Treason The Musical In Concert @ Cadogan Hall Online

5 Stars

Oliver Tompsett as Robert Catesby. Treason The Musical is a new concept musical with songs written by Ricky Allan and a book by Kieran Lynn. They have recently released a concert version of this new musical recorded at Cadogan Hall in London, featuring an all star cast made of West End performers ahead of a full production coming next year. The show returns for an on demand stream between the 26th and the 28th March with tickets at £15. An album made of 5 of the songs from the musical is available from Spotify and other streaming services now.

The musical opens with narration from Debris Stevenson, who also narrates key points throughout the story. Her rap-like narration brings a modern feel to this story.

A stand out performance in the show comes from Daniel Boys, seen recently in Falsettos at the Other Palace, whose camp song comes early on in the show, introducing us to this character. Another key performance comes from Oliver Tompsett, most recently seen as William Shakespeare in & Juliet as Robert Catesby a key conspirator against the government.

The music in this show comes from a variety of genres blending rap from Stevenson’s narration to pop and also to more traditional folk that may be more reminiscent of the Tudor times in which this story is set. A key song which I particularly liked (and cannot stop listening to) in this concert was Taking Things Into Our Own Hands which comes following King James breaking his promises to the Catholics worried about their persecution.

If I had one criticism of this show, it would be that some of the cast are under-utilised, for example we only see Sharon Rose who I saw as Eliza in Hamilton in January last year who is an absolutely incredible actress, I had completely forgotten she was in the show until I revisited the cast list after the show. She only appeared for a small part of the show in a more ensemble number.