Musical Theatre Musings Review: bare
Bare is Centre Stage’s final production of the year, ending the year with a show that aims to shock and move. For those that don’t know Bare the musical is set at a Catholic Boarding School where Peter and Jason share a room. Jason is the popular kid and has the girls throwing themselves at him yet what none of his classmates know is that Peter and Jason are together. The front however begins to unravel when their classmate Ivy makes a move on Jason, leading to devastating consequences all set to a blistering pop rock score.
The show is rarely seen in the UK, especially in a full scale version like this so Centre Stage were brave with this choice but the overarching theme is one that is incredibly important to shine a light on and they must be commended for helping to bring more Queer stories to the stage.
Bare however is slightly let down by the book by Jon Hartmere which is littered with pacing issues and some songs by Domon Intrabartolo and Jon Hartmere that fail to drive the narrative or add much to the character development. Whilst this is by no means the fault of the individual production there were moments where the pace dragged within the show or unnecessary set changes were added which didn’t assist the already problematic pacing.
The cast were strong across the board and the relationship between Jason played by Josh Yeardley and Peter played by Jack Kenny was believable and touching to watch. The highlights of the show were the tender moments between them and their voices blended beautifully together. Elysia Boyle played popular girl Ivy and her journey was depicted beautifully on stage, from happy go lucky through to clearly troubled and her acting through song in All Grown Up made this a heart breaking number to watch. Jason’s sister, Nadia, was played by Katie Thacker and whilst she could become a character of pity throughout the show Thacker’s gumption made it a much more interesting watch, ensuring that the audience were on her side throughout.
The entirety of the cast were believable in the fact that they had been class mates for years. The relationships between them all were well developed and the characters developed by the ensemble really helped to cement this.
A huge part of the shows appeal is it’s rock based score but unfortunately the production was let down by sound issues. Whilst in amateur shows I try to give a bit more grace on the technical side of a show than I would on a professional show knowing the time constraints in a theatre but with a show like Bare the sound does need to be spot on to get across the energy of the piece. Unfortunately this production was let down by the balance and I really struggled to hear the cast over the band. Diction could also have been improved in the numbers by some of the cast and overall I struggled to make out the lyrics the cast were singing at times for a combination of these reasons.
Costumes by Ranga Jayaratne and Ayushi Srivastava deserve a mention as whilst for the majority of the show the students were in school uniform how they were styled and accessorised really helped bring character out of a costume that had the danger to look very uniform.
Centre Stage’s production of Bare is a welcome show to put on in the amateur community and provides a lens for queer stories to be told, complimented by a talented and united cast its a great way to discover this musical.
Bare is running at the Bridewell until 16th November. You can find out more about the show and their future shows on their website here.
If you like this review you might also like my review of Centre Stages production of The Wedding Singer, The Little Mermaid, and Holiday Inn.