Treason The Musical - Alexandra Palace, London
A stellar cast fails to light the fuse of a show that has potential for a spark.
Treason The Musical is a show that has been spreading like wildfire in the last few years, as it has gone from strength to strength in different iterations. Its current form is the first time it has been staged in a fully realised production, and whilst I believe this show has a successful future ahead of it, I also believe it has a lot to do to get there.
Being a new show, it didn’t feel like it had found itself yet. The show doesn’t know what genre it’s meant to be. One moment I felt like I was watching Hamilton, the next Les Miserables and then I was transported to some kind of experimental slam poetry session. These gear changes in tone and style felt completely disjointed and took me out of the show completely.
I will also say, the plot (pardon the pun) leaves something to be desired, reducing the mystique of Guy Fawkes into a ghostly spoken word artist, and an afterthought in his own musical. My friend who watched the show with me, knows nothing of the story of the gunpowder plot and has left with more questions than answers as to who Guy Fawkes is and what actually happened.
The show also winds in for too long, with too many unnecessary songs filled with exposition and “I want” songs bloating the run time. I think this show would soar with a condensed 90 minute straight through version.
I don’t want to sound too disparaging as I truly believe there is a strong groundwork here to turn this into a fantastic show, spearheaded by really strong directorial choices by Hannah Chiswick and some truly mesmerising choreography from Taylor Walker.
The cast is what kept this musical successfully ticking along, with show stealing moments from Oscar Conlon-Morrey as the comically dark Robert Cecil, and Connor Jones who shows off one of the best vocals I’ve heard on a stage in his portrayal of Robert Catesby.
The ensemble as a whole work incredibly hard and were spearheaded by two strong lead performances from Nicole Raquel Dennis playing Martha and Sam Ferriday playing Thomas.
As I left the show tonight, I did feel a twinge of dissapointment at not being blown away by the show. I was comforted knowing the fuse has only just been lit on what will hopefully lead to a barrel of success later in the life of this show.
This show was reviewed on the 9th November 2023. Treason The Musical runs at Alexandra Palace, London until the 18th November 2023 before visiting the London Palladium between the 21st-22nd November 2023. Tickets and more information can be found here: Treason The Musical
*** stars
Chesney Fawkes-Porter
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Photo credit: Danny Kaan
