"The Mad Ones" by BJW Productions

Streamed Online

This is a new musical to my eyes and ears and I feel enriched by having experienced this production, which is the UK Professional Premiere of this musical by Kait Kerrigan and Bree Lowdermilk.

Originally titled "The Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown", The Mad Ones is about Samantha Brown (Molly Hewitt-Richards) and her best friend, Kelly Manning (Emily Knight), who died just before graduation when she was hit by a speeding car. This isn't really a spoiler as Kelly tells us this about 20 minutes into the production. There is also a clue of this with the sets of headlights embedded in the set design.

Mainly told through flashbacks, the story is also about Sam's relationship with her overbearing mother, Beverly (Alice Imelda), a statistician who has written a book about road accidents. She has endowed her daughter with a deep fear of driving and a belief that mistakes have life-threatening consequences. I love the section where she is trying to bribe Sam's friends with cookies to try and find out what her daughter was thinking and possibly going to do with her life.

The musical has four characters and the fourth, and least important character to the musical is Adam (Aiden Carson), Sam's boyfriend. Adam isn't the sharpest knife in the draw but he has his moments as he attempts to seduce Sam into bed with the promises of scented candles, pancakes and Darjeeling tea. That said he is not pushy and is tuned in to Sam's feelings. His featured song "Run Away With Me" is a classic modern musical theatre song, a nod towards a Romeo & Juliet ending. I have seen Aiden quite a few times in musicals and know what a powerful and emotive voice he has which is highlighted here.

I loved this piece of theatre with its' reflections of "Spring Awakening" and "Ghost" in parts. It also reminds us to live life the way you want and cherish those you love as sometimes you don't get to say goodbye.

All four actors are perfectly cast and all have excellent voices. The relationships are totally believable across the board. The duets between Molly and Emily are stunning; it's like listening to one voice and the chemistry is amazing making you believe in the words that all four are singing.

Molly has one of those voices that has purity as well as strength and these songs in "The Mad Ones" are very well suited to her wonderful vocal range.

The same goes for Emily who sings with such ease. and after her first song just relaxed into drinking in her wonderful vocals.

Emily also gets to play several roles in the musical and at one stage jokes "Wow, I have to play everything around here". That is also one thing I really appreciated. The musical could be filed under "dark" but every now and again there are flashes of comedy in one liners like this. Another example is when Beverley is taking Sam for her first driving lesson and retorts "I've had a good life" when Sam asks "Are you ready for me to drive?"

Directed by Molly, the one hour and forty minutes straight through production at no time seemed to labour. The songs are well written and enable the singers to tell the story through the lyrics without need of too much of a script. The singing is almost non stop, a credit as well to the singing abilities of all four performers.

The songs sometimes reminded me of the works of Jason Robert Brown and with the beautiful musical delivery of the four musicians Ben Ward (Keyboards) who was also the MD, Owen Jones (guitar), Richie Dunn (violin) and Catrin Meek (harp), they didn't once over shadow the vocals and created a lovely, almost Celtic feel to the soundtrack.

Responsible for the Sound Design was Harry Greatorex and the Lighting Design was by Jamie Vella. The video design for this streamed show is thanks to Mason Chapman.

This production is streaming from today 29 May 2021 until Saturday 5 June 2021 and tickets, which are £12 can be bought via the website www.bjwproductions.co.uk and is well worth the money per ticket, so get one while you can.