'Exposure the Musical' St James Theatre **

There is a significant difference between what a photojournalist and a paparazzi does for a living with regards to their artistic merits, on the other hand, what transpires when a photographer has to understand about the rights of people’s privacy; specifically celebrities etc. The St James Theatre’s production of Mike Dyer’s musical, ‘Exposure the Musical’ was to be honest dull as dishwater and quite frankly amateurish which was quite disappointing, likewise, the performances were colourless and unappealing and this is throughout the entire show.

‘Exposure the Musical’ is set mostly in London where we are enlightened with photojournalist, Jimmy who has recently returned from taking a series of photographs of war with PTSD is reunited with childhood friend, Pandora who is now a famous popstar. Jimmy and Pandora have a previous history and we learn that Pandora used to fancy him and you can still that she still has feelings for him and due to her fame she gets herself into a real wave of self-annihilation such as drug taking and consuming alcohol. Over the course of the performance, Jimmy’s Father (Kurt Kansley) was a photojournalist who actually died on duty when Jimmy wasn’t even born so he gained his photography skills from him. However when Jimmy meets Pandora’s PR officer, Miles Mason, he offers Jimmy a huge wad of money and a new camera so that he can have the CEO (Zeph Gould) caught on camera having sex with someone that is not his wife. On his journey to Pandora’s party, Jimmy finds a homeless woman called Tara who is making angels out of coke cans and sells them to the public but when Jimmy tries to take a photo of Tara without her permission; as such Tara is not happy about it and tells him so, nevertheless, the two begin to talk in a friendly manner and she offers Jimmy one of her angels as an appreciation that he gave her some of his time. When it rains, he offers to take Tara back to his apartment where she seems to appreciate his work, yet, she sates that he should be asking people’s permission before taking the image and displaying it to the public. Throughout the performance, with Jimmy’s involvement with Miles, Jimmy is shocked to discover that Pandora is the one who has been having the affair with the CEO and with a cocktail of drugs she kills herself due to an overdose which is what happens with people in show business. Progressively, it is known that Miles is a master manipulator and kidnaps Tara so obviously Jimmy goes to rescue his new found love and due to a lot of violence which nearly ends Jimmy’s life. After a bizarre sequence that conveys the seven deadly sins, Jimmy has a weird heart to heart with his deceased father who soon reminds him of the ethics behind his work and integrity. At the finale, Jimmy and Tara are on holiday in the same location where his father was murdered and places a photo that was taken by his father as a mode of respect and apologises for his and his father’s mistakes within their photography. Dyer’s narrative and music and lyrics is increasingly messy and anarchic as there are too many elements that is present in one plotline which in turn does not work and the scene that features the seven deadly sins was particularly unnecessary and shoddy and the musical numbers such as; “Capture The Moment”, “Living The Dream”, “Love Comes Knocking” and “7even Deadly Sins” were pretty uninspiring and rather forgettable.

One found the performances by the company of, ‘Exposure the Musical’ to be exceedingly mediocre and rather clichéd which is pretty lacklustre and to be honest the feel of their performances proved rather out of their depths. David Albury is substandard as central protagonist, Jimmy; largely how in most of the show he has his top off and how he is at the point where he sings “Bandit Country” with Miles, he doesn’t cut it and even some of the moments with Tara, I just didn’t believe the relationship whatsoever. Natalie Anderson is disappointingly average as homeless, Tara; for example how I just couldn’t comprehend that the character was homeless and malnourished as she appeared quite sprightly and even with the “Innocent Skies” number there wasn’t much to rejoice about and was a bit uncomfortable to listen to. Michael Greco is mind-numbing as the scheming PR officer, Mile Mason; predominantly where we see that the ulterior motives of exposing someone for their debauchery wasn’t that well conveyed and within the seven deadly sins sequence, I wasn’t impressed with his delivery in the musical number. Niamh Perry is okay as popstar sensation, Pandora; especially how we can see a bit of realism of someone who has it all with regards to her fame can in fact be that depressed so she was somewhat watchable, she does remind me of singers like, Amy Winehouse and Britney Spears for their drug use.

Phil Willmott’s direction is woeful here as he has constructed a musical performance that for me was too cheesy for my liking even though I do like a bit of cheese sometimes but this just takes the biscuit and Lindon Barr’s choreography reminded me of a poor school production where the choreography is just embarrassing. Timothy Bird’s set and video design and Carla Goodman’s costume design is dreadful here as I really didn’t see the yearning for so much going on at once and to be honest the costumes themselves looked like a cheap H & M or even worse a Primark fashion show and the set was horrendously ludicrous. Overall, the experience of, ‘Exposure the Musical’ was jammed pack full of lamentable moments and one of the worst musical efforts that I have even seen in my life and it’s a show that is dead in the water.