Peter Viney's Blog

A New Musical
Based on the novel by Rachel Joyce
Book by Rachel Joyce
Music & Lyrics by Passenger

Directed by Katy Rudd
Designed by Samuel Wyer

Chichester Minerva Theatre
Saturday 24th May 2025, 14.15

CAST

The Balladeer- Jack Wolfe
Maureen Fry – Jenna Russell
Harold Fry- Mark Addy
Rex, their neighbour / Ensemble- Ralph Birtwell
Garage Girl / Kate- Sharon Rose
Sister Philomena / Martina – Madeleine Worrall
Quuenie Hennessey / Farmer’s Wife – Amy Booth-Steel
Silver-haired gentleman / Mr Napier- Don Gallagher
Wilf – Tarinn Callender
Dog handler / ensemble – Timo Tatzber
Rich / Ensemble – Ben Redfern
Ensemble – Jacqueline Hughes
Ensemble – Neil Martin
Ensemble – Anu Ogunmefen

The novel won the Booker Prize in 2012. I never read it, and I vaguely knew that there were a lot of copies around in bookshops and charity shops. Then I heard Rachel Joyce on Radio Four ahead of this production. It has been translated into 37 languages. It has sold millions. It was a major seller in translation throughout East Asia. At Chichester, we booked because we trust everything Chichester does is worth seeing. I didn’t read ahead. Usually I do the cast lists and links before I see a play so I can review more quickly. I was too busy this week. We saw The Goverment Inspector at Chichester two days earlier in the larger Festival Theatre. I was puzzled. There are usually stacks of fliers for current and forthcoming productions. I use them to head the reviews. None for The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Odd. Then when we got the programme (above) it did not have the running dates on. Odder. Chichester always does that. Then I looked at the CFT website to see how long it runs. Ah, SOLD OUT. That is all the way through, every performance. Don’t worry if you’re reading this, with ticket sales like that, it is a near certainty to go on to London. Those sales will be based on the reputation of the novel (and film). However, it got one of the fastest ever universal standing ovations I’ve seen at Chichester. I will be surprised if it is not the best production we see this year, and Mark Addy as Harold Fry deserves ‘Best Actor’ for 2025 so far. Yes, it’s that good.

The Minerva theatre is three sided. It can have a thrust stage, though here a circle was delineated on the floor. Note the ‘ensemble.’ They’re all ‘ensemble’ apart from Mark Addy. The costume changes are dizzying. It must be a major logistic stage management issue dressing them. There are any number of sudden small parts, such as when a cyclist (well, costume and handlebars) races past, nearly hits the walking Harold, screams ‘What the fuck!’ and disappears. Everyone is scene shifting. Sometimes there are neutral costumes and they just sit around the stage, providing props, such as when Harold wants a pen and paper and Maureen (Jenna Russell) gets him a stamp. It is all extremely fluid, superbly choreographed.

The plot? I thought I was the only one who hadn’t read the novel. We begin with the Balladeer who opens with sing Ridse Up that develops into dance. It is a major singing role as well as a constant observer role.

So Harold Fry (Mark Addy) in South Devon receives a letter from Queenie (Amy Booth-Steel), an old friend. She is in a hospice in Berwick-Upon-Tweed, just below the Scottish border. Mark Addy inhabits the character, innocent, bemused, quietly stubborn, non-judgemental. But then he will have to wrestle with inner demons. This masterly central performance is vital.

He goes out to post a condolence letter, and keeps walking for 500 miles after the girl in the garage encourages him telling her about her auntie who was dying of cancer and the importance of hope and belief.

Maureen is distraught, and assisted by their neighbour Rex (Ralph Birtwell). Harold will phone on the journey but left his mobile behind so the phone box is a recurring motif.

Harold meets various unusual people all the way. It’s inclusive from the rural farmer’s wife (Amy Booth-Steel again), to Wilf (Tarinn Callender) a Christian enthusiast, or The Silver-Haired Gentleman (Don Gallagher), an older gay man he meets in Bath where Harold persuades him to be honest and open. Then there are hippies. His reputation spreads.

He collects a dog (superb puppetry) along the way. Those who know me will be aware that cute fur babies do nothing for me, but this one worked in pulling the “Aah!” factor. Throughout we have flashbacks to meeting Queenie in the Brewery twenty years earlier. He was a sales rep, she was an accountant, but they had shared car journeys to subsidiaries. There are constant mentions of a son, David doubled by the near omnipresent Balladeer (Jack Wolfe).

A memorable flashback is when Maureen finds the dress she was wearing when she met Harold, as well as his old denim jacket that he wore that night. She then watches the meeting re-enacted. Note the entire cast dance at the meeting in appropriate costumes.

Harold Fry has now picked up an entourage. Disciples? Hangers on? He trudges ever onwards, eventually dismissing them.

The two underlying themes which emerge are David’s suicide, and why Harold should feel so committed to helping Queenie. The end, after he visits Queenie who is in a semi-coma then reunites with Maureen is a genuine two hankie tearjerker, even for a cynic like me.

It is a musical. All the music and lyrics are by Passenger (aka Mike Rosenberg). It’s not just me who thought the songs great:

But its winning twist lies in the music, composed by singer-songwriter Michael Rosenberg, otherwise known as Passenger, which blasts the story through with folksy heart and foot-stomping soul. One belter follows another from the first song, Rise Up, to the last, Here’s One for the Road.
(Arifa Akbar, The Guardian)

This is the core strength of the production. The range of styles is wide. Nearly everyone gets a lead vocal with ensemble backing vocal as necessary. There is not a single ‘filler’ even though the songs carry narrative. It ranges from the opening folky Rise Up, sung by The Balladeer to soul, to 1950s musical, to Andrew Lloyd Webber / Tim Rice style big ballads.

Then we get maybe the best song, Walk Upon The Water sung by the Garage Girl (Sharon Rose) then there is an instant costume change mid-song to sequins in blue. This is soul / gospel. Sharon Rose has performed in the West End covering Diana Ross in Motown and Little Eva in Beautiful! The Carole King Musical. That means we saw her when they all came on stage behind Carole King at Hyde Park. She is full-on star lead singer.

Jenna Russell takes lead vocals as Maureen, singing incongruously powerfully given her grey cardie and slacks costume, Tin of Soup For One, Such A Simple Thing. Amy Booth-Steel is the rural farmer’s wife for Such Is Life. Madeleine Worrall sings Keep on Walking Mr Fry in the role of Sister Philomena. She also gets the best comedy number in the role of the kindly Slovakian doctor, Martina, now working as a cleaner in England. That is You’re Fucked! The ensemble join in and unfortunately it’s a an ear-worm. The Silver Haired Gentleman (Don Gallagher) gets to sing the old-fashioned musical style Shout it From The Rooftops, a gay pride anthem. Coincidentally it was the day of the Gay Pride parade in Chichester. We watched, always a cheerful event. Tarinn Callender as Wilf gets the My Hero Harold Fry to open Act two. Mark Addy reminisces on Dear Girl In The Garage, and it all ends with the Balladeer leading the company in the catchy Here’s One For The Road. Eclectic? Phew. A great set of songs, begging for an original cast live recording.

As above, instant long standing ovation. It had that buzz. Driving home we tried to think if there was just the one little thing we could fault. Not a one. We just downloaded the audiobook of the novel for our next drives. Several million readers can’t be wrong. A definitive five stars.

*****

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID

5 star
Clive Davies, The Times *****
Theatre & Tonic *****
Susan Elkin Reviews *****

4 star
Arif Akbar, The Guardian ****
Sarah Crompton, What’s On Stage ****

3 star
Tim Bano, Financial Times
Dave Fargnoli, The Stage ***
Gary Naylor, Broadway World ***

LINKS ON THIS BLOG

MARK ADDY
The Hypocrite, RSC 2017
The Salisbury Poisonings (TV series) 2020

JENNA RUSSELL
Woman in Mind, Ayckbourn, Chichester 2022

AMY BOOTH-STEEL
Assassins, Sondheim, Chichester 2023

TARRIN CALLENDER
The Cat & The Canary, Chichester 2024
Hamilton, London 2018

RALPH BIRTWELL
Macbeth, Tara Arts on tour 2015