Review: Far-fetched and Flimsy, SCRATCH is a Heartfelt Attempt at Creating Original Musical Theatre

SCRATCH, written by Heather Livesey, describes itself as an "indie style musical". This description piqued my interest as a musical theatre specialist because of the buzz a few years ago about whether indie music might reinvent musical theatre. It did not. Looking back at articles that tried to push that idea now seems like a vague marketing ploy that served neither indie music nor musical theatre. Back then, with ONCE heading to Broadway and subsequently establishing itself as a successful stage adaptation of the indie film upon which it was based, the idea seemed more plausible. The echoes of that folksy Broadway hit are very faintly heard in Heather Livesey's score, while her book tries hard to replicate the whimsical and moving tone of something like AMÉLIE, a film that is currently travelling the road towards the commercial heart of the musical theatre industry. Unfortunately, SCRATCH comes across very much like a first draft, with its far-fetched and flimsy plot never finding a coherent throughline in which an audience can truly invest its engagement.

SCRATCH is set alongside a road sign that reads Harrismyth. Living in a tent pitched beneath the sign is a man named Harri, who lives there because his name forms a part of the nearby town's name and whose only friend is a toaster, Phil. A woman with no name arrives riding her bicycle, Nellie, who she also views as a friend. When Nellie inexplicably dies, Harri suggests that the woman should stay with him and that she should call herself Smyth, so that together they can be " Harrismyth". So begins a romance that plays out over the duration of the musical.

It is not long before the wide-eyed enthusiasm that attempts to disguise the implausibility and major plot holes that plague SCRATCH from its opening scene onwards wears off. One of the major criticisms directed at musical theatre, particularly in this country due to the type of musical theatre productions primarily seen on South African stages, is that various elements of the genre's style disguise what many regard as a universal shallowness that is inherent to this form of theatre. While this is a generalised and uneducated criticism, it is one rings true in the case of SCRATCH. Livesey's writing assumes a position that because SCRATCH is a musical, it can get away with weak plotting, underdeveloped themes and flat characters.

The score of SCRATCH does little to help matters along; although it is inoffensive, it is unmemorable. There is, however, one good character-driven song for Harri early on in the piece, its only flaw being the awkwardness of a key phrase that seems to be the title of the song, "What Would I to Do?" Matters would be helped along considerably were the tune played by a music box in the production one of the pieces from the score, possibly the opening number, rather than Paul Anka's "My Way". Another song, "Stay Awake", makes liberal use of the melody of the song by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman from MARY POPPINS, with the first eight bars of the original song popping up with an altered lyric several times in the play.

At its best, the score offers a good starting point for a musical. Livesey might do well, should she wish to develop SCRATCH, to begin by reviewing the show against Stephen Sondheim's criteria for writing lyrics for musical theatre, which apply in many ways to writing a musical in its entirety: "Content dictates form / Less is more / God is in the details / All in the service of / Clarity / without which nothing else matters."

The performances in SCRATCH, by Wayne Smith and Nell van der Merwe, are both sincerely delivered. There are times when Smith struggles to pitch some of Livesey's trickier melodic lines to the accompanying off-stage guitar, but Van der Merwe's singing is pitch perfect. Livesey's direction keeps the piece on track.

One aspect in which SCRATCH is entirely successful is its design, often a field that often demands compromise in a festival context. The uncredited scenic design is detailed, offering the audience a glimpse of a world that is far more layered than the piece itself is.

Although it is a largely unsuccessful experiment, SCRATCH is a heartfelt attempt at creating a new South African musical. Livesey has an ear for music, and there are moments when SCRATCH breaks through its own preciousness, but the piece needs far more work to assimilate into a cohesive piece of musical theatre. It is a prime illustration of the familiar truism that great musicals are not written, but rewritten.

SCRATCH performed a short season at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown this year. The 55-minute piece ran for four performances at The Bowling Club.

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