RIDE
Southwark Playhouse Elephant
Date: 22 July 2023 (Saturday), 2:30
Seats: B12-13
(Seen with Jess!)
Notes: This show. Wow.
I had heard about this show from a YouTuber I follow, who had seen it in its previous version, and did a video where he live reacted to the release of the cast recording. I listened to it and watched along with the video and fell in love. It is a new British musical, only 3 years old and the second production of it in this form. When I looked up the production it was being ahead at a new to me venue as well - the Southwark Playhouse Elephant. I have been to the Southwark Playhouse before, seeing Ain’t Misbehavin’ there as well as one of my all time favourite shows, Preludes, but this is the new venue they opened in 2021. It is just near Elephant and Castle station and not far from what is now called Southwark Playhouse Borough! So I booked Jess and I preview seats for one of the final preview shows, and just after school finished and all.
When you see a show in a theatre as small as this (only 300ish seats) every seat is a good one, but ours was excellent in Row B! We were within much eye contact distance, which also definitely happened - they even pointed at me at one point! The premise of this show was also super interesting. It is about Annie Londonderry, the first woman to cycle around the world, which happened in 1894-5. The show takes place after that journey, while pitching herself to the New York World newspaper as a their newest writer. She retells her travels, with the help of the secretary Martha, who plays every other character along the way. Accents and simple costumes included! That’s the basic premise but there is a deeper level, about what is actually real, what is not, and who Annie Londonderry really is as well as why she set off on their journey. A fascinating story!
I really enjoyed the staging of this show. It is set up as the interview room with table, desk and chairs which are all on wheels to be moved around to form different parts, and with functioning drawers with costumes and props coming in and out the whole show. The coatrack serves as both a place for Annie to hang her hat, but also a place for the costume pieces. And then about halfway through, it opened up (as Annie does!) to give more space including space for riding bikes! Every inch of the small stage is cleverly used and made worthwhile which I really appreciated.
The reason I wanted to see this show was the music, which I have been listening to on repeat ever since I first heard it. I loved the accents, the clever rhymes (as Annie travels through Asian cities), and the soaring vocals. The main themes of each song is reused cleverly throughout to link the themes. My favourite numbers are the title song ‘Ride’ - it is a sweeping bop which extols the virtues of riding a bike as a tool for freedom, particularly for women of that era. Also incredible is ‘Miles Away from Boston’. It has a beautiful rocking guitar line, those clever lyrics again (‘heck if it wasn’t so franchise it could be romantic, you know’, ‘look at who we are/we’re like fire and ice, you’re verbose I’m concise that won’t do/a disastrous pairing so why am I staring like this at you’), and with a heartbeat underpinning the whole thing. And despite being a love song between a female and male character, it is two actresses as Martha is playing the role of the male. So it becomes a 2 female duet, with the most gorgeous harmonies I’ve heard in ages between two ladies. To die for, even in the recording, and even more so live. And definitely sapphic vibes between Annie and Martha.
I definitely think that a lot of the show relies on the actors, and this is even more true when there are only 2 people in the show. Katy Ellis played Martha, and while I took a while to warm up to her character, I think that’s supposed to be the case as she takes time to warm up to the show too. As she came out of her shell I only liked her more and her character work was very good - she does a great French accent! The mixing of the voices was sublime. But Annie. Played by Liv Andrusier, and having won the 2023 Off West End Award for ‘Leading Performance in a Musical’ for this role, is perfection as Annie. A flawless Bostonian accent all the way, super character work, brutal honesty and heartbreaking moments abound. And the way she was mixed in the sound meant that she was as loud as she could go without breaking the sound, loud enough to drown in. Physical chills on multiple occasions, and in person ‘Miles Away From Boston’ brought me to tears. She is the perfection of this role and I hope it gets recorded so I can watch it forever.
Because this show was a preview, it was only £16 a seat. One of the most incredible shows I’ve seen in ages, and for an incredible price! We are so lucky to have this life here in London, really. I love it so much. I would want to see it again before it closes but we are in Australia. I don’t think I will ever forget this show and will see it again in a heartbeat if I get the chance in the future!
