ORDINARY DAYS to 17 November 2008.

ORDINARY DAYS
Music and Lyrics by Adam Gwon

Finborough Theatre, 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED to 17th November 2008
Sun to Mon 7:30pm.
Runs 1hr 20min No interval.

TICKETS: 0844 847 1652
www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk
Review: Geoff Ambler 3rd November 2008

Some far from ordinary days happen with some far from ordinary people.
Adam Gwon’s first musical is a contemporary affair devoid of plot but filled with humour, particularly American humor, or at least the largely American audience laughed all the way through. Following the ordinary lives of a couple of ordinary New Yorkers Ordinary Days fine cast of four narrate their thoughts, words and feelings through Gwon’s music; music which quickly grew on me.

Warren (Lee William-Davis), slightly arty, slightly camp and quite lonely, finds a book lost by Deb, a very stressed, very sharp grad school student who is more than a little hyper, which happens to be her graduate thesis. Meanwhile Claire, very witty, very beautiful and a little sad, struggles with the expectation that Jason, completely smitten, is going to propose and cancels the party it was going to happen at. Just an ordinary day in New York then? Only if you believe in musicals.

Looking beyond the jokes (What’s funny about flunking grad school?) which may, at times, be a little too in, there is a whole lot of heart in this show. Characters are well developed, rounded and likeable, even the stressy, whining Deb. Intricate lyrics, which at times are drowned by the piano, are a witty delight, filled with surprises and Julie Atherton’s Claire even manages to squeeze an unexpected tear from nowhere at the end.

Hayley Gallivan and Lee Williams-Davis prove an unlikely pairing but their journey is both fun and compelling. Both marvellous in their eccentricities and eventual exuberance they are a delight to watch develop. Julie Atherton and Kenneth Avery-Clark, as Claire and Jason, are the couple in trouble. Atherton is, as always, musical comedy excellence. Her doubts and irritations at Avery-Clark’s smitten boyfriend Jason, a delight to watch and the pair selecting wine, just hilarious.

Ordinary Days moves at a fast pace and the short show seems to pack a lot in, little of which is Ordinary. Gwon has conjured onto this intimate stage four wonderfully colourful characters and shared their lives in just eighty minutes. He, like Days, is definitely one to watch!

Julie Atherton
Kenneth Avery-Clark
Hayley Gallivan
Lee Williams- Davis

Direction: Adam Lenson
Musical Direction and Arrangements: Richard Healey
Set and Costume Design: Bec Chippendale
Lighting Design: James Smith

2008-11-08 10:44:57