Returning to Stratford East after a triumphant run last year, The Harder They Come – based on the 1972 musical film starring Jimmy Cliff – is set in Kingston, Jamaica, and follows the story of aspiring musician Ivan (Natey Jones).
Ivan has big plans to become a chart-topping superstar, but pressure and corruption keep getting in the way of his dreams. Music mogul Mr Hilton, a preacher, drug-pusher Jose, and a detective on the take all conspire to keep him silent and compliant.
There’s a love story here – and a naive wish to be a hero like Franco Nero’s Django, a film Ivan watches with his new friends at the picture house. In the movies, whatever bullets are aimed at them, the hero staggers on and out of the final frame.
But director Matthew Xia and book writer Suzan-Lori Parks step back from the story regularly to include 25 songs plus reprises. As the original film is credited for bringing reggae to the masses, it is only right that the music takes precedence.
That’s not to say that “Rebel in Me”, “Many Rivers To Cross”, “Wonderful World, Beautiful People” and the title song don’t enhance and drive the story. They definitely do.
As Ivan grapples with the rich and the poor, the devout and the criminal, the backhanders and the backpats, he sees another path to fame accidentally open for him, with the result that he may become a star, but a great cost.
The dynamic Jones leads a solid cast that includes Rachel John as Daisy, Madeline Charlemagne as Elsa (to 6 Jun only), Danny Bailey as Jose, Ashley Samuels as Preacher, and Thomas Vernal as Mr Hilton. The eight-piece band – musical director Luke Bacchus – are cleverly integrated in Simon Kenny’s two-level set.
Jessica Cabassa’s costumes capture the sense of a town hungry for freedom and adventure, never more than in “Let’s Come In The House” where a church sermon becomes a carnal whirlwind, with robes discarded for shorts and cropped tops.
Although the sound from the speaker at my side of the auditorium occasionally threatened to overpower a vocal or two, The Harder They Come generally comes across well.
The real Ivan – Vincent ‘Ivanhoe’ Martin – became notorious in 1948 for going on the run after a string of robberies and murders. A young man, small in stature, this Ivan became a folk hero in the same way Bonnie and Clyde did.
It’s no surprise that Jimmy Cliff thought of him in Jamaica’s first feature film, making him a kind of reggae Robin Hood figure, inviting us to revere him and his choices. The first stage version in 2006, also overseen by Perry Henzell, the film’s director, was here at Stratford East and surely remains an influence on this new production.
Jimmy Cliff himself died last year, aged 81. He was celebrated as a leading light in bringing reggae to the world, and as a shrewd businessman who got his records through to the white market.
The musical of The Harder They Come runs over 2 and a half hours including interval – the film was 1 hour and 50 minutes. Suzan-Lori Parks has added a couple of her own songs, notably “Hymn”, for Elsa.
This is an accomplished musical take on a beloved cultural milestone. A sense of celebration fills the room. Every bad decision inspires an audible reflection from the audience.
Choreographer and intimacy director Shelley Maxwell, and fight director Claire Llewellyn for RC Annie keep the action fluid, fun and funky.
Four stars.
The Harder They Come continues at Stratford East until 4 Jul – tickets here.
Photo credit: Pamela Raith