May 18, 2010
It's hard to pick my favourite song, because there are so many good ones in this new musical. From the first half it would probably be Hot Girls in the EFL (that's the English Faculty Library in case you didn't know, later described as "Thirst Lodge with a shelving system") which included the line:
"I say Evenin', they say Waugh"
as well as some excellent dancing. From the second half it has to be the one where Chris, the main man, has to narrate the story of his relationship while talking like a pirate and in multiple choice. It was a ludicrous premise, beautifully rendered. That alone was worth going to see.
Richard O'Brien's new work, with Matt Kennedy's music, is great fun. It's set, like O'Brien's excellent Instead of Beauty, in the introverted claustrophobia of student life. This is a world which already feels like you're living under a microscope, where life has to be crammed into 8 weeks, and where every essay crisis and relationship twist are a major drama. It's an excellent setting for a musical, as is Oxford city which features heavily. I've never seen another musical so geographically rooted.
Crammed with in-jokes, this is obviously a piece of student drama, but I suspect that some of the more poignant moments are funniest to those who are not living them, and when Chris complained that he had to work five hours a day the titters came from the older members of the audience.
There are, inevitably, some threads which aren't followed up. Louise's identity crisis - the fate of someone who has to quote dead authors all the time - could be explored in more depth. And what happened to the ukelele? I hoped it would get a song all to itself.
The technical gremlins had done for the lighting box, and were starting on the mics last night, but it didn't detract significantly from the many excellent things. Steven the geeky friend finishes a rubik's cube on stage (which drew a gasp from the row of girls behind me), a disproportionate number of the male cast are called Jack, the tutor is fabulous, a basin walks off after its scene, the whole preposterous nature of trying to make your mark on a city this old and this famous is called into question, and there's a song about Bechamel Sauce, and another containing the line:
"This is a stack request / for the girl I love the best"
What more could you want?
O'Brien is clearly an observant chap, and just detached enough to lampoon the life of students albeit affectionately. I'll be interested to see what he makes of the big wide world in due course, but for now I'm happy reliving the highlights of student-hood from a safe distance. Well done to the cast, crew and band. I hope it's as much fun to perform as to watch.
"I say Evenin', they say Waugh"
as well as some excellent dancing. From the second half it has to be the one where Chris, the main man, has to narrate the story of his relationship while talking like a pirate and in multiple choice. It was a ludicrous premise, beautifully rendered. That alone was worth going to see.
Richard O'Brien's new work, with Matt Kennedy's music, is great fun. It's set, like O'Brien's excellent Instead of Beauty, in the introverted claustrophobia of student life. This is a world which already feels like you're living under a microscope, where life has to be crammed into 8 weeks, and where every essay crisis and relationship twist are a major drama. It's an excellent setting for a musical, as is Oxford city which features heavily. I've never seen another musical so geographically rooted.
Crammed with in-jokes, this is obviously a piece of student drama, but I suspect that some of the more poignant moments are funniest to those who are not living them, and when Chris complained that he had to work five hours a day the titters came from the older members of the audience.
There are, inevitably, some threads which aren't followed up. Louise's identity crisis - the fate of someone who has to quote dead authors all the time - could be explored in more depth. And what happened to the ukelele? I hoped it would get a song all to itself.
The technical gremlins had done for the lighting box, and were starting on the mics last night, but it didn't detract significantly from the many excellent things. Steven the geeky friend finishes a rubik's cube on stage (which drew a gasp from the row of girls behind me), a disproportionate number of the male cast are called Jack, the tutor is fabulous, a basin walks off after its scene, the whole preposterous nature of trying to make your mark on a city this old and this famous is called into question, and there's a song about Bechamel Sauce, and another containing the line:
"This is a stack request / for the girl I love the best"
What more could you want?
O'Brien is clearly an observant chap, and just detached enough to lampoon the life of students albeit affectionately. I'll be interested to see what he makes of the big wide world in due course, but for now I'm happy reliving the highlights of student-hood from a safe distance. Well done to the cast, crew and band. I hope it's as much fun to perform as to watch.