Musicals have notoriously long gestation periods. It takes a lot of chutzpah, then, to think that you can create (and stage) a musical from scratch in one hundred days. Or is that hubris? But that’s the challenge The Other People team (writer/director Adam Spedding, composer Brayden Jeffrey, producer Hadley Taylor) set themselves, and the result, Schlunted, was first presented at TAPAC in November last year. It has returned for an encore season.

You can still catch a sense of what must have been an all-consuming writing and composing effort.  The initial idea – three high-school friends reunite post-uni for a camping trip – has been spun out with a series of what ifs. What if one of the friends didn’t gain UE and resents the other two? What if we add extra interlopers on the trip? What if there’s an accident on the road? What if they try to cover this up? What if someone else comes along? What if we make these two characters kiss? What if there are no toilets and they have to dig a poo pit? [More] 

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The original production of Schlunted was written, rehearsed and produced in 100 days, a feat which led to a successful first season of a musical that revels in its Kiwi features. Now Schlunted is back for another run.

We are told “It’s been years since high school pals ‘The Threeway’ have caught up with each other, so a reunion camping trip seems like a great idea. But after a couple of gatecrashers and one car crash, their weekend away turns into life on the run.”

The narrative plays with some well-worn tropes but takes them in fresh directions. We first meet Hailee, played with great charm by Sally Brady, celebrating the gaining of her degree and assuming that a great job is now a formality. Meanwhile Chris, the funny and engaging Hadley R Taylor, has also completed his studies and is about to take his first steps into the post-University world. It’s an intriguing place to start a musical, and the smart, funny lyrics generate plenty of laughs from the audience and give us a very good idea of the style in which this story will be told. 

Persuaded to go on a camping trip by their long-neglected friend Fi, played with a tough and feisty exterior by Sinead Fitzgerald, the three set off along with Hailee’s boyfriend Wally, played with assurance and some deft comic touches by Bernie Voice. Soon after setting off, they find Hailee’s sister Maddy, a sweet Jocelyn Scott, has stowed away and the scene is set for the story to take the first of many twists and turns.

A shocking meeting with Jackson, a young traveller played with immense appeal by Fin McLachlan, sends the story in a potentially disastrous direction, and everything is now in place for this unusual tale to unravel. 

There are songs a-plenty as the action jogs along at a jaunty pace, moving the narrative quickly and inventively forward. The musical responses to the potentially grave situation are upbeat in tone, and the cast’s actions follow suit. It does mean that the potential seriousness of the situation the characters find themselves in is never really explored, but this seems to be a result of the musical and stylistic landscape of the show.

As the story goes on, all of the characters reveal themselves in song, and although some songs seem less vital than others, it is no hardship to hear this talented cast sing. Their voices are uniformly great, with Jocelyn Scott’s solo numbers standing out for their power and precision. All cast members sing powerfully and engagingly alone, and when they sing together – such as the charming and poignant duets between Scott and McLachlan – it is delightful.

Just as we think we have the measure of the story and the characters, Donald, played with sass and sensational vocals by Brady Peeti, bursts onto the scene.

Now that the situation has changed, the second half of the show unfurls in some unexpected ways. With the focus now on so many different character groups, the action slows down considerably. This is not helped by the sheer number of songs. They do give every cast member the chance to shine – Peeti takes that chance gleefully in some wonderfully barn-storming performances – but they don’t move the story or the characterisation forward sufficiently to feel absolutely necessary, and so the story is stretched out to the point where I find I am aware of how long the show is, which isn’t the case in the first half. 

The dialogue and lyrics are often very funny, poking fun at a variety of targets, and the music displays clever development and repetition of themes and motifs throughout the show. There is certainly much to admire here, from the uniformly engaging performances to the inventive staging, and I enjoy the performance a great deal. If some of the songs that are not absolutely necessary to the plot or the characters were trimmed, this show would shine even brighter.

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Writing, composing and directing a full-length musical in 100 days is no easy task. Schlunted follows a group of young twenty somethings driving off on a road trip after Fi (Sinead Fitzgerald) calls up her two high-school best friends, Hailee (Sally Brady) and Chris (Hadley R Taylor), who have both just completed their university degrees. However, this is no joyous reunion, Hailee only comes reluctantly along with her highly-strung partner Wally (Bernie Voice) in tow, and Chris is guilted into joining. After a fleeting glance into their high school relationships via a nostalgic tune, disaster strikes and the trip takes a turn for the morbid.

It is a strong set up for a farcical adventure, but something doesn’t quite sit right. The character reactions fail to accurately match the gravity of the situation and there is ill timed character development, such as Wally’s showering song, that feels clunky and out of place after a huge disaster. Usually musicals can get away with barely-there storylines due to the strength of the music, however, the composition in Schlunted isn’t enough to save this plot.

That’s not to say there aren’t some redeeming moments in the production. The cast are a talented bunch … [More] 

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