(seen at the preview performance on 2nd June 2025)
When films are “test screened” with the public, producers often try different endings, add or delete scenes, to see what the feedback is like. When an independent studio tested “Thumbelina,” they found adding “Disney” to the opening credits more than doubled the satisfaction rating.
The monkey suspects that had this play been presented under the name “Annie Baker” at the National’s Dorfman Theatre, it would already be a sell-out smash hit. Basically, if you enjoyed “The Flick,” this is for you. If you are interested in any way in the creative process behind a music album, this is also very much for you.
David Adjmi is a Michaelangelo with words. Carving credible characters from solid rock over three hours playing time in a year of their lives. His cast can rely entirely on the text, with Daniel Aukin keeping movement and tempo adjusted as smoothly as a mixing desk channel’s slider.
Finely attuned to each other, we watch as a group of childlike musicians and technicians create something intellectual and timeless. The beauty of Adjmi’s work is the rich texture of interactions allowing it to happen as innocuously as real life - until a sudden realisation of how far we have come is revealed... as week as the true price paid...
West End debut actor Lucy Karczewski fascinates as Diana. Initially unaware victim of partner Peter’s (Jack Riddiford) emotional undermining, a simple, fey soul crushed, but delightfully changing over time.
Riddiford is the perfect self-entitled articulate maestro. Extreme in everything he does, it was interesting that a “show stop” of 20 minutes during his and Karczewski’s most intimate scene only allowed them both to gain extra energy. Later scenes are dynamite – the final revelation a wondrously telling few words.
Drummer Simon (Chris Stack) gets his own terrific scene, crashing his way through the most difficult role in any band with lustrous style.
Other couple Reg and Holly (Zachary Hart and Nia Towle), bassist and pianist respectively shine equally. Hart is indeed the heart in the group. A musician, the musician, all about only the music. A lost moment, a generosity realising what really matters, humane with both comedic and biting edge.
Towle gets all the emotional intelligence friend Diana lacks. The strength to know what is going wrong and the wisdom to find space. Their final scene together could spin off into a sequel of its own in just a few lines – Towle’s eyes alone writing much of that story.
Songs by Will Butler are a finishing touch. Solo or choral, they invoke the era, provoke the soul. Andrew R. Butler and Eli Gelb as mixing desk masters Charlie and Grover make the most of their own sub-plots, Gelb the ambitious with a secret, Butler a ‘delightfully sometimes’ steadying influence.
In the world they inhabit for far longer than expected, the technical desk and recording booth set by David Zinn are the delightful browns and silver of the era, Enver Chakartash’s costumes matching perfectly – Diana’s orange dress and footwear eliciting squeals of delight from several envious ladies.
Jiyoun Chang manages to incorporate realistic studio lighting in the set’s ceiling, with the real production lights set out in the auditorium. You know that something important is happening whenever the booth’s illumination changes, adding to the drama.
Most of all, Ryan Rumery makes an exceptionally complicated sound design seem simple. Switching between ambient conversations, recording sessions and the mixer board’s output happened effortlessly. Flawlessly clear and always impressive.
If you can afford seats in the front rows, the effect is simply of “being there.” Even further back, this disparate group of artistes will exert a grip as strong as any cult band might.
The journey is as emotionally revealing for those concentrating as it is for the characters. There is a reason this play is the most nominated in Broadway Tony award history. Take this track, it really cuts through.
