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Mid-Life! The Crisis Musical
SCAMP
Saltford Hall
Saltford
Friday 4thMay 2018
SCAMP are a group I first discovered two years ago when I was asked to review their Songs For A New World. I loved the fact that they chose this superb piece to present: not so much a musical but more a series of musical vignettes based around the title’s premise. They chose the show because they loved it – not just to put ‘bums on seats’ and it impressed me hugely. Songs was followed, a year later by a sunning production of the ‘off Broadway’ show Murder Ballad. Again this was not an audience-chaser but was certainly an audience pleaser. It was with great interest, therefore that I received an invitation to see their latest production of the comic Mid-Life! The Crisis Musical, a show very rarely produced this side of the Atlantic. I do not know the show but in my mind at least, it would fit with SCAMP’s style and be challenging, interesting and different from the ‘norm’.
The creative team for SCAMP is a collective who produce and direct together as well as performing: Jenny Abson, Matt Brock, Matthew Graham, Corinne-Anne Richards, Tom Stentaford, Sally Warhurst and Musical Director Keith Warhurst. The group comprises some very strong performers in terms of acting, singing and dance and the choice of show would be important to show off these considerable talents. Mid-Life certainly gave this opportunity but for me at least, its quality rarely matched the talents of the performers.
The decision to stage the show very simply with plain curtaining coloured by lighting, a simple raised section of stage in the centre and some very well chosen back projection imagery was a good one. The show, which comprises a series of very short scenes or sketches based around observations on impending middle age, relies on rapid scene changes to maintain pace and audience interest. The simplicity allowed changes to be quickly and smoothly achieved. The combination of multiple (and very rapid) costume changes with the neat and tidy scene transitions allowed the show to gallop along nicely.
Performances from the small cast were, as I have come to expect from this talented group, very strong. Familiar members Sally, Jenny and Tom sing and act very well indeed and the bolstering of the team with new members like Matthew Graham (whose work I have enjoyed hugely in productions like Urinetown – I still sing Run, Freedom Run in the shower – Dogfight and Spelling Bee) has only served to add strength and depth. Comic timing was spot-on from all and there were some memorable moments: Mid-Life Translator was funny; Tom’s red shoes were a thing of beauty; Classic Menopause was scarily accurate and perhaps a little too close to home (!) and the touching The Long Goodbye stood out in terms of quality.
The SCAMP orchestra under MD Keith were impressive: tight, balanced and controlled but able to kick up the pace and energy when asked. Sound was well managed and lighting, despite the limitations of a small, in-house rig enhanced the mood, as it should. The back-projections worked particularly effectively to change settings and add colour. I was especially impressed with the personal photos used behind I’m Not Ready (as an added bonus I was able to watch the young, and I have to say impeccably behaved, Warhurst children gleefully recognise themselves in some of the pictures, which only added to the emotion of the piece).
In summary, for me the production was a decent enough piece of entertainment, well played and well sung. The show though, and this is no reflection on the performers, is rather patchy in its quality of writing – sometimes funny, sometimes touching but too often a little flat. It is, understandably perhaps, a very American piece; the fact that the SCAMP team felt it necessary to project a ‘translation’ of ‘AARP’ as ‘SAGA’ perhaps indicates an issue? It had the feeling of comfortable, middle-class America trying to show that it has a sense of humour about itself whilst often missing much in the way of angst, self-doubt or irony. In the hands of a group less talented than SCAMP it could have been a long night.
I look forward to SCAMP finding inspiration for their next outing with great anticipation.
Thanks for inviting me.