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ED2014 2/5 Reviews ED2014 Musical Reviews
UCAS (Off Track Theatre)
By Tim Bano | Published on Friday 22 August 2014
Despite oodles of talent, Off Track’s production, about a teacher urging errant students to apply for university, seems shallow and false. Jude Obermüller’s score slides between chromaticism and schmaltz, while Holly Bellamy’s lyrics are stuck in predictable rhyming couplets. The musical has a corny 90s ‘kidz wiv problemz’ feel, particularly when Ajay, wearing a backward baseball cap, launches into a rap. The falseness comes from the fact that serious themes commercialisation of university degrees, tuition fees, social inequality in successful applicants struggle to emerge amid camp choreography and caricatured characters. This is not to detract from the brilliantly slick young cast and tight orchestra. Just that their great efforts are applied to a musical that does not take a serious theme seriously.
Greenside @ Nicolson Square, until 23 Aug.
tw rating 2/5 | [Tim Bano]
