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Review: SNAP: A New Musical (King's Head Theatre)

Review by Sam Waite

 

⭐️⭐️

 

Touring as a cast member of Joseph, David O’Brien found himself struck with a wildly different creative inkling – a desire to create a smaller, more intimate chamber piece of musical theatre. Drafting and editing in the brief pauses of a major tour, he has since staged and re-worked his musical SNAP ready for a run at Islington’s King’s Head Theatre. With his varied background as both a performer and a composer, would this production mark his rise as a solo creator to watch?

 

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SNAP: A New Musical finds young, aimless Tom wrapped up in a blanket while his girlfriend Angela heads off to a work event, one she’d love for him to join her at but which unemployed and unenthused Tom would rather skip. Also heading out is photographer Max, leaving behind overworked assistant (and underappreciated lover) Sheila so he can merrily flirt with Angela. The next day, Max arrives at Angela and Tom’s home seeking a last-minute model for a new campaign – Angela is flattered, until Max reveals that strapping young Tom is the one he’s come to ask.

 

Ostensibly set within the world of professional photography, this ultimately serves merely as a set-up for SNAP. Yes, the test shoot is what gets Tom into the studio and kicks off the bed-hopping, partner-shuffling conflict, but the world of Max’s studio is so vaguely drawn, so loosely developed, that any field in which Max held a position of power would have sufficed. This is unfortunately representative of the world-building on a grander scale, as we come away knowing little-to-nothing about these characters, and both dramatic conflicts and their too-easy resolutions provide no real stakes.

 

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Director Jack Storm admirably navigates the broad strokes of the work by playing into the comedy cartoonishly and encouraging the melodrama of the characters’ reactions. The stakes and level of betrayal aren’t always easy to keep up with, but there’s rarely any question of how deeply the characters are impacted, or of how scandalised or amused we ought to be by it. It’s hard to say whether Storm should be commended or chastised for how baffling the test shoot proves to be – the tone is particularly unclear in this sequence, and I couldn’t quite decide whether I was meant to find the whole thing absurd or if the creative team were simply unsure how to approach the scene.

 

In his professional debut, it’s hard to say whether or not Will Usherwood-Bliss has a strong future ahead of him, so underwritten is the role of Tom. Marooned somewhere between a man-child layabout and a down on his luck everyman, Usherwood-Bliss is principally tasked with stripping away his clothes and playing up the greenness of the character. His expressive features serve him well during the comically-awkward shoot, but the lack of distinct personality traits renders his Tom ultimately forgettable.

 

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With Max being no easier to comprehend, Matteo Giambias does a decent job of leaning into cartoonish villainy when called for, and is fairly convincing when nonchalantly demanding that Tom strip off for his photographs without a care in the world for his or Sheila’s comfort. Sheila’s backstory is no easier to follow than anyone else’s, in fact it’s not clear for much of the show if she is formally in a relationship with Max or simply an office hook-up, but Justine Maire Mead does a commendable job of suggesting the character’s emotional turmoil and of performing her musical numbers.

 

Particularly strong is Hayley Maybury as Angela, blessed with all the trappings of a wonderful musical comedienne. None of the music in SNAP is particularly memorable, myself being only able to recall a single line by the end of the evening, but during one solo number I found myself thinking what a delight Haybury would be as Amalia in She Loves Me. (Come to think of it, Mead could make for a terrific Ilona… let me cook, people!) Tragic as it is that both women are reduced chiefly to their feelings around underwhelming men, it’s fascinating to see that the ladies of the cast still came out on top.


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There are absolutely flashes of something greater than the sum of its parts in SNAP, but unfortunately the story somehow feels both rushed and overlong, underdeveloped but needing to reach the point that bit faster. With an overlong transition around the mid-point of the show, it feels like those involved are itching to flesh out this world and give these characters more room to breathe. As long as part of that shift is expanding the inner worlds of the women in particular, and devoted substantially to more intensive research of photography and the minutiae of the surrounding industry, this may be the rare occasion where a show being longer would be my honest preference.

 

Snap: A New Musical plays at the King’s Head Theatre until May 25th  

 

 

Photos by Stuart Yeatman

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