Best of Friends won't make too many friends...but it could.

By JBR

I Can’t Sing! has posted closing notices after just two short months and once again we are discussing the state of musical theatre writing in this country. Good. We need to talk about it. Before that though, let’s just take a moment to talk about I Can’t Sing!

Who, precisely were the audience supposed to be? Fans of Harry Hill? Fans of TV talent shows? Fans of musical theatre? Let me suggest that the marketing was confused. Surely someone, somewhere must have realised at some point that TV talent shows have historically and consistently looked down upon musical theatre. Thanks to Gary Barlow and Jessie J's frequent sniping at the “musical sound” and the total absence of musical theatre on those shows the industry has been incensed quite some time. But it’s not just TV talent shows like The Voice and X Factor that have had this attitude. Let’s not forget How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria’s ridiculous attempt to pass off Connie Fisher (3 years at Mountview) as working in telesales. Compare the investment in TV drama with the investment in TV musicals. Indeed. Count the number of musical theatre actors who have successfully crossed over to ‘legitimate’ acting work. Then look to America, to Glee, to Smash, to the musical theatre actors who are acclaimed across all fields, like Neil Patrick Harris, Joanna Gleeson, Christian Borle, Audra McDonald and more. You’ll realise the problem with musical theatre in the UK is with our infrastructure; with how we support it, value it, and most importantly fund it. I can’t help but occassionally feel insulted how our section of the industry is viewed compared with ‘straight’ acting, particularly when it comes to supporting new writing.

If you think about new theatre writing, the names Paines Plough, Theatre 503, nabokov, and the Royal Court will probably leap to mind. But asked to name new musical theatre companies and I bet most of us would be hard pushed to name any - and certainly none working at the level, or supported to the degree that new theatre writing is. Which begs the question - if we don’t value it, then how on earth are we supposed to teach other people to care about it?

Anyone who studied musical theatre at Mountview (as I did) under the tenure of the course founder, Paul Sabey, would agree that the man was, is, an extraordinary font of knowledge and passion. I’m aware that many students didn’t always see eye to eye with Paul, but no-one in this industry should question that musical theatre in Britain would be immeasurably poorer without his vison and input. Paul used to have a saying “the audience don’t want to see how hard you work.” It’s true of performance, and it’s true of writing. There’s a reason that new musicals aren’t “finding their audience” - it’s because we are not teaching people how to write them. A musical is a complex and rich art form. It is a serious, scholastic subject. America understands this and this is why they, oftentimes, do it better. Imagine the landscape of the West End next summer (if rumours are to be believed) Memphis, Mormon, Motown, Kinky Boots, Wicked, Jersey Boys, Aladdin, Chicago, Bridges of Maddison County and Back to the Future will be here - will Made In Dagenham and Bend it Like Beckham be standing proud against them, or will they too have gone the way of Viva Forever, From Here to Eternity, Loserville, Stephen Ward, and now I Can't Sing?

Audiences respond to ‘classic’ musicals because they are structured properly, written by masters of the art who studied and studied and rewrote for years and years and immersed themselves in their work. Only with that degree of technique, and craft, and learning can you create a musical that doesn’t show the audience how hard you are working, that allows them simply to enjoy, connect and respond to it on an emotional level. Modern musicals wear their lack of structure and form like a badge - it’s little wonder that audiences aren’t bothered. Who wants to work that hard when they go to see a show?

Which brings me on to Best of Friends at the Landor theatre. If ever there was a musical that desperately required a dramaturg with a knowledge of musical theatre it is this. This is proof positive, if it were needed, that a musical is more than a collection of songs and a story. In Best of Friends it is barely that. It feels like a middle-of-the-road (and frequently mediocre), autobiographical soft rock album interspersed with two minutes of exposition between each track. Harmony, counterpoint, structure, form - these have all been thrown out the window for piteous lyrical cliches that even Gary Barlow would have rejected, a script that is unintentionally hilarious, which lurches from one excesseively melodramatic moment to the next and a dramatic climax that is netiher dramatic nor a climax. Thankfully the programme provides a list of where each scene is supposed to take place or it might well have been incomprehensible in places.

When a show boasts it has been 8 years in the making but still, patently needs many more, then it is likely that somewhere there is an obstruction that is blocking the progress of the piece.

“It’s ready to be seen by any lover of great musicals” the writer’s programme notes brag. Oh hubris, have we learned nothing from Icarus' fall? Surely therein lies the problem. There are precious few musical theatre writers anywhere in the world capable of writing both music and lyrics to an equally high standard, and almost none who would claim to be able to write music, lyric and book. Nor have there ever been.

That Robert McWhir, a immensely talented director, struggles to bring lucidity and clarity to this indicates his expertise has been disregarded. A shame. While Nick Fogarty, the writer, can undeniably pen the odd catchy tune, he is no playwright, no lyricist and patently no actor. That there is no casting director listed in the programme demonstrates just how much of a vanity project this truly is. What a pity because there are some stunning performances here. As Mike Chariot, Aidan O'Neill's vocals are exquiste and the material does showcase them beautifully. Alex James Ellison is gorgeously winsome as Chariot's protégé Taylor, and Rosie Glossop, as Taylor's mother, is outstanding. Vocally, with the exception of Fogarty, this cast are, truly, wonderful. They produce a rich sound which, when combined with Maximilien Spielbichler's video design and McWhir's pithy direction (when it is occassionally allowed to shine through) might, if you were forgiving, just might, suggest Hit List crossed with Once. Without a cast of this vocal ability, however, Best of Friends would be a disaster. As it is, it comes, just, into the so bad it’s alright category. Am I being harsh? Shouldn’t I be supporting this show? Actually I am supporting it, massively.

Support comes in all shapes and sizes, but what support is not, what it has never been, is a blind refusal to acknowledge flaws. The best musicals are not written, they are rewritten. One can only hope that Fogarty stands back from his baby and hands it over to professionals who are informed and knowledgeable and will nurture it and shape it properly. Best of Friends does deserve a chance, but a refusal to do this, in the mistaken belief that this is now, or could ever hope to be, a “great musical” is insulting to anyone who cares about new musical writing. It is not supportive to lie. Friends tell each other the truth and Best of Friends is as far from being a great musical as I am from being the next Kenneth Tynan.

We used to teach musical theatre. We used to encourage and train new writers. The Vivian Ellis Award for new musical theatre writing was an important date in the MT calendar, and the Bridewell Theatre in London, was for many years at the vanguard of new musical writing. Where is that champion now? Mercury Musical Developments nurture and develop new talent, but there are no dedicated performance spaces or dedicated producing companies such as there are for new plays.

The Landor Theatre has, for the last few years, put new musical writing at the forefront of its programming. Thanks to McWhir and his collaborators who include producer Katy Lipson and writers Alexander Bermange and Finn Anderson, London has, for the last two years, seen at the Landor an impressive season of new musical writing, From Page to Stage. This featured new work and work-in-development from both here and the States. That season is likely to be no more, at least at the Landor. “It doesn't bring in the audience,” McWhir told me after the press night performance of Best of Friends. Without funding, without investment, and without an audience, who now will step up and fly the flag for new musical theatre writing? Someone has to.

@JoshRochford

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