Supersonic Man
Rating: ★★
Venue: Southwark Playhouse Borough
Cast: Dylan Aiello, James Lowrie, Jude St James, Dominic Sullivan and Mali Wen Davies

Fun-loving influencer Adam and the love of his life, Darryl, are young and carefree. But life is about to throw them a curveball. This joyous and moving new musical set amidst the LGBTQI+ community of Brighton, makes it UK premiere, asking how we find new ways to survive and love when faced with cataclysm.

Described by the venue as ‘a joyous and moving new musical… asking how we find new ways to survive and love when faced with cataclysm.’ Not only was this underwhelming in reality, but it also hugely oversells what had the potential to be something brilliant. The two stars for this review are very specifically allocated. One is for the skeleton story which can only be accredited to the real life ‘Supersonic Man’ Peter Scott-Morgan. After reading about his experiences as a history, rather than work of fiction, it was disappointing to see that Lambco Productions have missed arguably the most interesting and important information!

I’ll let you do the research for yourself, but not only is this a questionable decision, but it’s actively a shame as the show really could use all the help it can get! Some of the more exciting details would definitely have made for exciting additions, and I’d love to know the reason behind their exclusion. 

The second accolade is for Mali Wen Davies’ outstanding performance in what is otherwise a lacklustre production. Her interpretation of the ‘Boffins’ was hilarious, and brought some real colour to the characters - should Davies not have been involved I feel the show would have seriously suffered.

All of the supposed comedic sequences were very similar to the approach of that such as Avalon, and you can’t help but wonder if the source material really may be better in other hands. Especially as their most notable success, ‘Operation Mincemeat’ is also:

• about a true story
• rather harrowing with some funny bits
• a cast of 5
• a musical that started out small in the very same venue before going on to win Olivier Awards  and secure a Broadway transfer…

Steven Edis’ arrangements were forgettable, with a score that could have been stolen straight from Sondheim - no original tunes or melodies in any of the (excessive) numbers. On the same topic, the actors seemed to be just that - actors at most -with Philip Joel's choreography too simple to be considered ‘dance’. One would at least hope that a musical would have a higher standard of both music and vocals. 

The scenery by David Shields was fun and fit the space well, however it did seem incoherent when combined with Richard Lambert’s lighting design. The operator seemed to freestyle on the desk throughout the show, with no clear rhyme or reason to any of the states - certainly detracting far more than adding any artistic value to the piece. 

Chris Burgess’ book was an enjoyable aspect, and I'd have loved to appreciate it more should the departments bringing it to life (including his own direction) be sleeker, smoother, and more professional.

Unfortunately, the few strong positives just aren’t enough to warrant a more positive review of any kind, as much as I really wish it was. We need more theatre sharing stories about chronically ill and disabled people, and this really did have the potential to be the next (little) big thing, however it needs to be entirely reworked before its next run.