The Railway Children - Cadogan Hall / Electric Guildford

I agree with your points, and I also loved the evening. The music is as jaunty as Alex Parker, it's composer, and the central trio of child characters are beautifully drawn and distinctive.

To address your last point first, this was the premiere of a new version of this musical, and for this show to maximise it's chance at a future life, I think it needs another tweaking to beat a little of the nostalgia out of it, and instill some more of the progressive spirit of the age. As it is, it's just too backward a vision of a halcyon age of English niceness to fully engage a modern audience, and prompt repeat visits, but the clue to engaging youthful audiences is probably in that one quip, of Rebecca Trehearn's Bobbie, about being patronised for being a girl, which made everyone laugh. These days, it's new musicals that empower segments of the audience (and promote inclusiveness) that gain traction, whether it's ethnic minorities (Hamilton), girls (Wicked), LGBTQ (Jamie), and there are story threads in this show that could be explanded that would make it more relevant. There's the already mentioned fact that Bobbie is underestimated for being a girl - her growing feminist "me-too" instincts could be easily be emphasised, to even greater comic effect. I know purists would be up in arms, but does the Russian man have to be Russian? Why not have him be someone Nigel Farage could more recognisably feature in an anti-immigrant poster? And couldn't there be more emphasis on the poverty and inequality and suffering of the children and their mother? As it is, I feel the piece skews too much towards the joyful and the upbeat (the overture suggests dynamic rolling wagon trains charging past serene pools of water), whereas the quiet, emotive, wistful song "Sleep" brought rare tears to my eyes (Rebecca Trehearn IS soulfulness), and I felt the piece could wallow more in lows, like that, to better accentuate the many many highs.

It was the wistful, and dreamy, and heartfelt songs that really gripped me, and to be fair, they were fantastic. The best were rooted in the one thing that Katie Lam, the writer of the book and lyrics, got exactly right, which was her distinctive characterisation of the children, so marvellously depicted by the three principals: as Bobbie, Rebecca Trehearn, like Wendy, in Peter Pan, tenderly emoted the soul and humanity of everyone and everything; as Peter, Rob Houchen engagingly tapped into the warm can-do spirit of a boy whose very presence seemed to rise to every challenge and cure every ill; and as Phyllis, Emma Harrold's spunky high-pitched enthusiasm was both poetically innocent as well as consistently laugh-out-loud surprisingly funny. And in the superb song, "Tell Me a Story," over the insistent and dreamy strains of Alex Parker's harp orchestrations, Lam showed how these three different personalities, while all yearning for and telling each other different kinds of stories, that suited their personalities, could nonetheless all express the universal preciousness of storytelling itself. A truly wonderful song.

Just as wonderful was the aforementioned "Sleep," which allowed Trehearn's Bobbie to take the stage solo, and expound on the beauty and mystery and relief of "sleep" with Shakespearean poignancy (ie our little life is rounded with a sleep).

And "Say a Prayer" was another number that mirrored "Tell Me a Story," in that it equally allowed the children to express their personalities, but in a more numinous context.

Other than these songs, most songs were high-spirited orchestral romps of wind and strings and drums, sometimes sounding like cheery Sondheim ("Another Day" echoed "Sunday"), sometimes sounding like cheery Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, but mostly sounding like the soundtrack of a high-spirited Western, as wagons and trains roll into town across wide and beautiful prairies. The effect is rousing and spiriting and samey, but for those glowing precious song interludes, of character and story self-reflection, as discussed above.

At the end, there was one marvellous new song, "The Light," rousing, warm, poppy, delivered by a heretofore almost invisible (to the fury of her fans, I'm sure) Carrie Hope Fletcher, who had spent her time peeping over a lectern, bespectacled, reading the narrator's part, like a disembodied voice, from high up in the centre of the back balcony, like a forlorn Juliet, forever without a Romeo. And while she never did get to engage with the other actors, in "The Light," she finally got a song, her first and only, that spurred an enormous round of applause from an audience who probably had forgotten that she was even there.

Other actors also made their presence felt. Star turn, James Bolam brought gentlemanly softness to "The Old Gentleman," and even braved a song in a just passable singing voice. David Birrell, Maggie Service and Paul Baker gamely reprised their Guildford turns as the show's more stock characters (hearty father, funny lady, eccentric grump), and both Deborah Crowe, as Mother, and Jack McCann in a small role, brought immense love and warmth to their characterisations, with McCann's song "I can see myself in her" a tender standout.

All in all, this play reflects Alex Parker's jovial jaunty lightness, but it's in it's interludes, of reverie and darkness, the show threatens to become something truly special.

4 stars.

I had planned to but the bloody snow scuppered my plans. Glad you all enjoyed it though 😁

Also had my eye on this though was wary of booking, firstly because of the risk of further train strikes and secondly because opting for a matinee scrubs the chance of seeing anything anywhere else later on the same day (no train ticket which allows outward journey to Guildford then onward to London), but in the end I yielded.

The Electric is a lovely theatre with a great atmosphere and even closer to the station than the Yvonne Arnaud. I'd love to visit more often but they have a lot of late-night, one-off cabaret shows or similar and the most appealing tend to be late on Sunday evenings which is a dire time for trains even when there isn't engineering work.

However, train travel is probably a lot easier for anyone using the main London - Portsmouth route (I have to use the cross-country North Downs line), so please have a look, anyone who doesn't know the venue.

Well, no pun intended (Alex Parker's production company is called Quick Fantastic) but I thought this was absolutely fantastic at yesterday's sold out matinee, especially the second act. I don't usually go for sentimental musicals or anything about families but it was well dramatised without overdoing it and becoming melodramatic; humorous at times but surprisingly moving at others. It really drew me in despite my reservations and there were several standout performances. It says something if a hard-boiled person like me can succumb to its charms and judging by the success of this short run the show deserves a longer life.

NB: I did notice a few bored and fidgety younger children during the second act and whose parents were trying unsuccessfully to get them to sit still and of course there were lots of family groups,but this really isn't for very young children or those who need more than very simple staging to engage their attention.