost at sea, drift around the stage mournfully trying to lure others to their deaths.
Adam Lenson’s production sometimes feels more semi-staged than fully fledged, and the unnecessary interval cuts the tension and saps momentum. There is plenty of angst but minimal characterisation – we know Simon Lipkin’s Sheriff is the villain because of the way he smokes a cigarette. People may keep talking about the treacherous sea with its deadly undertow, but this unmemorable couple of hours washes over harmlessly.
- At the Other Palace, London until 27 May. Box office: 0844 264 2121.
