Review: LIZZIE: THE MUSICAL, Hope Mill Theatre
From its first creation and shows at The Living Theatre in New York back in 2009, LIZZIE: The Musical makes its way over to Manchester’s Hope Mill Theatre for the first UK-built production of the show 14 years later.
A tale that isn’t well known on this side of the pond, the story behind LIZZIE: The Musical is an infamous true crime that took place in Fall River, Massachusetts in 1892. Over a century later, it still captivates generations of Americans, with the story living on through films, books, plays, documentaries, this very musical, and even a children’s rhyme popular with Americans: “Lizzie Borden took an axe, gave her mother 40 whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41.”
For those who may not be familiar, the story behind this true crime rock musical follows the events in the lead up and aftermath of the murder of Andrew Borden and his second wife, Abby Borden, in 1892. The prime suspect for their demise was Andrew’s youngest daughter, Lizzie Andrew Borden. Before their untimely end, the Borden family were well known, both for their wealth and the not so kind nature of Andrew and Abby, and it is believed that Lizzie and her older sister Emma were abused by their father and stepmother, which provided a motive for Lizzie to have committed the murder, however she pleaded not guilty.
LIZZIE: The Musical features a fierce female foursome to bring the story to life onstage. The titular role of accused murderess Lizzie Borden is portrayed by Lauren Drew, with Shekinah McFarlane by her side as Lizzie’s older sister, Emma. Telling this killer story alongside the Borden sisters is the Borden family maid Bridget Sullivan, played by Mairi Barclay, and Lizzie’s neighbour and friend Alice Russell, played by Maiya Quansah-Breed. All four of these performers have incredible vocal abilities, which isn’t a surprise to hear since 3/4 of this line up have previously starred as queens of SIX in the West End and/or UK tour productions. However, the high power and intensity of this rock score puts the vocalists to the test, and it is safe to say that each of them, both individually and collectively, (if you’ll pardon the pun) kill it!
The vocals of Drew, McFarlane, Barclay, and Quansah-Breed combined with the music composed by Steven Cheslik-deMeyer, Tim Maner and Alan Stevens Hewitt is sensationally rock-tastic. Despite a few moments where the sound balance isn’t quite right and allows the instruments of the band to overpower the sound of the vocalists a little too much, the musical performances by the band members (led by Musical Director Honor Halford-MacLeod) are sublime.
Andrew Exeter’s bold lighting design really built on the rock score to create a heightened electric atmosphere within the theatre. With some slight changes to William Whelton’s directorial choices and fewer blackouts between lighting states, the transitions between musical numbers could’ve been made a little slicker for a smoother flow of the story. Two creative decisions that don’t feel like they have clear reasoning behind them, and therefore seem a little detached from the flow of the rest of the show, are the use of hand mics that are carried in microphone holsters, as performers keep alternating between singing with their headset microphones and the handheld ones, but there doesn’t seem to be any correlation or significance of which moments use each type of microphone, so it feels like an unnecessary element of the production. The second decision which is unclear is that for the finale/curtain call/encore, when all the cast members change from their blended Victorian/alternative costumes to outright modern alternative rock outfits. Whilst this choice feels a little out of place with the rest of the production, it still works as the finale feels more of a rock concert with the guitarist and bassist joining the actors onstage for a rock medley encore of songs from the musical to really get the audience’s blood pumping to end on a high.
Whilst the infamous Lizzie Borden may have pleaded not guilty to being a double axe murderer, LIZZIE: The Musical is certainly guilty of being killer show with a rock-tastic score and a talented team of performers and musicians to die for! So why not pay a visit to The House of Borden and see for yourself how axe-cellent this true crime rock musical really is!
**** Four stars
Reviewed by: Jess Dalloway
Lizzie: The Musical plays at Hope Mill Theatre until 30 September, with further information here:
https://hopemilltheatre.co.uk/event/lizzie/