Reconnect Theatres brings back its grizzly rock-musical for a second time at the Fringe. Based on the infamous murderer Jack the Ripper, we watch police officer Frederick Abberline (played by Stephen Kerr) tackle the seemingly unsolvable trail of gruesome murders.
Right off the bat, I was hit with chills – Kerr’s vocals are astounding – in fact the whole cast’s vocals are astounding – truly a spectacularly talented lot. The rock style was perfectly suited to the two leads. Our ripper is played by Alex Lyne who brings a suave, dogmatic feel to the character – so charming you almost forget he is the villain – or is he?…
Being such a small cast, some of the bigger numbers of the musicals are difficult to tackle – with no ensemble to fill the stage certain numbers felt a little stuck blocking-wise, however the cast were such strong performers it wasn’t a major issue. My real issue was the structuring of the writing. While the love story between Abberline and Mary Jane Kelly (played by Belle Quinlan) did provide a nice arc in the story, I feel it was too heavily written for. Certain scenes in which we saw lengthy discussions between Kelly and Abberline felt unnecessary – it began to blur the line between play and musical. I think in a musical format, snappier scenes are necessary, and while this was sometimes managed, it needs refinement.
There were songs too which could have been cut as I found they distracted us from the story rather than developing our understanding of the plot or characters. Because the scenes were long, the songs became moot as the dialogue had already provided the context which the songs were trying to provide. The twist at the end however was excellent, it really brought the piece together for me – a very clever concept.
A musical is a terribly difficult thing to create, but Pete Sneddon has written and directed something that will go far. I thoroughly enjoyed the show and with less than a week left of the Fringe go see it ASAP!
Reviewer: Jessie Martin
Reviewed: 19th August 2024
North West End UK Rating: