What next for Weird after its Newcastle trial run?
Why Macbeth musical is a scream
Hold in your mind, if you will, the image of a boy – aged about 10, I’d guess – going bonkers in a theatre, head nodding rhythmically, arms punching the air, lost in the music and an exciting story.
From my vantage point in the circle last Friday afternoon, while my focus was on the stage, he was an interesting distraction in the corner of my eye. And he wasn’t the only one.
This was the second daytime performance that day of Weird at the Theatre Royal, a musical so freshly minted that it might never be seen exactly this way again.
But just to wind the clock back a little…
Michael Harrison, Wallsend-born producer of big shows including the Theatre Royal pantos and the recent reimagining of Miss Saigon, spoke last March of his idea for a Macbeth musical.
Loads of kids have to study Shakespeare, he’d said, but it could be difficult. There must be a way of making the plays – or at least the stories they tell – more accessible.
With Nick Butcher, who he’d worked with on a successful show called The Little Big Things, he’d started “riffing on the idea” of a version of Macbeth from the perspective of the three witches.
Butcher ran the idea past Kerri and Fraser Watt, Scottish siblings and influential music business figures, and from there things started to come together.
“I’ve got the songs and the script but what I really want is to test it in front of kids who might be studying it,” Michael had explained.
“It’s not just a children’s musical – anybody should be able to come and see it – but that audience is important.
“And I thought if we could do it at the Theatre Royal that would be brilliant because it’s where I saw so much growing up, including musicals and lots by the Royal Shakespeare Company.”
Theatre Royal chief executive Marianne Locatori, speaking before last Friday’s performance, recalled Michael first broaching the idea.
“He played me a few of the demo songs and I said, ‘They’re fantastic. What a brilliant idea!’
“We started discussing whether we could partner on making it happen.
“I’m keen that we open shows here so our audiences see things for the first time and Michael said what he’d really like to do was to trial the show, effectively, putting it on and getting feedback from young people.
“Normally when you create a musical you do a workshop production in a studio theatre and invite lots of theatre people to see it.
“But I think this is a pretty unique pilot in the UK, and all credit to Michael. He’s created a new musical which we’re premiering and giving away 5,000 tickets to schoolchildren.”
Those free tickets were snapped up and could have been allocated twice over.
“It’s interesting, isn’t it?” said Marianne.
“We know schools find it difficult to come to the theatre, or even to do trips full stop, what with considerations of cost and time.
“We removed one of the barriers, price, to see if that would make it easier and if there was any interest. That has proved to be the case.”
As for audiences enjoying the fledgling show, that would appear to have been confirmed by the very first performance, which Marianne attended.
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard so many screams of excitement in the auditorium,” she said with a laugh.
Even the Saturday performances, put on sale to the general public with scant information and no visuals other than a logo, had sold out.
So I took my seat on Friday afternoon not knowing quite what to expect… and those excited screams began the moment the lights dimmed, plunging the theatre into darkness.
What followed was a clever, gripping show which I would say, though without any witch’s gift of premonition, is a dead cert for a West End berth in the not-too-distant future.
I’d been told not to review the show at this early and uncertain stage.
Afterwards, in the foyer, a radiant Michael Harrison – clearly getting from his audience precisely what he’d hoped for – said: “If you liked it, feel free to write what you want.”
I did like it. And so, evidently, did that young boy in the stalls and all his classmates, whooping and screaming but also, it seemed, rapt in a story told with pace and more than a modicum of wit.
It’s a pumped up telling of the tale, playing to the strengths of an accomplished West End cast, and with the witches – played by Hope Dawe (Luna), Gabriela Benedetti (Phoenix) and Kingsley Morton (Angelique) – given context and back story that might be hinted at but certainly isn’t made much of in the play.
In Weird – the title drawn from their description of themselves in the play as “weird sisters” – they are painted as individuals, thick as thieves but not above a squabble, and with vulnerabilities.
In costumes by Gabriella Slade, who also designed the outfits for hit show Six (based on the wives of Henry VIII), they did justice to songs that unerringly hit the emotional spot – and performed by a live band visible at the back of the stage.
On a simple but ingenious set and with clever lighting, we were transported from blasted heath to castle walls and from the heights of ambition to the depths of despair, all at some lick.
Also featuring in a cast of seven were Dean John Wilson, as a muscular Macbeth, Elliott Evans as an energetic Banquo (and no less energetic when appearing as a ghost at the feast), Andrew Patrick-Walker, doubling as doomed King Duncan and horribly wronged Macduff, and Scarlet Billham ‘outing damned spot’ as Lady Macbeth in a dress to match both her name and the blood that flows freely in the play but is only tastefully alluded to here.
Amid all the West End razzmatazz, though, the genius of Shakespeare shone through, with some of the most memorable lines incorporated into song lyrics or dialogue and Macbeth’s spine-tingling “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow…” speech given room to breathe.
No-one, least of all Marianne Locatori, knows exactly what will happen next. The response will be assessed and the next step decided upon.
“We didn’t know how it would land,” said the Theatre Royal boss.
“There could have been deathly silence.
“But Michael is one of the best, if not the best, theatre producers in the UK at the moment. His eye is absolutely on it. He’s brilliant.
“Theatre’s risky, though. You never quite know how things are going to come together.”
But the Theatre Royal has invested in the show along with Michael Harrison (and directed here by Tim Jackson, who also has something of a Midas touch) and if there are rewards down the line, both will be prime beneficiaries.
I’ve given my verdict. I reckon they’ve taken a shrewd punt.
Watch this space.
Fascinating how Harrison bypassed traditional workshop theater by going straight to the actual audience. The choice to give context and backstory to the witches instead of keeping them mysterious transforms them from plot devices into actual characters kids can connect with. I saw a similar approach work wit a Romeo/Juliet adaptation aimed at schools, and the engagement level shot up when students coudl actually relate to the protagonists as people.