Murder Ballad

There is a whole lot of thesis going on right now with my first case study due in January but I did manage to escape to the theatre this past week.

On Tuesday, I was finally able to catch Murder Ballad at Arts Theatre. I had heard about Murder Ballad a few years ago. It did well Off-Broadway in New York. Indeed, it is a small cast musical with just four characters set in the Big Apple. The show is a musical completely sung through with all the "dialogue" set to music, much like Les Miserables. The music, however, is not a series of typical show tunes. Murder Ballad has a rock music score written by Juliana Nash, who also penned lyrics. Julia Jordan conceived the show and wrote the book as well as lyrics. The story features a Narrator who leads us through the love triangle of Sara, Tom and Michael. Sara was played by British musical star Kerry Ellis. Tom was delivered by Ramin Karimloo, who is likely best well known for playing the Phantom in Andrew Lloyd Webber's sequel to Phantom of the Opera, Love Never Dies. Scottish sensation Norman Bowman took on Michael and Victoria Hamilton-Barritt served very well as the Narrator.

The performances were excellent. The small ensemble of four had fantastic chemistry and each is a brilliant musical actor. The directing by Sam Yates was spot on. I must mention movement director, Michela Meazza and fight director, Owain Gwynn as their contributions provided beautiful and efficient physical flow from the actors, and very exciting, clever fight scenes. The ingenuity of the set, lighting and video design was truly a standout. There were many locations, passages of time and external influences on the scenes. These were handled flawlessly by the combined work of set designer Richard Kent, lighting designer David Plater and video designer Laura Perrett. Their imagination and creativity enhanced the story telling in Murder Ballad and brought the production value to another level.

I am thrilled I was able to see the show as it is due to close this week.
I hope to catch a couple more shows in between my research and my meetings in the coming days.
I'll keep you posted!
Until then...

Take care!
-m