GUY
The Bunker Theatre, 16 June 2018 - Touring until 14 July
Grindr. Tick. Dating. Tick. Body Image. Tick. So far so familiar for a new theatre piece about modern gay dating. It’s understandable I suppose, it being almost impossible to write a story about “The (hook)ups and downs” in the age of the internet without them, and yet I still find myself getting a sense of deja-vu every time I hear that oh so familiar Grindr ‘new message’ bleep. But hold on a minute… it would be a mistake to judge this production quite so hastily, as there’s definitely something about ‘GUY’, a new musical by Leoe Mercer and Stephen Hyde, that differentiates it from the rest.
I assume the writing duo will have known they were on very familiar territory with regular theatre goers, (not to mention the Grindr users in the audience), but they avoid the trappings of producing a show filled with hackneyed clichés, and have instead successfully written a compelling look at dating in the 21st Century, accompanied by well crafted songs performed by a cast of charismatic and versatile actors, which all combine to give GUY a much bigger heart than many other plays that have delved into similar territory.
The impressive electronic synth-pop soundtrack at times reminded me of the 2001 Jonathon Harvey / Pet Shop Boys musical ‘Closer To Heaven’, although ‘GUY’ has a superior book written by Mercer, and the two elements of narrative and music are well paced, blending perfectly throughout the duration of the show. So far, so good. Unfortunately what didn’t blend quite so well on the night I went was the poor quality of the mix between the music and the vocals, resulting in moments where both the lyrics and dialogue were either lost, or of a sufficient struggle to hear as to negatively impact the overall enjoyment of the show. It is of course heartbreaking when an otherwise great production is hampered by a technical problem like this, and somewhat baffling given that the four actors were all wearing microphones, yet when they sung in slightly softer tones or had their backs turned away from the audience, (the performance taking place in a studio theatre space with the audience sitting on three sides of the stage), their voices had a tendency to briefly but annoyingly disappear.
Despite this, all four actors gave very impressive performances. Brendan Matthew as the titular Guy, (and master of the extended ‘titty-drum-roll’) played the character with a likeable charm, effortlessly garnering empathy from the audience during his journey through a love/hate relationship with Grindr, enduring all the prejudice, rejection and ‘not my type’ messages he receives for not having the archetypal gym fit physique. Steve Banks is best friend Tyler, and also impressively inhabits a myriad of smaller characters, nailing both the comic and more dramatic moments in style. Adam Braidley bristles with testosterone as the personal trainer, flipping the character on it’s head for one of the more unexpected costume changes of the evening, and Seann Miley-Moore, best known in the UK as a contestant on season 12 of the X Factor, (in which he appeared alongside previous Jack The Lad featured singer Simon Lynch - see issue 12) delivers an unexpectedly self assured performance as Aziz, visibly revelling in a role that allowed him to occasionally break the fourth wall whilst successfully keeping the integrity of his character intact.
All four clearly have good voices, and had the technology been on their side I am sure they would have delivered faultless musical performances. The dynamic physicality of the choreography by Yukiko Masui was both an imaginative and a worthy addition, once again impressively executed by these four versatile actors. This did however leave a couple of sporadic moments throughout the musical feeling slightly under-realised by comparison, and whilst these were few and far between, they were further amplified by the minimal staging which relied on the interaction on stage to sufficiently create the atmosphere of each scene. When the opportunity did arise for the actors to interact with a few props, i.e. the pouring of a drink or being on a lunch date, I was somewhat surprised by director Sam Ward’s decision to also leave these few simple objects to the audience’s imagination which, for me, just took things one step to far away from the reality it was trying to create.
On the whole though, ‘Guy’ is a very enjoyable and ultimately uplifting musical that suggests a bright future ahead for writing duo Leoe and Hyde. I sincerely hope this production finds a life beyond it’s current run as I am convinced there is a slightly more polished version just around the corner, all the elements in place to make this a stand out musical that successfully catches the zeitgeist of our time. ‘GUY’ will be playing at a number of venues in London, Manchester, Birmingham and Buxton between now and 14 July.
The potential is there for this current outing to be a ★★★★ musical, as long as they can nail the sound issues for the rest of it’s run.
