REVIEW | Chase The Musical (Table Read)
*Please note - This is a table read of a new musical and a new introduction to the production, so we aren’t star-rating it. We’re there to support new musicals as they develop!
Written by Russell
NOT to be confused with the TV quiz The Chase under any circumstances. No no no.
This is an old-fashioned style musical with lots of contemporary music, songs, references and themes.
Aimed directly at a young teenage and pre-teen audience, Chase is a little bit of Beauty and the Beast, a smidgen of Frankenstein with sniffs of ET and one brief moment of Scooby-Doo.
Those pesky kids!!
Those pesky kids- THE CAST - are actually an elite collection of singers and dancers and actors. Who at this table read gave 100% performances like their lives depended on it.
Without giving away too much of the Disney-inspired plot.
Chase opens in a secret science laboratory, and we see a mad or genius (?) professor (elegantly played by Lloyd Notice) who creates a super duper AI robot.
A gang of loveable, bored, cliched teenagers stumble across the laboratory on a dull afternoon in their middle-of-nowhere town and once they're in the depths of the rambling building they get separated and Moesha - the main teenage lead - (played by Tanesha Moses who has the most delightful voice and carries herself superbly) stumbles across the super intelligent, super strong, super duper AI Robot. Lots of scrapes and pranks and songs and dancing ensue in this new musical. The songs are pretty standard fare for this type of musical. No real hummers or stand-out songs to take home with you, but maybe they're just growers.
Oh and back to the plot, in the outside world, a deadly virus- ‘The Lyssa effect’- is wiping out humanity.
Let’s hope the gang can jolly well do something about that eh?
And one of the gang shares on social media the discovery of the AI super duper robot and the hopeless, incompetent authorities then go full steam ahead in chasing down Chase, because they believe he might be the cure to save the world.
There are lots of hidden and not so hidden positive messages for the teenage audience to absorb.
It’s a very upbeat, empowering, hopeful and very much focuses on the message of ‘It’s ok to be different’ kind of musical.
It’s all a bit of harmless sing-songy fun really.
Of course, there’s a love story and of course, our gang all work together to help save the world.
My only nit-picking criticism would be that some of the songs go on a little bit too long.
Maybe once they're in their natural environment with all the appropriate lighting and scenery and costumes, some of the numbers won't feel like they go on longer than Oppenheimer.
I have to mention Dax O’Callaghan who plays ‘Chase’ and the show stealer Curtis Patrick as stand out performers, but really the whole cast is of such a high standard that you could single out any one of them as future stars.
I wish you guys well with this very ambitious and what appears to be a spectacular musical for kids and maybe all the family, as long as the family has young kids.
Chase is superbly directed by Blair Anderson, with a first class team of Musical Director Mark Crossland, Production Assistant Hattie Palfrey and Music Producer Arj. C. Master.
