Review: THE STATIONMASTER: A Musical Drama, The Complete Work
The Stationmaster is a new musical audio drama, released online and free to listen, which tells the story of what happens when a stationmaster accidentally allows a train collision after failing to change the signal. It explores how far people are willing to go to save themselves from facing consequences for their actions, but also whether we can ever really escape the consequences of our errors.
Tim Connor’s music and lyrics are a delight to listen to, with stunning orchestrations from Jason Carr. The music really sets the scene perfectly, despite having no visuals to accompany the songs. There’s a mix of more upbeat company numbers and slower emotional ballads keeping the four episodes moving at a great pace. Susanna Pearse’s book builds brilliantly complex characters, many of whom face difficult choices. Their relationships are believable and you can understand exactly who they are despite only hearing their words.
As our central stationmaster, Thomas Price is Nigel Richards. Richards delivers a sublime vocal performance throughout the episodes, and brings the pain and struggle of the character to life immaculately. Alex Young voices the role of Anna, who has a very important role in the plot which we won’t spoil here. As we’d expect by now, Young delivers phenomenal vocals despite maintaining a Northern accent throughout. Her characterisation and acting through song are outstanding and she builds a good chemistry with Richards. Hopefully the pair will have the opportunity to appear on stage opposite each other someday.
Another outstanding performance comes from Jessica Sherman as Thomas’ unhappy, and possibly slightly mentally struggling, wife Catherine. You really empathise for her, thanks to her fantastic vocal acting performance. As you learn more about her, you come to like her more and more, and dislike the way the town (and Thomas) treats her. It is a shame that her backstory and ‘secrets’ that she mentions holding aren’t explored as fully as they could be. West End veteran Nicola Sloane is brilliant fun as Mrs Deakin, even if her performance does seem a little more over the top than others.
Each episode of this audio drama is a joy to listen, with the plot fully gripping us and making us need to listen to the next episode to find out how things would unfold. Sitting somewhere between Sweeney Todd, Titanic the Musical and The Railway Children, with a little sprinkling of Bonnie and Clyde with a devious duo at the centre, The Stationmaster is sure to have wide appeal. Perhaps one day it may even make it’s way onto stage as a fully fledged musical.
**** Four stars
Reviewed by: Jacob Bush
The Stationmaster is available to listen to free of charge on all major digital platforms now.