REVIEW: Big Shot, London Irish Centre ✭✭✭

Big Shot

London Irish Centre

3 Stars

There is an art in developing a new musical, and here is an example of just how difficult and rewarding the process can be. Lauren Gaffney is the hugely talented creator of this work, writing book, music and lyrics, directing the staging and calling the show from the pit. Still, in her early twenties, earlier this summer Lauren and her producer, Grainne MacNeill, arrived in London for a brief visit with a no-frills workshop presentation of their first project: a trans-Atlantic story of love, crime and adventure that had just won first prize at a competition for new musicals in San Diego. The entire company, actors and musicians, were self-funded and had paid their own pay from Eire both to California and to Camden. That speaks volumes for their commitment and dedication and - above all - to their belief in what they're doing. Each of them could tell as story as exciting and daring as that of Carrie, the central character in the story, who leaves Ireland to start a new life in New York.

The remarkable thing here is that all of this happened because the people involved in it made it happen. This really was a bunch of kids putting on a show, and inviting in some of those big shots from the West End and assorted Off-West End and fringe theatres, to check out their wares and maybe set up that big deal to make them all stars. Yes, the project really does have that kind of raw, innocent, perhaps naive energy. And it also has talent: lots and lots of it. The company of Donal Brennan, Jade Young, Sean McMahon, Niamh Chambers, Gavin MacDermott, Cormac O'Broin, Lynn Redmond and Orla Sheridan play with abundant energy, fine voices and smart choreography (devised by two of the company). And the band of six play beautifully under the direction of Jake Curran.

There really is no infrastructure in Ireland for making work of this kind, which makes the achievement all the more striking. Everyone has another job, or two, and time has to be snatched to rush away from other responsibilities to do this job. Yet, there they all are, sticking together, helping each other along, and making something really rather lovely happen.

The keynote here are the songs by Gaffney. A clever writer of popular tunes with strong hooks, she is set on learning the craft of writing for the stage, and has set about it in the best way, by writing and putting on an original musical. The songs themselves, appealingly performed by the youthful cast, seem to tell a straightforward triangular tale of a girl having to choose between two male suitors - one who attracts her head, and one who feeds her appetite for excitement. The plot goes further than that, and introduces a variety of other characters, all of whom invest the story with different colours and moods, from the malevolent darkness of the ruthless hitman, to the comic tomfoolery of the wayward brother. The patron of the cafe in which our heroine toils is another amusing and yet also complex character, while the forces of law and order circle the love-struck young people with the implacability of foraging sharks.

If the tone of the show is still rather unsettled, pulled this way and that by incident, rather than holding steady, and if the structure of the book is still somewhat uncertain, then it is perhaps because Gaffney has not found the right director to take matters in hand with a production that will really give greater sense of shape and definition to this picaresque romp. Or, should I say, 'had' not found? The latest news just in is that, after the brief stint in Camden Square, some interest is developing here with a London producer. If so, I think we may see a beneficial sharing of UK expertise with this terrific new talent from the Republic. And if one partnership like this arises, then perhaps there will be more. If the results are going to be as good as this, then that would be worth looking forward to. Big time.