The premise of this musical is that four professional actors share their insights into the scary world of auditions. The problem is that based on this show I would struggle to give a single one of them the part.
How did Auditions go? No callback this time, I’m afraid.
As the first jarring chords of the synthetic backing score blared out of the speaker I realised that this musical was going to be cheesier than a toasted sandwich. Shortly after followed the floods of overexerted facial expressions and uncomfortably dramatic arm movements. Corny jokes and excessive prop changes ricocheted violently across the Sweet Grassmarket stage, before a pink-sequined and lacklustre attempt at a finale ushered us out of the door.
In terms of musical ability, it was evident that each of the cast could sing, and Sandra Waters’ sensitive vocal portrayal of Vivian landed particularly softly on the ears. I was surprised to discover the large number of accolades the cast hold between them – Ralion Alonso, who played Lee, was a former Disney lead vocalist in Hong Kong – and between them they have enough theatre credits to cast the entirety of the West End. Sadly, on this occasion there seemed to be a clash between the performers and the material – a lack of engagement I believe stemmed from the superficial nature of the content. Olivier-winners would struggle to bring any sort of genuine meaning to the musical numbers Best of Luck and Who I Am, and the result was a shallow production.
Fusing together song, short dialogue and soliloquies wasn’t enough for redemption, though, and the piece failed to convince on any sort of meaningful level. How did Auditions go? No callback this time, I’m afraid.
