An INVASION perhaps, but not one that will be taking over the world
INVASION! is being put on as part of Camden Fringe and is created by the Cambridge University Musical Theatre Society (CUMTS), with the show being written and directed by Jonathan Powell and Jasper Robin, and composed by Lily Blundell. CUMTS can lay claim to being the original home of the worldwide smash hit that is SIX the Musical, however this show fails to live up to those lofty heights.
I sadly feel like I cannot say that this show is good. Entertaining at moments yes, but unfortunately sorely lacking in quality in a number of areas. It is difficult to know how to review a show such as this, as it is clearly an amateur production, written and performed by people with little to no professional experience in this area, and so to judge them against professional productions does feel a bit unfair. However, this is a show for which tickets are being sold for to the general public, so I shall review it as I would any other show.
There are some entertaining moments in this show. The “Chorus Line” repeating gag was rather funny (although repeated one too many times) and my favourite joke of the night was about Greta Thunberg saving the world, but unfortunately too much of the comedy just did not work for me. There was a strong emphasis on doing funny accents and mannerisms to bring humour to the show, which felt quite lazy and got tired very quickly. The most egregious examples of this were the American tourist couple and the talking head. These characters were clearly comedic and meant to draw laughs, but very little, if any of what they actually said was funny. It was just said in a ludicrous accent and that was supposed to be enough. Were this improv I would have been more forgiving, but for a scripted show, more thought should have been given into the jokes, rather than relying on funny voices.
This is a short show, at just 60 minutes, and it has a lot of plot to get through. This has the unfortunate effect of making the show seem too rushed. I felt like there needed to be more moments of calm, of different tempo conversations to prevent the show seeming so manic. Some of the plot points are raced through at such a pace it can be quite easy to have missed them. We went through it being an alien invasion, wait no it’s a robot invasion, wait no it’s a robot alien invasion, incredibly quickly.
I am sorry to say that the singing on the whole was not very good. There were some moments of good singing from most cast members, but there was not consistent quality. Unfortunately, when it is a musical the singing does really have to be up to scratch. Perhaps harsh for an amateur production, but I have seen many amateur productions with far stronger and consistent vocals. The strongest vocal moments were all when the actors were singing on their own, and in some of the group numbers it was notable that the songs did not seem to be in a key that suited the majority of the cast. Some of the songs themselves are decent, and I do commend anyone that is able to write new songs for a musical from scratch, but the lacklustre performances meant that even the greatest score in the world would not have been properly appreciated.
In conclusion, this is not a show that I can recommend people spend their money on. It is admirable for an amateur group to aim high and create and perform a wholly original musical, however I do not think that this show is of a high enough standard to stand on its own.
INVASION! An Alien Musical is playing at the Camden People’s Theatre as part of Camden Fringe until Thursday 3rd August.