Review of The Highwayman at Norwich Playhouse: Cast of brand new musical couldn’t work much harder

The Highwayman, Norwich Playhouse

The brand new musical, created by Kitty Morgan, fuses together two well-known tales.

One is the 20th century romantic ballad The Highwayman, by Alfred Noyes which you could well have studied at school.

It tells of Bess, a landlord’s daughter, who sacrifices her own life to save an unnamed highwayman she has fallen in love with.

The second source of inspiration was the story of 16th-century real-life highwayman Claude Duval who frequented London pubs and was eventually caught and executed.

Add in both modern and historic dress and dialogue and the production is a bit tricky to follow and perhaps a little disjointed. For my money, it is over long, too, with the first half sitting at 75 minutes.

But, it keeps your attention throughout as we follow Claude, played by Kevin Wathen, on his final, ill-fated journey, meeting various characters along the way including a feisty Nell Gwynn (Emily Law) and charismatic Frenchman Thomas French (Guido Garcia Lueches).

With the songs coming thick and fast and a very busy storyline, the cast couldn’t work much harder and I particularly enjoyed Josselyn Ryder as tragic Bess while musical director Adam Morris holds it all together on the piano.

The musical is a joint production between Norwich Theatre and Hertfordshire-based OVO theatre production company and goes on a short tour after its Norwich run. It is then hoped another theatrical venue will pick it up and it certainly has potential.

The show continues until Sunday.

More details on www.norwichtheatre.org.

Review by Sarah Hardy