BWW Reviews: STREETS - A NEW KIND OF MUSICAL, Cockpit Theatre, April 5 2013

With 2011's riots coming to the boil in the background, and only the streets as their own, a group of Croydon teens deal with love, drugs and violence. Robyn knows that Rick is a prick (even Rick knows that) and falls for Jason. Tommy loves Brooke, but Brooke has eyes on more bling than Tommy can provide and sees local hardcase Riley as her meal ticket. Street dealer Skinner settles his debts with Riley, but Squirt doesn't and has consequences to face. Max loves Lily and their soon to be born little girl and Lily tells Robyn that Rick is a prick and off we go again.

Covering some of the ground and using some of the discourse of Shane Meadows' "This Is England" series (and with Danielle Watson from those award-winning works as the policewoman), Interval Productions' musical is jam-packed with plot, music, dance, message, ambition, humour, rapping, singing, shouting, swearing and screwing. Inevitably, it doesn't always work - but it works more often than not.

With a very young cast, performances are going to be uneven, but the best are very good indeed. Brandon Henry as Rick invests his selfish crack-smoker with enough humanity for us to feel sympathy for him even as we recoil from the pain he spreads all around. James Kenward's Skinner, as Rick's dealer and part-time one man Greek Chorus, is hideous but charismatic, the understandable antidote to the pervasive anomie. Sian Louise portrays Robyn's conflicting emotions with complete conviction and does not need to adopt the EastEnders shout as the primary means of revealing turmoil. Ben Astle is sexy and seductive as Jason, the outsider on his way out.

Led by writer-vocalist Tori Allen-Martin and an accomplished band, songs and street-dance provide interludes in the action to reflect the characters' states of mind. Even with a Beatbox and James Kenward's rapping, the counterpoint of smoky sensual melody and lounge singing with the distraught emotions on stage really works - an innovative and unexpected approach that pays off handsomely.

Though Finn Anderson's concept has been around for a few years, this production has been just three months in the making. That they have come so far so quickly is laudable, but another month or two in development could tighten the plot, increase the pace and heighten the drama. Then what is already very good might become excellent.

Streets - A New Kind of Musical is at the Cockpit Theatre until 21 April.

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