Songs For a New World Archives - thespyinthestalls.com

★★★

“The show feels like it’s sailing in unchartered waters, which is a shame as it deserves better.”

Jason Robert Brown’s song cycle Songs For A New World shows the power of music in storytelling. Each of the seemingly unconnected songs, introduce us to a new character telling their micro story about a pivotal moment in each of their lives.

The cast of four open the show with the song, The New World, full of hope and the promise of a new world calling to them. The cycle moves to On The Deck Of A Spanish Sailing Ship 1482, and they sing of adventure, excitement and passion, as they literally sail to the new world. Then quickly the songs start to descend through stories of dashed hopes, lives missed and love lost.

Songs For A New World was Tony Award winning composer Brown’s 1995 musical debut, and his musicality, storytelling and genius for anthemic powerhouse songs are all there for the taking. The prolific contemporary composer and lyricist went on to write the generation defining The Last Five Years and the sublime Parade.

Songs For A New World is not a perfect musical, and the sixteen songs have wide ranging stories, locations and settings as each of the characters go through a life changing experience. It is with the final song, Hear My Song, that this abstract song cycle joins together by telling us to listen to each other’s stories to help you make choices:

“Hear my song – it was made for the times when you don’t know where to go. Listen to the song that I sing. You’ll be fine”.

However, in this production, director Kai Wright, makes the characters all appear slightly self-obsessed. He treats the songs as set pieces and the audience isn’t given the opportunity to feel a sense of journey. The show feels like it’s sailing in unchartered waters, which is a shame as it deserves better.

Eleanore Frances, with the best numbers, stands out as Woman 2. She grabs every moment in her songs, which includes high comedy in Just One Step, as a rich wife who is about to jump off the ledge of her 57th floor apartment to make a point to her cheating husband; to a full out Brecht and Weill torch song parody with Surabaya-Santa, as a Mrs Claus left alone with just the elves; via the stand out Stars and the Moon which is probably the best known song in the show.

The musical postcard drops in on Woman 1, Lizzy Parker, who gives heart to Christmas Lullaby as a young girl alone in the world discovering she is pregnant. Luke Walsh, as Man 1, looks like he is permanently in pain as he goes for the high riffs – which he actually sings well, particularly in Steam Train.

Kudos goes to musical director Liam Holmes at the piano with his glorious fellow musicians (two violins, cello, bass guitar and drums) who were on fire, especially at the end of the show, with no voices over them, they gave it large – a fantastic end to the evening.

Songs For a New World

Online

Reviewed – 23rd July 2020

★★★

“boldly aims to define the new normal, but unfortunately you won’t find anything here that you wouldn’t get from just listening to the album”

Well, here we are in ‘the new normal’. With so many theatres closed indefinitely while social distancing remains untenable, many venues and companies have been finding new ways to adapt. There have been plays performed via Zoom and actors playing to empty auditoriums in the Old Vic as producers scramble to safely recreate the theatrical experience. Musicals, of course, present an even greater challenge with having to sync the vocal performances with the musicians, which events such as Signal Online have made huge steps forward in. But does this production of Songs For A New World fit into, well, the new world?

It certainly frames itself as such. The show opens with newsreel footage of the likes of Rufus Norris and Nicholas Hytner speaking on the state of the industry post-COVID, panning through sombre shots of closed theatres, while the four performers (Rachel John, Ramin Karimloo, Cedric Neal, and Rachel Tucker) sing about being on the precipice of a moment when everything can change. It’s fitting, if a little heavy-handed. Songs For A New World is a little unconventional in its structure in that it’s more of a song cycle than a musical: the sixteen songs written by Jason Robert Brown are all self-contained narratives working within that same theme of the opening number – that of people hitting the point where vital choices have to be made. As such, there’s no over-arching story to tamper with by recontextualising the show through the lens of current affairs.

However, Brown’s USP is that he’s a very narrative lyricist. A lot of the songs feature characters in specific circumstances making those aforementioned vital choices, and so there are detailed stories that need to be told within the songs. The newsreel gimmick is repeated often throughout the show, which can sometimes flatten and obfuscate the nuance of the material. ‘On The Deck Of A Spanish Sailing Ship’ is intercut with footage of Black Lives Matter protests, for example, which the song was clearly not written for as lyrics about not being strong enough seem to undermine the defiance and urgency on display in the footage. Setting this precedent, ‘The River Won’t Flow’ features video of Trump being confrontational at a press conference at its start, which then has no bearing on the song itself. This poorly thought out recontextualisation ultimately rings hollow and meaningless.

If you can ignore that, however, then what remains is four exceptional performers (with an exquisite guest appearance from new graduate Shem Omari James in ‘Steam Train’) with seismically beautiful vocals and hair-raising harmonies in here. All of Brown’s deliciously complex music is given a pulsing energy by Josh Winstone’s musical direction, although Séimí Campbell’s direction doesn’t seem to trust the actors enough at times, giving them too much ‘business’ to do. The number of times the actors pointlessly fondle props or hold drinks during a song is baffling, taking the focus away from the arcs of the songs themselves, although standout performances such as John’s ‘I’m Not Afraid Of Anything’, Tucker’s ‘Surabaya-Santa’, and John and Karimloo’s duet ‘I’d Give It All For You’ manage to transcend those trappings.

For a show about making choices, Lambert Jackson’s production of Songs For A New World seems strangely on the fence: its use of intercutting with real world footage seems like it’s trying to attain a cinematic quality, yet the performers are self-recording in their kitchens and lounges which creates a dissonance with that. Meanwhile, the direction makes broad general strokes of the zeitgeist on material that demands nuance and specificity. This production boldly aims to define the new normal, but unfortunately you won’t find anything here that you wouldn’t get from just listening to the album.

Tag Archives: Songs For a New World

SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD

★★★

Upstairs at the Gatehouse

SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD at Upstairs at the Gatehouse

★★★

“The show feels like it’s sailing in unchartered waters, which is a shame as it deserves better.”

SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD at Upstairs at the Gatehouse

Reviewed on 8th February 2024

by Debbie Rich

Photography by Clarissa Debenham

Previously reviewed at this venue:

YOU’RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN | ★★ | December 2023

THIS GIRL – THE CYNTHIA LENNON STORY | ★★ | July 2023

HOW TO BUILD A BETTER TULIP | ★★ | November 2022

FOREVER PLAID | ★★★★ | June 2021