Craig Revel Horwood and Pippa Evans’ new musical ‘Now That’s What I Call A Musical’ has blasted its way into Edinburgh this week, playing the Edinburgh Playhouse until Saturday 1st March.
It’s Birmingham, 1989. Gemma and April, two school friends, are busy planning their lives, with Gemma dreaming of being a Nurse and April longing for a life in Hollywood as an actress. Fast forward to Birmingham 2009, and they’re confronted with their worst nightmare: the school reunion! As friends reunite, drama unfolds, and old flames reappear. This story is set to a mix of the biggest hits of the 1980s, including songs by Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Erasure, Blondie, The Proclaimers, The Buggles and of course, Toyah!
Eastenders royalty Nina Wadia leads this cast as Gemma in 2009. Nina takes on some of the singing but mainly carries the weight of the acting in Gemma’s story, showing Gemma’s more vulnerable side whilst still bringing brilliant comedy, it’s great to see Nina’s naughtier side on show in this production. Tackling more of the singing and choreography featured in Gemma’s story is the superb Nikita Johal bringing us the younger Gemma. Nikita’s killer vocal performance, giddy innocence of youth and great dance skill helps engage the audience firmly in Gemma’s story.
X-Factor winner Sam Bailey returns to the Playhouse stage as April. Sam’s move to theatre is ingenious, her acting ability suits the cheeky and headstrong April, when it comes to her vocals, they are utterly sublime, with a powerhouse rendition of ‘Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves’. Maia Hawkins as younger April brings boundless energy, sharp wit and killer vocals, paired with Sam’s portrayal of April – she is easily the most endearing character featured.
Both set of performers playing Gemma and April (Nina & Sam/Nikita & Maia) have a fabulous onstage relationship and truly bring a great energy to these characters.
Shakil Hussain as Frank and Luke Latchman as younger Frank are brilliant comedic supporting roles, who offer dry wit, as well as brilliant vocals throughout the performance. However, the most farcical and sublimely absurd portrayal needs to be Callum Tempest as Barney, whose oddball characteristics have the audience in hysterics consistently.
Poppy Tierney and Christopher Glover as Gemma’s Mum and Dad show a loving relationship set to the backdrop of ‘Tainted Love’, and a comforting presence throughout.
Chris Grahamson laps up the sheer villainy as Tim, Gemma’s sleazy husband, a character that the audience loves to hate, Kieran Cooper brings the more charming and rational side of this character as Younger Tim – whilst we see the beginnings of a monster there is still more of a likeability to this character.
For a brief five minutes in this production, you feel like you have stepped out of a musical and into a joyous Toyah Willcox concert, where the 80s star appears for a brief cameo to sing her hit ‘I Want To Be Free’, which audiences lap up.
This musical features an energized and versatile ensemble that help to create the various nostalgic moments within this musical. The ensemble are as follows; Phil Sealey (Steve), Lauren Hendricks (Ms Dorian), Matthew Mori (Younger Steve), Emily Barnett-Salter, Molly Cheesley, Stefanos Petri, Marrtha Pothen, Lizzy Ives (Offstage Swing/Dance Captain) and Blake Tuke (Resident Director/Offstage Swing).
Craig Revel Horwood brings colour, light, humour, drama and pizzaz to the stage in his direction of this production. This is a musical that embraces the British 80s culture and brings delightful nostalgia to the stage. Pippa Evans’ book holds a delightful story with relatable characters, however with a running time of two hours and forty minutes (including interval), the narrative has undoubtedly been stretched out to shoehorn as many massive hits in as possible, this shows during several scenes which could easily be cut. Whilst both Revel Horwood and Evans’ depiction of the 80s in this musical is sound, this is a musical based off of the hit ‘Now That’s What I Call Music’ compilation albums that span decades, therefore there is the question of why they didn’t use the decades of hits available to set the story in only the years 1989 and 2009. This seems like a strange choice to use this iconic series of album’s identity for a story which has no links and is only set in one decade, when NOW has been present in generations of audience’s music culture.
Mark Crossland’s Orchestrations and Vocal Arrangements, transform the 80s hits into huge showstopping moments, a personal highlight is the incredible version of ‘St Elmos Fire’ which simply takes the audience’s breath away.
Tom Rogers and Toots Butcher’s Set & Costume design helps create the 80s nostalgia with vibrant colours and classic styling present in both the costume and wigs worn by the characters featured. The static yet versatile set helps transition scenes with ease and seems realistic. This is complimented by Ben Cracknell’s both naturalistic and rich lighting design that brings such energy to musical numbers.
‘Now That’s What I Call A Musical’ is a fun trip back to the 80s surrounding friendship and love, which features a talented cast. Although the music in this production is banger after banger, the story doesn’t give the same level of quality.
Get your tickets here – https://www.atgtickets.com/shows/now-thats-what-i-call-a-musical/edinburgh-playhouse/
Theatre Scotland 
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