'Only The Brave' Fails to Thrill in Edinburgh

"Only the brave die young" claims a lyric line in the title song of the over-hyped and under achieving musical Only The Brave playing at this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival. If you are a discerning fan of serious musical theatre then perhaps a more apt phrase would be "only the brave should come".

Set in the 1940s when Britain and Germany were at war and apparently "chaps" spoke like a melodramatic Trevor Howard in Brief Encounter and French nurses working for the resistance seemed like the character in wartime BBC sit-com Allo, Allo, who "said things only once" - Only The Brave tells the story of an Englishman, a Welshman and a Scotsman who went to war (yes, I kid you not). Hard as all this is to believe, even more unbelievable is the fact that this show is billed as a "thrilling new musical inspired by true events". It turns out to be as thrilling as having a tooth pulled and more clichéd and corny than inspirational.

Rachel Wagstaff and Stephen Coleman's Book is full of wooden characters speaking dialogue that you might have heard in a bad 1940s war movie. And, while Matthew Brind's score is always pleasant and occasionally stirring, it is also terribly predictable - almost as predictable as Coleman and Brind's hackneyed lyrics, which might prompt someone to rename the show "only the bland".

On the whole the show's cast do an admirable job, working with some seriously mediocre material. In particular, Gerard Bentall and Tom Solomon both have a powerful stage presence and sing very well while BBC's Any Dream Will Do finalist, Keith Jack, shows off his beautifully toned voice.

There are some huge gaps in the show's plot structure - though, to be fair, this is due to the need to trim it down to a workable 75 minute piece for the Fringe. But this does not account for the inane nature of the dialogue and lyrics and the largely forgettable score. There are some thrilling, uplifting and inspirational musical theatre productions at the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe. Sadly, this is not one of them.

 

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