Parenthood
St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden
Reviewed – 3rd May 2019
★★★
“Overall the production has potential and has a strong foundation with great music, lyrics and plot”
Parenthood is a new musical that takes us on a relatable journey, giving us a snapshot style exploration of mainly the negative parts of being a parent through comedic songs. A cast of nine clearly talented actors/singers switch roles and give us an authentic and frankly funny portrayal of their characters. We see parents finding out they’re pregnant and the reactions of doubt to gloating that inevitably follow through songs such as ‘We’ll be fine’ and ‘Strong swimmers’.
Moving swiftly onto ‘Christmas With the Kids’ and ‘Put on a Show’ which is where the performance peaks for me, it shows us the all too real primary school Nativity, with the kid that tries too hard, the shy kid and the one who can’t really remember their lines but likes being on stage. The lyrics really helped in portraying this nostalgic look back at growing up, and this felt to me one of the best parts of the production. You can really feel that the words and book have been through a lot of work, they make the songs funny, relevant and catchy. I did find myself humming ‘What’s the Doodle on the Fridge?’ as I travelled home.
Emily and Pete Moody, the creators of the music and lyrics have done a great job at capturing the nuances of parenthood and packaging them in memorable, toe tapping songs. Although because of the high quality of these it means that it is easy to see where the performance is lacking.
The thing that really spoils the performance for me is the lighting design (Maya Kally), it is important to keep in mind the limitations of the space they were performing in but even with this factor in mind it felt clunky and in some places simply wrong. Throughout the performance we would be met with blackouts only for the cast to finish the scene without light and during songs we would have to battle the lights fading in and out to the point where I wondered if there was a fault in the system.
It seems that the production has tried to be too ambitious with their lighting design in such a restricted space, it would have looked far better to tone down lighting changes and work with the resources you have. This can also be said for the choreography, where it feels messy and overcomplex, the best parts are where the cast perform simple moves to accompany the narrative and music. I think it’s important to remember that sometimes less really is more.
Overall the production has potential and has a strong foundation with great music, lyrics and plot. In general though, the production values didn’t reach the same height, perhaps hindered by the church venue; this is a shame as the audience clearly loved the concept of the production.
Reviewed by Laurie Wilson
Photography courtesy Fluffy Top Productions
Parenthood
St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden
Previously reviewed at this venue:
The Tempest | ★★★★ | June 2018
The Three Musketeers | ★★★ | August 2018
Anna Karenina | ★★★ | November 2018
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