'It Will Never Be Finished!': Guest Blog by Director Jon Brittain on the Challenges of Developing Two Versions of KATHY AND STELLA SOLVE A MURDER!

We’ve just completed week four of rehearsals for Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder! Or should I say re-rehearsals - as the show already had a run at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

Exactly twelve months ago, we premiered this new musical at 10pm every night for a month, on a five metre by fiver metre in-the-round stage, in a tent, with five actors and a pianist. It was at times fun, often hard, more than a little rough around the edges, but full of heart, humour and bolstered by the incredible talent of the West End performers who for some reason had chosen to slum it with us at the fringe. 

Over the last twelve months, we’ve taken that initial version of the show and updated, developed and expanded it. It’s no longer in-the-round, but now end-on. Where once we had just a piano, now we have a full band. Our cast of five is now seven. Matthew, the composer and co-lyricist, and I have face a very steep learning curve. Both of us are hugely experienced in fringe comedy and small scale theatre but this is now developing onto another level. Suddenly even the music department on this show has more people involved than entire shows I’ve worked on. Changes that used to be implemented in minutes now take days as we work out what impact that will have on the orchestrations, the click track, the choreography.

Last year, Matthew and I sometimes arrogantly reflected on how quickly we had developed our musical in comparison to others - now, I understand why they take so long. To make our job that bit more complicated, we are not just developing one version of the show.

In Edinburgh, we’ll be premiering a 90 minute one-act version of the show. But only a fortnight after we finish our run at the fringe, we will be premiering a brand new two hour, two act version of the show at the Bristol Old Vic. Complete with full set, flying, and countless other bells and whistles. The reasons for this are complicated - the path to making new musicals in the UK is not simple. But suffice to say that over the last four weeks all of our brains have melted as we attempt to prepare two distinct versions of the show simultaneously. Discussions regularly devolve into confused questions - “is this for Edinburgh or Bristol?”

There is about twenty minutes difference between the two versions and, at the moment, we’re in the process of finalising the cuts for Edinburgh. For the most part, it is straightforward - take out that chunk, remove that flashback, we need to lose the bit that feels too much like an act one closer (because it is an act one closer). But removing twenty minutes from a show is not as simple as it might seem. Characters’ journeys and motivations are affected. Twists and subplots are entirely deleted. Lines that made sense for one reason now must make sense for another. And of course everyone in the company has to deal with the fact that we all know there is an expanded version of the show with material we all love that we are not able to share with the fringe crowds. 

As a creator, it presents you with a particularly tricky challenge. After the easy trims, what material are you prepared to lose to hit the time slot. Each cut changes the story, shifts the emphasis, subtly transforms how you’re exploring the subject matter. It’s not just a case of making it shorter - it’s a case of choosing which version of the story you most want to tell? And what trade-offs are you prepared to make? You can keep song A, but that means you need to cut song B. But is song B the song that secretly elevates the show? 

It’s a process that’s impossible to go through without massive doubts. And, like everything else in this newly large version of the show, the decisions you make have downstream effects on your collaborators. Cutting a chorus here or a verse there seems fairly innocuous, but what must be unpicked to allow for this? Will feelings be hurt along the way? Are you inadvertently saying which bits of the show are working better than others? If you’re able to cut it now, should it even be in the show at all? Have you made the wrong decisions??? What starts as a simple logistical conversation about avoiding fines for overrunning becomes a discussion about the very nature of the piece you’re creating.

Unfortunately, as writer, co-lyricist and co-director, I can’t really avoid the responsibility of making these decisions. And, as the saying goes, the only way past is through and all that. So we’re making cuts, we’re re-scoring, we’re re-choreographing, we’re trying to make sense of these new journeys, and we’re hoping - me especially - that the decisions we’ve made are the right ones. That we preserve what was special about the show last year whilst incorporating the most essential of our new changes. All the while, knowing that in five weeks time, we’re going to be doing it all over again in reverse.

And in a way, it’s nice. Like having a little secret. Regardless of how the run in Edinburgh goes, we know it’s not the end - we know there’s more to share. And to discover. As with all art, it will never be finished. And, as brain melty as can be, I can’t wait to continue this journey with my collaborators - exploring new avenues, finding new layers, adding new jokes, and, as a group, developing Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder! into the show we all believe it can be. May the learning curve continue.

Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder! is at Underbelly, George Square at 19:30 on August 2-8, 10-13, 15-20, 22-27

The show then tours to Bristol Old Vic from 13-30 September and HOME, Manchester from 5-21 October. Find out more here.

Photo Credit: The Other Richard

 

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