Gather around everyone, a show that cannot be missed has arrived at the Adelaide Fringe! In the pitiless streets of Victorian London, a disfigured man strives to find his place. But when a cruel Doctor exploits him for fame, the man is forced to face the prejudice of the age to prove that love conquers all!
If there was ever a production that belonged at the Fringe, a musical retelling of John Merrick’s life fits right in. The Marvellous Elephant Man: The Musical was written and composed by Marc Lucchesi of Vaudeville Smash (Who also plays several supporting characters), along with Jayan and Sarah Nandagopan. The Melbourne smash hit was also co-directed by Christopher HF Mitchell and Olivier-award winner Guy Masterson. While the musical is not an exact adaption of Merrick’s story, which is a fact the show wears on its sleeve, The Marvellous Elephant Man is still a wonderful Australian production. Utilising an arena stage and minimal props, the actors got to sing and dance in several different positions for different audience members, providing an intimate and imaginative experience.
The soundtrack was incredibly catchy and entertaining, especially with the very creative rhyming. Never would have thought to use “Relevant” and “Elephant” as song lyrics, so massive kudos! From a personal experience sitting second to the front row, the audio and instruments were quite loud and a bit overbearing to start off with, especially with the microphones being a bit too close to the actor’s mouths. However, with being swept into the story and performances, the audio did gradually get less overbearing, but that can easily be from a personal and biased perspective, or it could entirely depend on where you personally sit. As it was the opening night, maybe some adjustments will be made for future showings.
The main highlight of the Melbournite musical is the stellar cast. Ben Clark was a triumph as Merrick, Annelise Hope was endearing as Nurse Hope, and Kanen Breen was delightfully evil as a twisted Dr Fredrick Treves. The rest of the cast got to stretch their acting and singing muscles by playing multiple roles, bringing very humourous moments in the back/foreground. Admittedly, when the titular Elephant Man was first revealed to the audience, the choice of doing minimalist makeup was initially underwhelming, especially when having the iconic Christopher Tucker prosthetics in mind. However, much like the rest of the production, the quaintness allows for the audience to use their imagination, and as Clark’s performance called for a consistently wide range of emotions for 90 mins, a large mass of plastic over his face would have been too restricting and boiling!
Overall, The Marvellous Elephant Man: The Musical is a terrific rendition of a real-life story. Bound together with an excellent soundtrack and performances, I can absolutely recommend seeing The Marvellous Elephant Man: The Musical.