"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.

Blonde The Musical

 "Blonde - The Musical"

by Kristian Thomas Company.

"Blonde" is a new musical written by Adam Howell and Paul Hurt and covers the last nine years of the life of Marilyn Monroe. She was everyone's wife, everyone's lover and everyone's fantasy, but what a dark side of her life was hidden from her adoring public. This musical brings out that darker side of her life.

The musical starts back in May of 1962 as she delivers her breathy rendition of "Happy Birthday To You" to President Kennedy, and straight away we get the sense of her not being as punctual as many would have liked, most of the time she was forgiven for her tardiness, but in the world of making movies, time is money and no Director wants to be losing money.

We discover her lovers, her husbands, her friends and family. Her frustration at her not being offered more serious roles, and the stress that she was under while making her films, as well as the way that the men in her life had seriously let her down. All of these composites to her spiral into drink and drugs, through to her final demise.

"Blonde", while being serious in it's story is not short of comic moments and there are some great upbeat numbers throughout.

So let's talk about the soundtrack. The big opening number, "It's Marilyn" is a big song and dance number which sets the tone for the quality we have to come. I loved the romantic "A Good Old Fashioned Love Affair", a duet between Marilyn and her then husband, baseball star, Joe DiMaggio. "Two Heads Are Better Than One" is reminiscent of the songs that Marilyn would have had written for her for her films, so feels completely at home here. "Blonde" is a well-matched duet between Marilyn and her former self as Norma Jeane (no I didn't realise that there was an "e" at the end either!). 

Act Two opens up with another big number "Running The Show" as Marilyn takes control of her life along with her business partner/photographer Georgie Gifford. A wonderful piece of accapella from the cast in "Hail To The Actor's Studio" with an excuse to name check some big names of the time. And then comes two big ballads, "Daddy  Please Come Home" and the wonderful "Be Wonderful".

I knew with Kristian Cunningham in charge of choreography and staging that this show would be as sharp as a pin when it comes to the dancing, and I was not disappointed.

The three-piece musical accompaniment sounded bigger than it was and created a big sound for a big production. Musical Director Tom Bond (drums), Josh Kemp (keys) and Marcus Cain (bass).

Produced by Kristian Thomas Company and Tom Hopcroft, who also directed the musical and also appeared as Monroe's first husband, Jimmy Dougherty.

Verity Power (Marilyn), didn't need to look exactly like Marilyn as she brought her characteristics alive, switching from doe-eyes to a harder business-like look. She filled Marilyn's shoes as well as Monroe's halter-neck dress perfectly. There was no attempt to sing like Marilyn, which I was really pleased about because Verity has a gorgeous voice, packed with power and emotion.

Anna Bond (Norma Jeane) is an actor I have seen several times and love her voice and in the duet, "Blonde", her voice blends so well with Verity's, and when she belts out the ballad "Daddy Please Come Home", you can feel every emotion the young Norma Jeane feels.

Photographer Georgie Gifford is played by Finlay Paul, another actor who can really turn in an emotive performance, just wait until the end to see how emotional he can get!

Natalia Brown (Hedda Hopper) plays the radio announcer who gets to present many nods to several of Marilyn's past films and song titles in her broadcasts.

Maison Kelley gets to play a dual role as Darryl Zanuck, who at one stage I was certain was going to burst a blood vessel with his angry tirades. He also plays the part of Laurence Olivier. Who'd have thought Sir Larry would have such a potty mouth!

Charlie Ellerton also got a dual role as Joe DiMaggio and also as Arthur Miller, and can I say what a great voice he has, which was highlighted on the duet "A Good Old-Fashioned Romance".

Louise Grantham played Monroe's acting coach Paula Strasberg, as well as a completely opposing character in Marilyn's mother who suffered from dementia. The scene with Marilyn and her mother was one of the most touching scenes of the musical.

A completely non-evasive ensemble of Tom Samuels, Chloe Hopcroft, Becky Wrench, Sam Holden, Chelsea Hawkins and Jinny Gould completed the excellent cast.

As with knowing that the choreography was in good hands, the same can be said for the lighting and sound. In the hands of Stephen Greatorex and Harry Greatorex respectively, it was a given that these areas were well executed and gave maximum effect.

I must also mention the wardrobe, under the guidance of Karen Millward, as every costume was spot on including the iconic Marilyn white dress.

One thing I also noticed were the props, sourced by Claire Collishaw as, yet again, they placed the musical in the era. I especially loved that phone.

The staging was sparse but as it was supposed to be set, probably, back stage, the rails of clothes, props etc were all that were needed. This is the kind of set that can be sparse as the characters themselves are what you are supposed to be buying into, and not the set or surrounding.

"Blonde" was filmed at The Duchess Theatre in Long Eaton and the filming (Stephen Greatorex and Rob Hill) and the video editing (Stephen Greatorex) give a feel of a well polished feature film production.

You can stream "Blonde" anytime from now up to 16 May 2021 by visiting Derby Live to get a ticket to stream. In the words of the final song, this whole production is "wonderful".