There are questions to be asked about Dogfight. Any attempt at a review really ought to address those questions rather than simply parroting the plot and blurting out an opinion.
Is it any good? Well, first let me declare an interest – I am fortunate enough to represent two clients appearing in the show, Cellen Chugg Jones and Samuel J Weir. It would be remiss of me not to mention this, and while I thought both were outstanding performances, it doesn’t really have any bearing on what I thought of the show. Suffice to say both men did me proud, turning in dazzlingly focused and nuanced performances. As Boland, right-hand man to Jamie Muscato’s thrilling Eddie, Chugg Jones gives a performance of raw masculinity and power. I probably would say that though, wouldn’t I? Weir, like all the marines, balances virility with vertiginous vocals. No On The Town-esque mincing for these boys, this is all pulsating, sweaty masculinity.
There is no denying that Danielle Tarento has an eye for a hit. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, what Tarento doesn’t know about musical theatre probably isn’t worth knowing. I admire her vision and her taste. Bringing Dogfight to Southwark Playhouse is not the move of a producer interested in making a quick buck. Tarento is, and always has been, an actors’ producer. She has an actor’s eye for work, choosing projects and creative teams that inspire performers, the type of exciting work that has people queuing up to go on a creative journey with her. Tarento deserves her above-the-title billing in a way that very few other fringe producers or directors do. Her name is a stamp of quality, a benchmark of excellence.
But come on – is Dogfight any good? Of course it is. The cast (hand-picked by Tarento wearing her other hat as Casting Director) are superlative. There will be the usual predictable cries of “so good it should transfer” and “as good as anything you’ll see on the West End” from uninformed quarters. The fact that the only distinction between the West End and the Fringe these days is the budget seems to have escaped quite a few people. Take a read through the biogs in the programme and you’ll see what I mean – performers and creatives move seamlessly between West End gigs and the Fringe these days. Put a West End creative team and West End actors into a Fringe venue and what have you got? A West End quality show. It’s that simple. So of course Dogfight is good. Rebecca Trehearn as Marcy gives a scene stealing performance and killer vocal but, like all roles other than Eddie and Rose, hers is an undeveloped part. This really is the Eddie and Rose show, and they are breathtaking. Jamie Muscato is perfectly cast as Eddie Birdlace, effortlessly transitioning from boy to man before our eyes, and Laura Jane Matthewson will steal and break every heart in a ten mile radius in her radiant, star-making role as Rose. Aside from some questionable sound mixing which renders some of the ensemble numbers unintelligible, this is superbly sung, and George Dyer as MD helms an impressively tight band. Matt Ryan’s direction is lucid throughout, Howard Hudson’s lighting as as ravishing as always while Lee Newby’s design is functional rather than overpowering. Only Lucie Pankhurst’s choreography jarred. It is excellent and executed with brio, but at times felt overly fussy and distracting. Less, particularly in this piece, is usually more.
I don’t know why every time I go to Southwark Playhouse I nearly get into an argument but overhearing someone at the interval say “it’s an odd premise for a musical” struck me as interesting (and uninformed). There is no such thing as an odd premise for a musical. This brings me back on to my battered old soapbox – there is no dictum which states that a musical must be one thing or another – so why do we insist on treating musicals as somehow distinct from plays? We will accept, encourage even, experimentation with form and content in a play, so why can we not accept it in a musical? Dogfight is a story rich with human experience which speaks directly to the emotions. I doubt anyone can listen to Rose’s heartbreaking Act One show stopper Pretty Funny or Muscato’s muscular yet sensitive Come Back and not relate to the longing, the suffering expressed within. We have all been Rose once, and we have all been Eddie. Is there a better premise for a musical than a story with universal appeal? Sorry for not being able to shoehorn a tap number into the show, but perhaps it’s your narrow idea of what a musical is that needs adjusting – and fast. Musically and lyrically Dogfight is superior to most new British musicals of the last five years. Why?
Musical theatre in the UK needs Dogfight. It needs writers like Pasek & Paul, and Kerrigan & Lowdermilk, Michael John La Chiusa, Scott Alan, Jeff Bluemnkrantz, Adam Guettel, Heisler & Goldrich and their ilk. It needs to push at the boundaries of form and content. The mega-musical may be back in vogue in the West End, but let’s not forget that this is just one genre of musical – there are so many more. Will Dogfight find an audience? That may prove harder to answer. Yes, musical theatre people will attend in force; Dogfight must be one of the most anticipated openings of the year – but will it find an audience outside of the musical theatre world? That is difficult to say. We have become drugged on a diet of ‘names’ and while Dogfight is richer for not having gone down that route, the lack of name-checkable recognition may work against it. What could be more crippling to Dogfight, and to musical theatre, is the sheer arrogance of people who imagine they know what a musical is, or should be and judge every new piece on that outdated and irrelevant definition. Hummable tunes, saccharine plots, bland rhyming couplets – that’s not a musical, it’s a cornflake commercial.
Danielle Tarento knows what a musical is. She understands the art form and is not afraid to take a risk on something new, something filled with imagination and chutzpah. Now is the time for the rest of us to catch up with her vision. Dogfight is a good place to start.
Find out more about Daniel Tarento by visiting her website.
Author: JBR
