Naomi van den Broek reviews H.R. The Musical, presented by Artsense Productions, at Little Andromeda, Thursday 16 May, 2024.
When your job is mostly “email” with a dash of “meeting”, a show entitled H.R. The Musical feels like it should be a total home run. My colleague and I, hearts open, senses of humour on high alert, head to the opening night with great expectations that we will be #triggered in the best possible ways. Sadly, we aren’t. Like many new hires, the show is full of potential, but in need of more professional development.
The near-capacity audience is that always-rare mix who attend shows at Little Andromeda: half diehard performing arts fans, and half people I have never seen before in my life. If Artsense Production’s savvy direct marketing to academic institutions of their previous Little Andromeda presentation I Didn’t Invite You Here to Lecture Me is anything to go by, I think that there are a LOT of office workers in the room, and clearly the show is hitting its mark with them. The opening number “I’m an Out of the Box Thinker” draws shrieks of laughter and groans of recognition in equal measure from the crowd.
The four performers are energetic and committed in their performances, with a mainly ‘direct address, no fourth wall’-style presentation throughout. The low-fi quirky style of the show works well in Little Andromeda’s intimate and immediate setting. However, the small stage area does feel quite cramped and tight at times with (largely under-utilised) set pieces, and many musical instruments occupying the space. The transitions – especially out of the opening number – feel quite long and clumsy. In general the show could use a bit of tightening up in this area as well as some refinement in its staging.
The music is a wonderful pastiche of styles from ‘pick me’ style musical theatre ballads to more pop-centric presentations. The highlight of the show for me is the inclusion of so many live instruments, each cast member playing at least one. This is such a value add, and gives the music a much greater sense of connection. It does, however, make the use of canned backing tracks seem a bit unnecessary. When you have such capable musicians on stage, what’s the point? Harmonically, melodically and rhythmically, I enjoy just about all of the music presented. However, lyrically the songs often blow their punchlines early (sometimes even before they have started) and are under-developed and overly didactic. While I love a sung swear word as much as the next foul-mouthed theatre nerd (and this show travels from dick to cunt with all stops taken in between) what I really want in comedic songs is wordplay and wit, and a killer payoff. It feels very clear to me that the songs get fewer laughs as they progress, as does the show, and I think there’s a real opportunity to strengthen the work by crafting the lyrics more carefully and cleverly.
Corporate BS is such a rich vein to explore, but H.R. The Musical feels like it barely scratches the surface. It presents like a selection of internet memes rather than a solid lampoon of office culture. Many of the references feel dated, and the personalities clichéd and caricatured. The only real character of the piece, ‘Richard the CEO’, is a 90s dinosaur, with very few nods to modern workplace culture. Maybe that is the point, but I’ve seen this character 100 times before, and I want to be shown a new angle. Overall, the show feels like a selection of skits that need a bit more development. I’m left wanting more nuance in the material, and much more of a sense of journey or connection.
The biggest frustration, however, is the singing itself. Canterbury knows good musical theatre; from schools, to tertiary providers, to community, pro-am and professional theatre, this region’s musical theatre slaps. I say this to contextualise the next sentence: I have never been to something that called itself a musical where the singing was so technically poor. And I’m not trying to be mean here, I’m just genuinely confused, in the same way I would be if I went to a dance show and the performers couldn’t dance. This is not a community production – it’s a show marketing itself as a professional piece of musical theatre. And I think this is also the presentation’s biggest failing, because it’s very clearly not a musical: it’s a comedy skit show with songs. And that might seem like an arbitrary distinction, but I think if it had been developed (and promoted) as such, it would allow for a better result. Mika Austin gave one of the funniest performances I attended in 2023; she is undoubtedly hilarious. But her considerable talents are not serviced in this setting. I come away wondering whether this company thinks that you don’t need to be a strong singer to be funny in a musical. I would argue the opposite. It’s very hard to cut through harmony, rhythm and melody to deliver text in a comedic manner unless you are actually quite good.
I think I will finish by saying if you work in an office where you have to deal with corporate stupidity on the daily, and you don’t mind whether a show hits its KPIs, this production will probably be really affirming and funny. But if you really like good musical theatre and singing, and appreciate well-developed comedic work, this show is probably not for you. Make your choice accordingly.
H.R. the Musical runs at Little Andromeda from 16-18 May 2024.
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