★★★

Reviewer - Annie

*Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in return for an honest review.

Contains some strong language, depiction of force feeding and references to violence in particular violence against women and police brutality.

Returning to The Old Vic this season, with high anticipation is Kate Prince’s musical “Sylvia” - bringing a dynamic, modern insight into the Suffragette movement of the early 20th century. The show first played back in 2018 as a work in progress, and after a few years of work, it has returned to the stage.

“Sylvia” is a modern hip-hop musical, and it is totally expressive, energetic and powerful. It offers a new way to perform through dance and movement, and has opened the musical world up to a whole new demographic. It is certainly here to break the mould, but has it managed to be groundbreaking?

Although I did not see the 2018 workshop of the show, I have read reviews to have a feel of what were the key driving points to which the show needed to develop further. Most of this is pointed towards the lyrics and flow of the show. I must say I felt the show had a good flow for the majority and it certainly felt well thought about. However, as I had not seen the original, I believe it is not fair for me to try to draw comparisons when I have no grounds to base my opinion on. I will review the show as a standalone production with this in mind.

Credit must be given to Kate Prince for the choreography of the show. Having attended the day it received an Olivier Award nomination for ‘Best Choreography’, I went in with high hopes and was not disappointed. It emulates Hip-Hop exceptionally whilst feeling contemporary/lyrical, which allows it to feel more in line with Musical Theatre than dance music. The choreography is beautifully expressive and is the driving force for the show.

Prince has carefully curated routines which bring power and emotion to the numbers, whether that be through dynamic steps or heart-wrenching physicalities.

It is exceptionally crafted, a particular favourite moment is a scene where the women refuse to back down to the police brutality. You can fully feel their pain, fear and power, it was incredible to watch.

The cast is the true embodiment of triple threats. To have a cast not only that talented as dancers across the board but also as singers - one word; wow. The voices are exceptional, strong and soulful. The score was by no means simple and yet each cast member made it feel easy. We had the pleasure of seeing Hannah Khemoh in the role of Emmeline Pankhurst and my goodness does she has pipes!! Her voice mixed with Sharon Rose’s (Sylvia) created such a powerful lead to an already insane cast.

Rose’s portrayal of Sylvia is brilliant. It has been well studied, intelligent and meaningful, Rose manages to bring real life to the role and leads the company with such pride. Jay Perry brings great humour to his role of Winston Churchill and certainly nods to his previous stint in Hamilton. However, the standout performances for me came from Kirstie Skivington (Adela Pankhurst) and Ellena Vinent (Christabel Pankhurst). They were highly energetic and bold in their portrayals. Both bring such vibrancy to the roles, not only in their vocals but also in their movement.

The staging was simple but highly effective. The use of the projections onto the back wall added a new layer of intensity to the show, whilst also adding nods to Hip-Hop music videos. I personally loved the fact the band were seen throughout most of the show, behind a curtain which could be blacked out to hide them, creating further dynamics to the staging, as I feel they are not often celebrated enough. However, some moments felt like the curtain could have been blacked out, meaning that certain scenes lost their impact. For example, Sylvia has a solo ballad, which I felt lost its impact from not having had her on stage totally alone - it distracted from the scene’s intent.

Although there is much to applaud with “Sylvia” I personally feel the show is still a work in progress. The main issues come from the book. Although the concept is excellent, the book feels confusing and I felt I didn’t connect to the show in the way I hoped.

Many scenes felt like they were there because a song had been written, but did not really fit the narrative. Again the storyline itself felt fleshed out in very odd parts, and as such it lost a lot of character development, making it hard to relate to the roles.

The writing at times felt unfinished or underworked. By no means do I believe there not to be complexity in the writing, however, it often felt like it had been padded out with easy laughs to get an audience reaction when it actually did little to impact the show.

I hate the idea of comparing any contemporary music based show to Hamilton, as I don’t believe any music of this genre within the musical realm has to be mutually exclusive, however it did at times feel very on the nose in references. This is seen in both the lyrics and specific characters.

Overall I feel “Sylvia” has great potential within it, however, there is still work to be done surrounding the show. I truly hope the work continues to be developed and pushed further as I would love to revisit. I feel shows like these are important to celebrate as they encourage a new wave of Musical Theatre fans and pave a future for contemporary shows.

Sylvia is performing at The Old Vic until 08 April. Ticket information can be found here.