Fly More Than You Fall
Review by Sam
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Christian Durham directs this brand new musical, featuring the powerhouse vocal talent of tony-nominated actress Keala Settle. But does the show quite literally ‘fly’ or ‘fall’?
Avid writer Malia’s life is thrown into turmoil when her mother receives a terminal cancer diagnosis. As she navigates this challenging chapter with her family, she finds solace in her writing through the mirrored story of a bird named Willow. At its core, the show has all the makings of the next “Dear Evan Hansen”, with its promise to be an emotional rollercoaster. However, the book ends up feeling largely predictable and simultaneously convoluted with analogies.
Multiple scenes have the potential to break audiences, but sadly the show struggles to fully execute the heart-wrenching moments it tries so hard to achieve. With a predictable narrative structure, audiences end up seeing where scenes end before they are over. The direction is at times also confusing, with Willow singing and conversing across the characters in the ‘real’ story which is simultaneously occurring. As a result the mirrored narrative ends up detracting from the raw emotion of the main story which is the heart of the script. Despite this, the set design is extremely effective in emphasising the overall story beautifully, with vibrant pages of notebooks littering the stage to showcase a look into Malia’s creative mind.
The performances in the piece were largely good from a beautifully diverse cast, with Max Gill being a consistent scene stealer throughout. Their solo number in Act 1 was the stand out moment of the show for me, as they burst with energy in a fun and upbeat song which starkly contrasts to the other more repeated motifs heard throughout.
With further development and some alternative creative decisions, the show has the potential to be a real success. However, I sadly found this production to be a little underwhelming, with a predictable narrative that failed to tug on my heart strings in the way it intended to.