Hex - NT

Rufus Norris needs to gracefully bow out. It's been a difficult tenure, and Hex really has been an awful misadventure raising several questions about how an artistic director of a national theatre should conduct themselves. He should announce that intends to step down to focus on directing individual shows and let a new voice lead in the post-covid era of the NT. Marianne Elliot would be amazing but I dare say she can make a lot more money and probably have a lot more fun sticking with Elliot & Harper.

Hex should never return. Use the pandemic as an excuse, that the run has ended and that "we'll be looking for opportunities to bring this back when the schedule allows" then never bother looking. I really like the idea of the NT using some of it's heft to create new musicals, there's such little going on in the UK in musical theatre writing that we need institutions like this to give UK artists a chance to have their work developed. It's a disgrace that the opportunity went to Rufus and his wife, and that they've screwed it up so badly.

Oh that's interesting. I had also been wondering if they'd made major changes, because the show I saw had almost no redeeming features. I hadn't noticed the trend in it being new users sharing positive reviews. Or maybe we've all be so harsh (rightfully, in my opinion) on it that casual readers have felt the urge to make accounts just to defend it :')

There are a few clips of the show on the NT Instagram and being promoted on Facebook, and they just serve to remind me how awful it all was. That ridiculous baby Rose costume... Nightmare-inducing!

I positively reviewed it and have no connection to HEX, I’m typically a browser of theatre board but was so surprised by some of the reviews I read I felt compelled to make an account and give my opinion.

I found that bit hilarious 😂 In fairness mostly due to the good performance of the actress, I can't remember the actual costume.

^

That’s a point I forgot to mention in my short review / observations.

I feel like they missed a trick with Queen Regina and the husband!!!

So much potential for character growth and then suddenly forgotten about.

Bizarre choice to use that as promo. It’s a musical. Showcase the songs???

Yeah, I had a very slight curiosity about this one but that clip has helped keep me in the 'nope' camp. Also just a bizarre clip to showcase the show isn't it?

Contrarily, that clip rather intrigued me and I'm glad I've booked. I like weird, but I also like good (!) so I need the weirdness to be balanced by a sense that the creatives have a clear idea of what they're doing and why, even if the audience are left to puzzle it out. It needs to feel right, even if we can't quite put our finger on why.

All this said, I do think the National has never been able to nail its relationship to musical theatre and, even after all this time, it doesn't know how to naturally embrace sung theatre. There was the period of all the classics - Carousel etc - which was fine, but never quite felt a natural fit to me. It was as if an opera house that wanted to branch out, but wasn't sure which plays to produce, kept doing Shakespeare to be on the safe side. Then there have been the Sondheim revivals, which I'm forever grateful for, because they did so much to cement Sondheim as a viable theatrical force. The 1995 staging of A Little Night Music is possibly my favourite staging of any show ever. But, equally, I've always felt that there was an attitude of respecting Sondheim but little else - of putting him in a box, somehow, as the only person writing musicals with as much insight or artistry as straight plays, which is, of course, nonsense. There have been a few US imports - Caroline or Change, Hadestown - which have snuck through but not nearly as many as there could or should have been (no Dave Malloy, no Michael John LaChiusa, not even Kander & Ebb... and the National could have done Fun Home, Grey Gardens, Next to Normal - any number of interesting shows). Most of all, the National's record in developing new musicals has been woeful. The Light Princess. Wonder.Land. Even London Road was probably the best of a bad bunch. I haven't loved any of them - and no-one else has much either. As someone who is involved in a lot of new musical theatre writing in the UK, I can tell you 100% the talent is out there, and the opportunities just aren't.

So - my question is - what is the problem??? And what is the solution?

Although that approach has worked wonders for many of the mega musicals...

There is also a clip of the whole hi, hi, hi, hello bit. It's not quite as awful, but it's possibly more frustrating because that song does have potential, but still falls short. The actress playing Rose is doing a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to making the most of what they have to work with. There's just something off about the rhythm of the song, plus a couple of truly cringeworthy lyrics.

Edit for link: www.facebook.com/nationaltheatre/videos/hello-hello-hi-performed-by-kat-ronney-rosalie-craig-and-michael-elcock-from-hex/1288377414965147/

Yes, I don't know why they've chosen that clip for Instagram. However, for those intrigued/repelled by Rosalie Craig's bald cap, I can point out that they appear to have sorted that out since that clip was filmed - I was in the front row last Friday and she had a much more fetching cap with feather-y bits sticking out which I thought looked rather good. The cap in that clip is pretty bad news...

I’ve cancelled my other plans so I can go next Friday. Not sure I want to risk waiting for a return run.