AD | Tickets gifted in exchange of an honest review. All opinions are my own.
TW: alcoholism, sudden loss/grief and domestic abuse. The performance contains flashing lights, lights directed at audience members, partial nudity, strobe and haze.
A new musical for the comic book geeks…
SuperYou is a new musical penned by Lourds Lane, which has previously been seen in workshop form and concert form here in the UK and now finally SuperYou has become a fully staged show. After being lucky enough to see both previous stages of the show it’s great that SuperYou finally gets to be seen with sets, costumes and see the ideas of the creatives they previously had, come together!
SuperYou follows Katie who is a comic book artist, who looks to learn to love and find herself, as her superheroine creations come to life, and tries to also tackle aspects of her life such as love and grief. SuperYou Written by Lourds Lane and directed and choreographed by JoAnn M. Hunter.
SuperYou has had a journey…from pre pandemic plans across the pond, to workshopping, to a concert and then now to the fully staged production, SuperYou has gone through so much to get to now!
What was once originally a musical with dialogue and music, is now a fully sung-through musical. Lane’s new reimagined version does actually take away some of the original emotional core of the piece, making me feel unable to connect or even feel some of the emotions of what the characters feel. With dialogue the piece can be toned down a little to let the audience process the emotions of the characters, but now with the piece being fully sung I felt you kind of don’t have the time to process it to the full extent. Lane is a great writer, writing what is some great songs which are mix of a whole host of genres, the songs are well written while also again changing lyrics to songs, which some result in feeling an uplift in the auditorium such as songs as ‘Light of The World’, but then also having beautiful ballads such as ‘Fragmented’. Lane writes some of the songs in a conversational way, with lyrics feeling like a casual conversation, which again, if these were expressed through spoken dialogue I think it would have been better to connect with, in my personal opinion. Lane writes two parallel narratives of both Young Katie and present Katie (played by Aaliyah Monk and Vicki Manser) which is great to see. I like that Lane decided to run both the older and younger sides of Katie together, and not decide to stop one, and let the other take place as the centre. This helps to understand Manser’s Katie more as we look back at things to see how they came about when we switch back to Monk’s Katie. I would have liked to have seen more times when both Manser and Monk are on stage together, maybe alone or with brother Matty or Mum and potentially interacting with each other to enhance the themes of discovery or self-love. While with no dialogue, Lane has added additional material to the story, like with adding in things about Katie and Matty’s Mum’s past, and went down the route of how these comic book characters came about by doubling the four characters, which are both really good additions. While all great additions the one thing I hoped for was the running time to be trimmed down, previously running at 2 hours and 20 minutes, the show currently runs at 2 hours and 25 minutes, this longer running time slows the pace down and does unfortunately take longer to be introduced to the superheroines. Lane does write SuperYou with a tremendous amount of heart. It's a quirky story with some good songs that is almost getting there to be something truly special, unfortunately it still needs development.
Director and Choreographer JoAnn M. Hunter brings energy to the direction. The direction is energised with fast paced movement with having cast members running up and down steps leading up to a balcony, and also sliding down a pole, when our four superheroines are on stage. While also Hunter's direction is nice and now shows playful moments showing the sibling love between Young Katie and Matty (played by Owen Lloyd), Hunter brilliantly shows Katie’s imagination in drawing and creating the superheroines and also shows the four really coming to life, whilst having playful and lively direction. Hunter also tries to ground the piece when needed, Hunter tries to show grief of what Katie is going through, but with the piece being sung-through these moments that are not so full on did sometimes have a slight struggle. Something that I’m glad that was kept from previous was the non-speaking role of Mom, Hunter accomplishes some lovely storytelling moments for the character that are beautiful to watch, the movements are combined with lyrical and contemporary styles and work well together. Hunter also creates some dynamic choreography between Katie and MiRoar, the choreography feels somewhat animated while also having a good amount of skill. Hunter's choreography approach is good, it tries to balance the funness and heart of the piece. The choreography is excellent, while the direction has its slight struggles to show the emotion at times.
Originally a cast of twelve, is now a cast of fourteen, leading the cast as Katie is Vicki Manser, Manser is wonderful. Manser gives a powerful vocal delivery during the ballads of 'Fragmented' and 'My Angels'. Manser's characterisation is great and tries to settle into the character as quickly as possible, to make sure the audience knows the difference between present and young Katie. Manser's performance is terrific, and Manser tries to show the missing emotion of the piece material, while also showing a character who tries to carry on what Katie loves to do.
Aaliyah Monk returns to the production, playing Young Katie. Monk has stayed with this show from its original workshop and so it’s lovely to see Monk’s development throughout the stages right up to this point. Monk has great spirit in the performance, showing a lovely connection with Owen Lloyd (who plays Matty), and some very good vocals. Monk's characterisation has definitely developed over the process, you can definitely see that Monk is settled into the role quite nicely. A brilliant performance.
Our four superheroines Rise, Ima-Mazing, Seven and Blast are all performed by, in order of above, Lourds Lane, Kingsley Morton, B Noel Thomas and Courtney Stapleton, delve into the fun of the characters. Each showing great personality when it's time through their individual numbers. All who get a massive round of applause at the end of their songs while they all make sure to shine on their own, the quartet are brilliant together too.
Anna Louizos’ set design is good, with stairs leading up to a top balcony looking down on to the stage and with a pole that cast members can slide down on to stage on, is all set against a brick background. It’s a simplistic set that is suited for this story, with it all being tied in with Caite Hevner’s great video design where comic book drawings of characters popped up and also displayed things such as signs for locations.
While SuperYou has great music from all kinds of genres, the show does unfortunately falter on a few levels that result in a slow paced show, in need of more emotion and leaving me thinking that it needs more development. SuperYou does have its elements of funness to it and will be loveable to its fans it will definitely make. There was definitely bits I liked and enjoyed from this new version of the show but some just wasn’t right, while it wasn’t 100% right for me, you may love it in its entirety. SuperYou is the brand-new quirky cult musical.
★★★
Book tickets to see SuperYou. Playing now at the Curve Leicester until 9th of November.
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