one4review | On 14, Aug 2014

I was delighted to be able to see the first night of this run, the European Premiere of Zack Zadek’s story of six New Yorkers whos lives intertwine over six years.

Those of us who love JRB’s work will be right at home here, Zack’s music is excellent with beautiful melodies and funky rhythms; it’s still contemporary but covers many genres, the gospel ones going down particularly well.

The direction is first-rate, the simple use of props for, well, everything works very well indeed in the cramped space and adds to the contemporary style of the whole piece. Simple yet effective.

I must congratulate the MD, Patrick and the small, tight band. Great work in such a small space and for playing with so much energy yet keeping it understated. This comes to my only big gripe – the cast were so quiet! It’s too small a space to use mics in and the band were in no way too loud but at times I struggled to follow things. The cast are great and give very professional performances so I was a bit mystified that they didn’t project more. I’m hoping this has been sorted since this was the first performance.

All in all this is a great showcase of modern musical theatre writing. If anything it could be longer and I can easily see it becoming one of *the* Fringe shows for companies to do, it fits in perfectly. One of the best musicals I’ve seen on the Fringe this year.

Reviewed by Alan.

theSpace on North Bridge
2120 to 2200