{"id":970763,"date":"2016-10-06T20:21:47","date_gmt":"2016-10-06T19:21:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/8ce250469d.nxcli.io\/?p=970763"},"modified":"2020-08-23T00:19:29","modified_gmt":"2020-08-22T23:19:29","slug":"murder-ballad-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment-focus.com\/2016\/10\/06\/murder-ballad-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Murder Ballad review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MurderJulia Jordan and Juliana Nash\u2019s effective, but flawed, Murder Ballad \u2013 a chamber musical with a rock edge \u2013 gets its UK premiere at London\u2019s Arts Festival.<\/p>\n

The one act, sung-through production opens with young New Yorker Sara and her bad boy lover Tom alternately fighting and kissing. The tempestuous couple go their separate ways and Sara sets up home with good guy Michael. But, becoming bored of the school run and a comfortable but lustless marriage, Sara reignites her affair with Tom which, as the title suggests, doesn\u2019t end well.<\/p>\n

The contained, slight story is both refreshing in its honesty and simplicity, but also criminally under baked. The narrative is pacy and compelling but doesn\u2019t give time for any of the characters to breathe and develop, meaning that the audience finds it hard to care. Thankfully the cast makes up for the book\u2019s shortcomings.<\/p>\n

West End darling Kerry Ellis is in fine voice as Sara and pitch perfect for the dramatic rock\/pop tracks. She also manages to add depth to her one dimensional character and excels in the more dramatic moments \u2013 something she\u2019s obviously far more comfortable with than the awkward sexual scenes. But what Ellis lacks in passion, Ramin Karimloo more than makes up for.<\/p>\n

\"Murder
Credit: Marc Brenner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A tightly bound ball of sexual chemistry, Karimloo has an animalistic presence on stage and makes it easy to see why Sara is spellbound by his charms. Of course, it helps that he spends a healthy chunk of the show sans shirt.<\/p>\n

Norman Bowman has the least to work with as Sara\u2019s neglected husband but does elicit sympathy as the nice guy done wrong.<\/p>\n

\"Murder
Credit: Marc Brenner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Victoria Hamilton-Barritt is the lynchpin of the show as the narrator. Think of her as the narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat \u2013 just with a permanently-arched eyebrow, sardonic smile and 40-a-day cigarette habit. She slinks around the stage with a menacing grace and her unique vocal stylings add texture and character to the score.<\/p>\n

Unlike anything else in the West End, Murder Ballad is an intriguing outing which has plenty going for it \u2013 but it\u2019s unlikely to make a killing.<\/p>\n

\"Murder
Credit: Marc Brenner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cast:<\/strong> Kerry Ellis, Ramin Karimloo, Victoria Hamilton-Barritt, Norman Bowman, Natalie McQueen, Matthew Harvey Book:<\/strong> Julia Jordan Music:<\/strong> Juliana Nash Lyrics:<\/strong> Julia Jordan, Juliana Nash Director:<\/strong> Sam Yates Musical Director:<\/strong> Sean Green Duration<\/strong>: 85 mins Theatre:<\/strong> Arts\u00a0Performance Dates:<\/strong> 30th September to 3rd December 2016<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An effective but flawed a chamber musical with a rock edge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":970881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[675],"tags":[8641,23803,23799,23802,23801,23800,11837],"yoast_head":"\nMurder Ballad review - Entertainment Focus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/entertainment-focus.com\/2016\/10\/06\/murder-ballad-review\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Murder Ballad review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An effective but flawed a chamber musical with a rock edge.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/entertainment-focus.com\/2016\/10\/06\/murder-ballad-review\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Entertainment Focus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/entertainmentfocus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-10-06T19:21:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-08-22T23:19:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/entertainment-focus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/MurderBalladFeature.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"540\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lee Gunther\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Ent_Focus\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Ent_Focus\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lee Gunther\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/entertainment-focus.com\/2016\/10\/06\/murder-ballad-review\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/entertainment-focus.com\/2016\/10\/06\/murder-ballad-review\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lee Gunther\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/entertainment-focus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f16671bc91e74ad4c52e7ffcb5581bb5\"},\"headline\":\"Murder Ballad review\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-06T19:21:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-08-22T23:19:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/entertainment-focus.com\/2016\/10\/06\/murder-ballad-review\/\"},\"wordCount\":435,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/entertainment-focus.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/entertainment-focus.com\/2016\/10\/06\/murder-ballad-review\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/entertainment-focus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/MurderBalladFeature.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Kerry Ellis\",\"Matthew Harvey\",\"Murder Ballad\",\"Natalie McQueen\",\"Norman Bowman\",\"Ramin Karimloo\",\"Victoria Hamilton-Barritt\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Arts & Lifestyle\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/entertainment-focus.com\/2016\/10\/06\/murder-ballad-review\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2016\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/entertainment-focus.com\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/entertainment-focus.com\/2016\/10\/06\/murder-ballad-review\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/entertainment-focus.com\/2016\/10\/06\/murder-ballad-review\/\",\"name\":\"Murder Ballad review - 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