Fly More Than You Fall, Southwark Playhouse Elephant Review
Fly More Than You Fall production image. Photo by Craig Fuller
Reviewed by Philip for Theatre and Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review
Fly More Than You Fall, the new musical, has landed at the Southwark Playhouse Elephant for a limited run. At its heart it is a story of life and death and dealing with grief and trauma but does seem somewhat confused.
The story focuses on Malia, a 15 year old who is an aspiring author. Her parents ship her off to a ‘writing camp’ over the summer but she isn’t there long before tragedy strikes. Her mum, Jennifer, has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. We pivot between Malia’s struggle in dealing with her mother’s illness and her writing a story about Willow and Flynn, two birds with broken wings, who are journeying to the top of a mountain. The stories are both about fear and loss. They should run parallel but never quite match up. Act 1 climaxes in the loss of Malia’s mother with act 2 mostly focuses on how Malia deals with her grief.
Like real life, Malia’s emotions are all over the place, unfortunately though so is tone of this musical. As an audience you never know what to expect next as the tone veers wildly. It is hard to become invested when any vulnerability is quickly moved along by a peppy song or slightly out of place ‘text’ sequence. Eric Holmes’ book was clunky. There were some lovely moments of light and dark but more often than not they were interrupted by conversations taking place over text. I would understand if this device was used once or twice but it was a recurrent theme that pulled you away from the severity of the story. Unfortunately his words never made space for the characters to breathe. For the audience to take in what they were witnessing. The pace of the show was affected too. Not quite ebbing and flowing as it should. Each moment jolted from one to the next.
The scenery was a clever design of pastel paper used to create a mountain and a pair of wings, all representative of Malia and her life at the moment. Stewart J. Charlesworth’s design is a teenage girl’s dream. When paired with the subject matter though, such a bright pastel background doesn’t necessarily work. Though it may reflect the young chaotic mind of an author, it isn’t effective in reflecting the mood of the piece.
There were quite a few highs as well as the lows. Most of music and songs were beautiful and catchy with the title song being a brilliant example. Nat Degree’s music and Holmes’ lyrics were a perfect pairing for the most part. The melodies often soared as they were intended with beautiful harmonies added to give the wow factor. The cast were also brilliant at making the music sound as glorious as it did.
Robyn Rose-Li was exceptional as Malia. She carried the show, rarely leaving the stage. She was extremely likeable and you couldn’t help feel sad for her in the dark moments which is no mean feat given the confusing tone of the show. The rest of the cast was criminally underused and for most part rather one dimensional. Max Gill was impressive, as Malia’s friend and confidant Caleb. Gill gave a warm performance and was allowed to give Caleb actual personality through the writing. West End, Broadway and Greatest Showman legend Keala Settle was phenomenal just as you’d expect but was largely absent. Her signature vocals were sublime in the few moments she got to show off. She was sincere as Jennifer but you didn’t really get to know her as well as you should. She was part of a beautiful quartet with Cavin Cornwall as her hurting husband Paul and Malia’s avian creatures Willow and Flynn played by Maddison Bulleyment and Edward Chitticks respectively. The vocals were to die for. Cornwall’s Paul was great at showing his vulnerable side but like the other characters underwritten. Bullyment and Chitticks both had lovely moments with Malia, between author and creation. More of this would be a useful addition. You got to see the inner turmoil in Malia’s head.
It’s always a privilege to see a new piece of theatre and see what kind of life it goes on to have. Despite some of what I’ve said above - I did really like a version of this show. I’d love to see it redrafted, tweaked, changed and brought back as the bittersweet musical it was meant to be.
Fly More Than You Fall is running at Southwark Playhouse Elephant until 23rd November.
★★.5
