CPH Culture gives Unhappily Ever After 5 stars
★★★★★☆
CPH Musicals and the acclaimed team behind the hit show "Shakespeare In Song" have joined forces at H2O, Hørsholmsgade 20, Copenhagen N — and the result is an original, clever, and witty musical cabaret written and directed by Rachel Kador, the show's elegant host.
With an exquisite sense of quality and relevance, she has assembled a show of lesser-known songs from famous musicals, alongside songs from overlooked or new musicals that have earned great acclaim but have never before had a chance on a professional Danish stage. What they share is that they shed light on why happy endings aren't always the right way to end a story. Does life end at marriage? Do we always live happily ever after? Or is the truth more complicated?
Behind the whimsical title UNHAPPILY EVER AFTER are songs about bad dates, failed proposals, broken promises, and unrequited love.
All of the evening's songs are sung in English. The excellent pianist Ethan Nowack discreetly supports nine singers, and in Rachel Kador's gentle direction, each of them gets their "moment of glory."
Stephen Sondheim is, naturally, strongly represented with songs from "Follies," "Company," and "A Little Night Music." The latter is represented by "The Miller's Son," which in Kristen Flanagan's interpretation becomes a song about women's condition in life.
Freya Uldal and Jasper Thomas delight with a wonderfully tragicomic duet called "Bad Idea" from "Waitress," and Evan Kilgore sings "Til I Hear You Sing" with longing in his voice, from "Love Never Dies," another of Det Ny Teater's musical hits.
The satirical "Therapy" from the Oscar-nominated Netflix musical "Tick Tick Boom" is given stage presence by Roger William Le Blanc Jr. and Melissa Bayern. Kristian Husted beautifully captures the uncertainty of dating in "Tonight at Eight" from "She Loves Me!", and Pablo Lara's rendition of "Papi Hears The Ocean" from the socially critical musical "The Band's Visit" (based on the award-winning Israeli film of the same name) likewise leaves us eager to see this musical performed in full on a Danish stage soon.
That Rachel Kador was also among the evening's finest singers was evident in her version of "Stars and the Moon" from the musical "Songs for a New World," as well as in the duet "One Second and a Million Miles" from "The Bridges of Madison County" with Evan Kilgore, the vocal surprise of the evening.
UNHAPPILY EVER AFTER confronts us with the stereotypes we grew up with in fairy tales, and which have helped shape who we are as people. With those role models, things were naturally bound to go wrong for us.
Tonight is the last chance to see UNHAPPILY EVER AFTER in Copenhagen, but hopefully the show will go on tour, because theatre concerts of this quality are rare and deserve all the support they can get.
(Michael Søby)
