REVIEW | BKLYN The Musical

BKLYN The Musical

★★★★

Its become tradition to sit and enjoy theatre streamed to your home these days, BKLYN The Musical is up there with one of the hottest tickets to get your hands on. Dean Johnson did some magic with a digital revival of First Date last year and is back to take on a new production, Mark Schoenfeld and Barri McPherson’s BKLYN – The Musical. This show is filmed at the Ugly Duck, a fantastic space that helps to evaluate the storytelling aspect of this show.

BKLYN tells the story of five street performers who share a story from their lives, in a story within a story formation. This helps us to see the five street performers as people too. We then experience a story unfold – the story of a young girl who comes to the U.S. to find the father she never knew.

We follow Brooklyn, who loses her mother to suicide at an early age, seeks out her father in a daunting America. It almost aligns with a fairytale, only that the happy ending isn’t what you expect it to be.

Its no doubt that BKLYN is delivered through a splendid mix of site-specific, live theatre, digital theatre and film work. Andrew Exeter‘s work at bringing this plain canvas to life is done in spectacular style. There are so many layers within this story that it is easy to get a little lost within the plot as I did. The design and casting was exactly what made this musical so particularly strong and enjoyable to witness.

The small, stellar cast do an outstanding job at filling the void left by what would be an ensemble cast. With five actors (Sejal Keshwala, Emma Kingston, Newtion Matthews, Jamie Muscato, Marisha Wallace) and three musicians they bring the entire production to life in epic style. Their vocals are equally full of punch and power. It has been carefully curated to take the viewer to some vibrant visuals where some of the characters really come to life.

The musical score itself sits well within the vocal ranges of the powerhouses this cast has within it. Marisha Wallace is an ideal choice for her character Paradice’s big numbers. She makes it look so easy. Although collectively this is a ridiculously strong cast for a musical on this scale. BKLYN definitely opens and explores new ways that theatre can navigate itself towards audiences post-pandemic.

For me the plot was lost for me, perhaps I would have enjoyed it with more knowledge on the musical beforehand. However, a thoroughly enjoyable show to dig my teeth into.