By Louise
Link: https://www.stream.theatre/season/164
Available on demand until 14th July
New musicals tend to focus on young people including Six, & Juliet, Waitress and lots of the musicals we’ve watched during lockdown. The musicals are usually about young people and they usually fall in love.
I’m not sure why exactly. Les Misérables is the longest-running musical in the West End, it’s very popular, but most people seem more interested in Jean Valjean than in Cosette and Marius. The title character in The Phantom of the Opera doesn’t usually seem like a young man, though that might be mainly his personality and the fact he has been through a lot in his life. If we look at plays, the longest-running play is The Mousetrap and the central couple are old enough for the woman to have been employed when one of the other main characters was a child.
Theatre fans don’t necessarily want to watch young people and a lot of them probably aren’t young people. If you like musicals, I don’t think you usually go off them as soon as you reach a certain age. I am a teenage fan and I don’t necessarily want to watch young people either. One of my favourite characters in a musical is Mrs Johnstone in Blood Brothers and even her children are older than me by three quarters of the way through the musical.
So it is really nice to watch You Are Here, a musical about an older woman because I think people of all ages are interesting. Diana is married and she would probably have said she was happy if you asked her, but one day, she’s watching the moon landings. She seems like quite a quiet person who has never done anything really dramatic before, but it’s like the moon landings inspire her. If people can walk on the moon, maybe Diana can do more things than she believed was possible.
The book is by Brian Hill and it is all about Diana meeting new people who she probably would have never met if she’d stayed at home. It is a really emotional story I enjoyed seeing all the connections she makes. There is a lot of nastiness in the world and it is lovely to watch a musical where people are (mostly) kind to each other. You don’t need backstabbing and cheating to make a story dramatic. Life can be dramatic all on its own. I really like the references to The King & I too, especially as Diana has the same favourite characters as me.
Neil Bartram wrote the music and lyrics and they are really lovely. Some critics have said the soundtrack isn’t very catchy and I can’t remember any of the songs now. But I do remember that I really enjoyed listening to it. The music is beautiful and I really like the slightly old-fashioned quality of it. It felt right for the story and the characters.
Matthew Rankcom is the director and he is really good at finding the other ways for the actors in the smaller roles to make a strong impression, even though the story is very focused on Diana. I also love the different ways he used Libby Todd’s beautiful set which was obviously inspired by the moon landings. It’s like when Diana goes out to explore the world, she’s an explorer on the moon too.
Diana is played by Wendi Peters and she is a really good actor. She is really good at showing Diana’s emotions and how vulnerable she is, but there’s also something about her that makes you really admire her for changing her life so much and even though she gets things wrong sometimes, she seems like a really lovely person and it’s believable that so many different people like her.
All the cast are brilliant singers and the only thing that’s slightly sad is that the other actors didn’t get more to sing. There are three other actors and they play different characters. They’re the voices in Diana’s head and they are also the people she meets. Jordan Fraizer is really lovely and kind as Ruby and her voice is especially beautiful. Rebecca McKinnis plays Diana’s snobby (but very funny) friend Joan and Phil Adѐle gives a powerful performance as Daniel.
You Are Here is a really enjoyable musical and I
think it gives you a lot to think about no matter what age you are.
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