Not a show that is worth taking a picture of.
As the title suggests, “SNAP!: A New Musical” is a new musical which centres around a conniving photographer and his studio as he pursues his unfinished business. Book, music, and lyrics are all by David O’Brien, and it is directed by Jack Storm.
I usually like to start a review by highlighting the more positive aspects, however with this show there is little positive to highlight. Most of the issues seem to stem from the script. The entire conceit of the show, a machiavellian photographer manipulating the people around him in order to sleep with one of them, is threadbare and ill-thought out. The mastermind behind this whole thing is not responsible even slightly for his plan working, as it all comes down to an autocorrect error in a text which he had nothing to do with. Beyond this plot issue, the script is full of cliches and caricatures with no character having any proper depth to them, and a lot of the dialogue is unnatural and at times nonsensical. The funniest part of the script is when you have one of the characters posing for the camera in their underwear while holding a teapot, but this visual gag is not enough to sustain a show. With such a poor script it is difficult for any other aspects of the show to shine.
The cast themselves give some mixed performances, but you can see most of them working incredibly hard to try and make the words they are saying seem like they make logical sense, and trying to bring some emotional depth and humanity to their characters. The strongest performance is from Justine Marie Mead playing Sheila, the photographer’s assistant. This character seems to be the most well developed within the script and is given an emotional arc and pay-off, but she does also out of nowhere sing a song about desperately wanting to have a baby, which is never mentioned again either before or after the song. Hayley Maybury as Angela, the object of the photographers desires, gives a strong vocal performance alongside Mead, and their duet is the best performed song of the show.
The songs themselves had clunky and uninspired lyrics. One attempt at a clever song, with the names of cocktails being sung and being given different meanings, goes on for far too long and names more and more obscure cocktails and just ends up being a bit baffling. There is also an over reliance on polyphony, with the performers singing different lines and melodies at the same time. It is an effective tool if used sparingly, but it is used far too early in the show and far too often, so that it just becomes a confusing cacophony of noise.
Unfortunately, the directing of this show failed to seemingly even make an attempt to improve things. On multiple occasions, actors are left on stage with nothing to do while they wait for the next part of the song. The actors themselves are desperately trying to give something during these moments, but when they have obviously been directed to just wait on the stage, there is limited scope for them to save these moments. There is also a particularly egregious moment towards the end of the play where one character walks off the stage for no reason, other than to not look awkward while two other characters sing a duet to each other, before coming back on once they stop singing.
In conclusion, this show has a number of issues and faults and despite the best efforts and obvious talents of some of the performers, there is not much that can be done to save it.