Review: THE HARDER THEY COME, Stratford East
The musical adaptation of the cult classic film starring Jimmy Cliff returns to Stratford
In another world, Jimmy Cliff’s "You Can Get It If You Really Want" would have made a barnstorming musical theatre ‘I Want’ song. This musical adaptation of the late reggae pioneer's 1972 film – which premiered here in Stratford in 2005, and was reworked in New York in 2023 – makes that world a reality.
Admittedly, the film The Harder They Come is based on is thinly drawn when it comes to plot. A new kid in town in 1970s Kingston with everything to prove, Cliff’s character Ivan (played on stage by Natey Jones) overcomes poverty and slimey music executives to find fame as a singer. A series of righteous acts of violence, including against drug dealers and the corrupt local police, turn this emerging star into a doomed folk hero.
It’s nothing groundbreaking, but it’s compelling on stage. Cliff’s songs, including ‘I Can See Clearly Now’ and ‘Wonderful World, Beautiful People’ – as well as classics from other reggae artists and new numbers by Suzan-Lori Parks – are thoughtfully arranged for musical theatre, and Shelley Maxwell’s choreography is pleasingly eclectic and unpolished. Amid rust-coloured walls and corrugated iron roofs, the audience feels invited along to a street party.
Photo credit: Pamela Raith
The original film, the first major commercial production to come out of Jamaica, was notable for how it showed the island nation warts-and-all not long after independence, and its stage adaptation continues in that vein. At the heart of the show is Ivan’s community in Kingston, played by a vast, talented ensemble, and director Matthew Xia’s staging of the minutiae of their lives is consistently inventive – a rowdy cinema screening, for instance, or a church that promptly morphs into a steamy nightclub.
The musical has somewhat sanitised the original film, which featured infidelity and several vengeance killings. Still, there is room here for the darker side of this community, exemplified by shootouts, corporal punishment and alarmist news broadcasts, and ultimately by a city that comes together in the face of injustice. The vibrant community numbers gradually shift from parties, to protests, to funerals (the latter soundtracked by an excellent ensemble version of ‘Many Rivers to Cross’).
All this is anchored by Jones’ portrayal of Ivan, who begins the show earnestly confronting the cynicism of those around him with optimism, and ends it secure in his role as a man of the people. All the while, he gives the Jimmy Cliff songbook a rasping, affecting treatment, and the notion that Ivan’s songs became word-of-mouth successes in Kingston is totally believable.
Photo credit: Pamela Raith
His love interest Elsa (Madeline Charlemagne), meanwhile, embodies strength and steadfastness after leaving a much older, sexually predatory preacher for Ivan. Elsa’s solo number ‘Hymn’, in which her religious faith mingles with her burgeoning romantic feelings, is possibly Parks’ strongest original song for the show.
The Harder They Come is something of a modern fable, in which right and wrong are clearly delineated, music and dance are the lifeblood of a community, and above all the songs of Jimmy Cliff are refreshed and reintroduced for a new generation.
The Harder They Come plays at Stratford East until 4 July
Photo credits: Pamela Raith
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