The programme introduces us to the real-life seventeen year old singer Kjersti Long who we are told wrote the music to this musical-cum-concert, so we knew this was going to be a vehicle for her. She has 246K followers on Instagram apparently, though I don’t believe she is known much in the UK.
My first thought as I saw the opening set full of people was who is paying for all this? The ensemble certainly looked impressive with eight dancers, five backing singers, a cast of four (three of them singers) and a set of musicians (three guitarist, three violinists, drums and a piano). It turns out it is a family affair, with this rock ‘prodigy’ from Utah being supported by her dad as lead producer (‘a fierce supporter of his kids’ dreams’).
Set against a backdrop of an orange house, this is an angsty teen musical, which doesn’t seem to go anywhere, but plods back and forth between a depressed mother and her morose daughter. Neither of them want to go out, mother stops work, daughter skips school, both feel their artistic creativity has been stifled. The dialogue between them is uninspired and repetitive. By half an hour in, I didn’t really care what happened to either of them.
At one stage, I thought the plot might take off with the daughter’s obsession with a singer Sydney Hill (Kjersti Long) who commits suicide (off-stage, in a hotel room somewhere) early in the first act. Being dead, however, does not impede the presence of Sydney on stage, with not so much as a black armband to indicate her condition. It does give the opportunity for Long to sing lots of her songs, but not all the songs here seem to be directly related to the action.
In the second act, the scene shifts to the mother’s girlhood 25 years previously and the musical largely becomes a play, and not one with sparkling lines. Nothing much changes and we are still in the house of a depressed mother and daughter. We are left wondering what this flashback was all about, except perhaps to indicate an inherited condition of depression down three generations.
Strong backing singers, a brilliant musical ensemble and two good leads in Mica Paris and Dujonna Gift should have ensured the success of this production, but sadly, the book and the songs let it down.
Performances: 31 Oct-1 Nov 2024, 7.30pm
Cast: Mica Paris, David Bedella, Dujonna Gift, Kjersti long
Playwright: Melissa Leilani Larson
Music & Lyrics: Kjersti Long and Jeremy Long
Additional Lyrics: Chantry Johnson, Michelle Zarlenga, Wendy Parr, Paul Moak, Hunter Wolfe
Co-Choreographers: Jess Williams, Jonnie Riordan
Co-Directors: Joshua Long, Jennifer Tang