Review: Wild Rose @ The Lyceum, Edinburgh

In 2018, Nicole Taylor’s Wild Rose found critical acclaim on the silver screen – and will doubtlessly find even more success as a stage musical. Taylor, adapting her screenplay, retains the film’s narrative beats, but trades the dramatic realism she found with movie director Tom Harwood, for something pitched between gig and jukebox musical.

The story rings true all the same, even if proceedings are prone to eruptions of country bangers. Dawn Sievewright’s Rose-Lynn Harlan, remains a free-spirited aspiring country singer fresh out of jail, and still dreams of making it big in Nashville. These dreams are brought no closer by the tag on her ankle, two young kids, and a responsibility-personifying mother, Marion (an effortlessly impressive Blythe Duff).

Factor in a hatred of social media, plus a streak of impulsive immaturity, and even a magnificent singing voice, coupled with a preternatural feel for the country songbook can carry her only so far as the stage of the Glasgow Grand Ole Opry.

A Stage Musical Triumph

Sievewright is superb, and she needs to be. For the show’s 2+ hours, she is rarely anything other than the centre of the action. She captures the livewire soul of the lovable, if not always likeable, songbird, and delivers each of the carefully selected country hits with oodles of feeling and vocal agility. Supported by a cast of some of the best and brightest talents on the Scottish stage, this variant of the ‘Star is Born’ mythos comes to life as a heartfelt musical comedy laced with everyday tragedy.

“Taylor, adapting her screenplay, retains the film’s narrative beats”

Indeed as musical theatre goes, this outing puts more into creating engrossing personal drama than most. Rose’s homelife comes complete with a challenging relationship with her two kids, Lyle (Alfie Campbell) and big sister Wynonna (Lily Ferguson), whilst her day job as a house cleaner for the middle-class arts grad, project-hungry Susannah (Janet Kumah), swiftly births into a complex and unlikely friendship.

A Cast of Scottish Talent

Rose, ever her worst enemy, presents herself as a childless free agent to the latter, setting up quite the pitfall when opportunity finally knocks. It’s a completely predictable, avoidable, and utterly inevitable disaster, made all the more believable by a cast at the top of their games. This sense of easily believable human drama pervades every moment, a testament to Taylor’s wonderfully observed book, and Director John Tiffany’s ambitious, and crystal clear vision.

“Sievewright is superb, and she needs to be”

Moreover, the sheer quality of the cast, as mentioned earlier, is really rather remarkable, Campbell gives every indication of being a nascent comedy genius, whilst Ferguson embodies a traumatised soul with only a look. The stately Kumah’s evolution from employer to would-be Svengali is simply charming. Kudos are also due to Louise McCarthy who wears a few hats with style, but shines brightest as doyen of the Glasgow Opry. Oh, and the prizes for most laughs and gasps of recognition are definitely due to Hannah Jarret Scott whose tanned glamour-puss in sweatpants, Amanda swaggers onto the stage with an abundance of Glasgow ‘character’.

Stellar Production Values

The creative team and crew clearly share the cast’s dedication to creating something superb. From Chloe Lamford’s sophisticated set which effortlessly shifts from Glasgow’s Grand Ole Opry into Susannah’s island-dominated townhouse and much more, to Tony Gayle’s powerful, crystal-clear Sound Design, every aspect is lavished with love and talent. Look out, too, for some innovative and playful choreography thanks to Steven Hoggett & Vicky Manderson.

If it’s big, good-looking musical spectacle you want, the show has as much for you as it has for the theatregoer hoping for more dramatic meat with their musical potatoes.

A Country Songbook with Heart

Ultimately, however, a musical succeeds or fails on its songbook, and in that respect, Wild Rose delivers in spades. From the rip-roaring take on Primal Scream’s ‘Country Girl’ to send Rose out from the jail block, to a triumphant rendition of Chris Stapleton’s ‘Outlaw State of Mind’, each song is lavished with all-guns-blazing love by Sievewright, the entire cast, and the outstanding 8-piece band under Ali Roocroft. With one exception plucked from the film’s soundtrack, every song, classic or contemporary, is plucked from the country charts – which makes sense given Rose’s stated reluctance to write her own music. Indeed, discovering her own lyrical voice is central to her story.

And yet… The score still lacks the integrity of one structured around a particular lodestone, be it a particular band, or even Rose’s imagined musical tastes. The absence of the latter, in particular, seems like a missed opportunity to expand our heroine’s character, who is instead portrayed as a lover of the entire genre of Country. Coupled with the creative team’s reluctance to significantly adapt, or even subvert the chosen tunes, and what’s left is still great – just a little bit by the numbers.

This does, admitedly, set the scene for a momentous dive into the original when Rose steps forward to deliver her self-penned ‘Glasgow (No Place Like Home), a lovely, swelling ode composed for the movie. It’s just not enough to elevate Wild Rose into the first rung of adventures in musical theatre.

A Crowd-Pleasing Finale

These notes notwithstanding, Wild Rose will deservedly bring audiences to their feet come the curtain call, such is the sheer quality of the production, and the energy pulsing through every moment. Few shows can create the sheer, almost uncontrollable enthusiasm I felt in the Lyceum on press night, or so confidently break the fourth wall to play directly to the crowd. As crowdpleasers come, they don’t come much more crowdpleasing.

All images: Mihaela Bodlovic