One Week in Magaluf
★★★★☆ Enthusiastic
theSpace @ Symposium Hall (Venue 43): Mon 15 – Sat 20 Aug 2022
Review by Thom Dibdin
Big, ballsy and playing at the top of their individual games, the Napier Musical Theatre Society give a hilarious yet poignant account of new 21st Century musical One Week in Magaluf.
The musical is playing theSpace @ Symposium Hall’s squeaky small Annexe theatre for only the second week of the fringe. Amy Nic’s script sets out on what appears to be a fun yet cliched path as four pals set off for their hols in time-honoured young Scots on the plane to Spain fashion, but finds some interesting spaces along the way.
Emma Barton, Abi Price, Alana Robertson and Megan Woodrow. Pic: NMTS
The best thing about this, though, is the way that Nic (who co-directs with Rachel Duncan) and MD Erin Munro, incorporate the spirit of the emphatically girl-powered numbers (some nicely repurposed as such) into the show to fit Nic’s narrative and the arcs of her four central characters, dropping them in with suitable choreography from Alana Robertson.
Abi Price has the gutsiest singing voice as the man-eating Amy, whose express purpose for the girls’ week in Magaluf is to get pished, shag and have a laugh with her pals. Price plays her straight down the line as a young woman who has no need to apologise for what she does and wants.
Olivia is your organiser, the one who got everyone to the airport for 5am so they didn’t have to rush for their 10am plane. Alana Robertson has exactly the right slightly up-tight performance, which fits right in to the character and the nature of her big reveal half way through the show.
legendarily flirtatious
Then there is rather prissy Nicole (Megan Woodrow) who doesn’t really like to get drunk but still wants to have fun. And the complex Megan, who Emma Barton pitches it perfectly as being torn between siding with the boyfriend-texting Olivia and Nicole, or the legendarily flirtatious Amy.
The whole thing sweeps along at real pace. Whisking from the opening airport lounge where Amy is belting out Party in the USA through customs and the flight then to the hotel nights out and a pair of revelations that are timed to perfection. All with four chairs, a table and a moveable bar for set on the mercilessly tiny stage.
Emma Barton, Anna Shanks and Abi Price. Pic NMTS
It could never work as it does without the fifth member of this spot-on troupe – Anna Shanks who is billed as “multirole Magnus”. Shanks is a quick-change wizard in this rough and ready telling, a different hat turns her from Trolly Dolly to Pilot and with a quick unbuttoning of the shirt she is revealed as the deliciously lascivious barkeep Julio.
All the while the numbers ping out – Air Hostess, Accidentally In Love, So What, Love Song, Not Fair – delivered without any kind of amplification. Which might make sense in this small room but which makes huge vocal demands of the company. One horribly tricky quiet intro apart, they rise to it all with commendable ability.
The show hasn’t got a great message to impart, just that pals are pals and ever more shall be so. But there is no harm in being reminded of such with a big song and a braw dance.
A lovely slice of proper Fringe musical theatre which innovates, has a story that goes well beyond its corny set-up and which delivers big emotions and bigger laughs along the way.
Running time: 50 minutes (no interval).
theSpace @ Symposium Hall (Annexe Theatre), Hill Square, EH8 9DR (Venue 43)
Monday 15 – Saturday 20 August 2022
Daily: 12:55.
Tickets and details: Book here.
Facebook: @napiermusicaltheatre
Instagram: @napiermusicaltheatre
Megan Woodrow, Alana Robertson, Anna Shanks, Abi Price and Emma Barton. Pic NMTS
ENDS
