Review of ‘Snap!’: “Not a flash of brilliance”

The King’s Head Theatre hosts the return of David O’Brien’s camp chamber musical. Guillermo Nazara shares his views on the piece, to let us know if its photo-themed narrative shows good reflexes.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but not even a million could accurately portray what audiences were put through last night at the King’s Head Theatre. Spoiler alert: none of them would be kind. But neither was the show to its viewers – who, besides a decently-sounding cast trying to do their very best, had to deal with an disconcerting assortment of derivative songs, nonsensical plot devices, and artificial lines.

There are no redeeming elements in the writing. Sadly, not a single part in the piece works. With music, lyrics, and a book by David O’Brien, the entire repertoire goes more than a few steps beyond evoking a Sondheim-esque flavour; it shamelessly borrows directly from it — instantly reminding us of preexisting melodies without adding any specks of originality.

The verses don;t display the same level of inspiration — in every sense of the word. With an overall clunky, lazy feel, their execution is stained by a recurring shortage of cadence, proper rhyming, and, above all, profundity. Team it up with a book plagued with unfunny jokes and a complete absence of flow and character motivation, and you’ll end up with anything but a recipe for success.

There’s no potential in the story, either. Not even in its premise, which I’m still trying to figure out. A young guy is feeling down. He becomes an underwear model. His girlfriend thinks he’s dumped her. It turns out it was an auto-correct mistake when he was texting her. And then, the performance is over. 70 minutes of boredom and confusion with nothing to offer but an excruciating feeling of eternity.

Some of the company members manage to make an impression. Yet, the material’s weaknesses can only accentuate their severe lack of chemistry and naturalness. From an acting perspective, every rendition lands tremendously sterile — missing any hints of flair. As a result, the sole genuine praise that can be given is to Hayley Maybury’s excellent singing — matched, to some extent, by Justine Marie Mead and Matteo Giambiasi.

Good photography captures reality’s soul. Good theatre conquers audiences’ hearts. Undecided as to what it wants to tell, and certainly not doing it through the right lens, Snap! overexposes its unreadiness by composing a blurred shot of a musical — with absolutely no balance, colour, or significance to justify its place onstage. With some thorough reworkings, it might develop some more appealing features. But so far, all we’ve been given is the negatives.

All pictures credit to Stuart Yeatman.

Snap! plays at London’s King’s Head Theatre until 25 May. Tickets are available on the following link.

By Guillermo Nazara