Not many musicals have their first scene with the leading lady sitting on the loo, but Theatre Mum – book by Rory Svensson, with music/lyrics by Helen Greenham, and performed by Victoria Hamilton-Barritt, is not your typical musical!
Presented within this year’s MTFest in a workshop format, it takes inspiration from Victoria’s life in theatre and as a mum (she’s Mrs Svensson as well as a West End performer of 20 years standing).
Kit is stuck in a routine: ten years in the ensemble of increasingly awful musicals (amusingly signposted by a musical cue whenever each title is mentioned); a boyfriend she can’t count on at home; and not that much money in the bank.
She dreams of being a star and landing that elusive leading role, but a spanner is about to be thrown in the works.
Theatre Mum is warm and wittty, and deeply personal, despite some pretty over the top characters encountered in voice-over or mimicry. There’s a best friend, Vinny, who is cautiously fluid in his sexuality, and a hard-drinking agent, Judy.
There’s mum, who is always in the frame from the moment Kit recalls her childhood and being guided into the fringes of showbusiness.
The idea of this musical is “to pay homage to women who manage to combine a musical theatre career with becoming mothers”. At the moment it needs a bit more focus on that aim, and I was surprised that it took until the end of the piece for Kit to make the decision to try to do both.
Its chaotic life for the single Kit full of indecision and bodily functions, and segues into the recesses of memory.
The songs range from the traditional 11 o’clock type number to pastiches suggesting the journey an MT performer must take through failures, imperfections, and disasters.
I won’t spoil some of the titles, but they were very funny, and Kit comes across as a likeable scatterbrain with enough focus and talent to make it in the business.
A baby if you are a performer? Fine for a man, but can a woman come back with her body in shape or even do the routines when pregnant?
Well, as Rory tells us in his introduction, Victoria Hamilton-Barritt did just that, dancing in high heels on a revolving stage during pregnancy, and the world didn’t end.
Theatre Mum is clearly a personal project, and may make more of an impact by losing some of the imagined characters and situations, instead using real performer voices (not literally, it already does that in the numerous voiceovers and stories to build up its case.
I liked this a lot, and it clearly has the potential to grow.
Theatre Mum, directed by Victoria Gimby, was part of this year’s MTFest at The Other Palace Studio.