REVIEW: Ghost the Musical at Mayflower Theatre

Well this isn’t quite the pottery class I was expecting! This week, Mayflower Theatre is opening its doors (to those living and dead), to ‘Ghost the Musical’. This is still a fairly new musical that made both it’s West-End and Broadway debut back in 2011/12 respectively. Of course this is based on the iconic 1990, Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore film of the same name, and the musical holds an original song that I can bet is on nearly all musical theatre playlists. Movie to stage adaptations are always very hit and miss and I think there’s a fine line between nailing it, and not basically. I’m not actually sure where this one sits as I can see arguments for both sides. However, was the story easily followable? Yes! Did it make me laugh? Also yes. But was there moments that I thought, ‘I’m not sure this is really working’? Unfortunately also yes.

I think the story is something that has the potential to do really well on stage, but there is also so much difficulty around ‘becoming a ghost’ that makes this logistically very difficult. Adapted by the films original writer, Bruce Joel Rubin, the story of the musical is exactly the same as that of the film. With help from Dave Stewart (Eurythmics) and Glen Ballard (pop producer royalty), this musical does feature a completely original songbook (well apart from one particular ‘melody’). As a brief rundown, the story follows lovers Sam and Molly who get attacked when returning to their apartment. When Sam dies his spirit is caught between the real world and afterlife, and with Molly in danger, Sam relies on the help of medium Oda Mae to get in contact with her.

The cast for this show wasn’t super big but it did have some really strong performances in there. One of these performances reprising her role as ‘Molly Jenson’ was Rebekah Lowings. I mean WHAT A VOICE! Her performance in singing was fantastic and I need to applaud her perfect mix of acting whilst singing. She put the perfect balance of character in her songs without taking away from those incredible vocals. ‘With You’ literally gave me chills. Goosebumps! Playing her partner ‘Sam Wheat’ was Josh St. Clair who shared a wonderful on stage bond with Rebekah. You can’t deny Josh’s voice was also fantastic, but when singing together it was close to perfection. In particular their rendition of ‘Unchained Melody’ at the end of the show was incredibly moving. I will note that I think if that song remained soft, it would’ve had a much greater effect on the audience rather than ascending to a belt in classic musical theatre style. The story is quite heavy involving death and some of the other themes it touches upon (I won’t ruin it for you this time) so it did need some injection of comedy and character. Jacqui Dubois who played ‘Oda Mae Brown’ was a great addition for this. Her performance with that character made you forget that she was actually a character and not a real person. I think that her on stage bond with Josh was almost better than Josh’s bond with Rebekah.

It did seem that there were some difficulties with the sound mix tonight which was unfortunate. The microphones were all over the place and the levels in music and soundtrack were also a bit off. I’m not sure if this was just for our performance tonight, but I have heard that this has been a slight general problem throughout the tour. Im not sure if it was this or not, but it made certain parts of the show seem a bit flat or lifeless (excuse the pun). It felt like there needed to be a big injection of energy even during the group ensemble pieces, but they just didn’t feel as big as I expect they should do. However, the cast did try their best to counteract this and the energy was certainly there from Garry Lee, ‘Subway Ghost’, and Keiahna Jackson-Jones, ‘Lousie’, who was actually making her professional debut in this show. Bravo!

As for the set, it was actually almost exactly what you’d expect from a West-End musical. It was large, dynamic, and again relied on physical set rather than projections or LED screens. We were mainly either in the apartment, the office, or at Oda Mae’s. The practical visual effects that were used were definitely a highlight of the show for me. I love when I can use the phrase ‘theatre magic’ in my reviews because that is exactly what it feels like. Small spoilers ahead. I loved when ‘Sam’ walks through the door, that’s very effective and there’s a moment where I’m still unsure of what they did. There’s a moment when a gun gets turned back on somebody but nobody is holding the gun and it didn’t seem to be on any wires. Genuinely looked like a ghost could’ve turned it around. I also thought the way they portrayed their deaths were very effective. The extra body appearing out of nowhere as the main character instantly becomes a ghost. Really nice use of forcing the audiences perspective on certain areas of the stage. I also liked the whole ‘subway’ scene. From the transparent train, to the bass warp music mix, to the effect of the ghosts making things and people float in slow motion without any strings attached again.

I also have to mention that the use of a real pottery wheel and Rebekah actively doing pottery on stage for ‘that scene’ was perfect. This is just a little moment in the show, but it’s such an iconic moment that they needed to portray in the right way which I think they did. As for lighting, again it was fairly bog standard for a musical, there was no need for big flashy lights as there wasn’t really any big flashy numbers. I did like how they would try and light the ‘ghosts’ in a white light to symbolise they were ghosts but I think that effect got lost slightly. This is one of the difficulties about trying to become ghosts on stage. Much alike the hammed up overacting of being punched by an entity, or feeling pain from the ghost. It made scenes that were trying to put across a meaningful message or make the audience feel something then just feel a bit cheesy or corny. This is something that is a difficult hurdle to cross with a touring budget but also not impossible.

When it comes to the music, I have already mentioned how the audio mix was off but I’m going to focus on the actual music itself. You may know by now that I LOVE a live band in a show and I’m so glad that this had a live band. Headed by Jordan Alexander, this band injected some seriously needed energy and I feel as if they had used a soundtrack here, there would’ve been almost no energy at all. Hearing the iconic ‘With You’ live, did not disappoint. In fact the mix for this song seemed perfect (which I’m so glad it was). I also really liked the mix from 'Unchained Melody’ on the radio, to then the band and soundtrack continuing to play it. Before the show started, in the auditorium there also seemed to be a lack of energy because there was no atmosphere or music playing. I feel like it would’ve been nice just to play a soft playlist of similar music to ‘The Righteous Brothers’ or even period accurate music (late 80’s early 90’s).

Overall, I was very impressed with the storytelling element of this show. I know I have seen the movie before but I don’t recall the actual story, so I was going into this fairly blind. Having said this I wasn’t lost at any moment throughout the show and a penny drop moment did happen for me not long before the interval. I feel like this musical adaption is so close to being a really really strong show, but unfortunately falls short in a couple of areas. This isn’t to say that it wasn’t enjoyable however. It was never meant to be a groundbreaking piece of theatre, it was always meant to be a bit of a fun twist for people who enjoy the movie. Did it do that? I think it about did, yes. Hearing ‘With You’ live was magical, and I did leave the theatre also humming ‘Unchained Melody’ and actually wanting to go home and pop the movie on. If you too are a fan of the movie or just lighthearted feel-good theatre in general, ‘Ghost the Musical’ is in Southampton until Saturday the 15th before haunting other theatres on the rest of its UK tour. I hope Mayflower keep their Ghost light on stage tonight!