How much would you be willing to sacrifice to get famous? What would you give up to get where you want? This ideas seems to be an idea explored in many modern musical theatre albums and rightfully so as this is an issue that many creatives face every day. Whether you are an aspiring artist, an eager entrepreneur or a passionate performer etc there will come a time where you have to decide between your career or something else and so exploring this idea through the medium of song will be relatable to many people watching (and in fact actually involved with) the show. The new cast recording of “Cases” is another one of the shows that explores the real and honest journey creatives face throughout their lives. The musical was created with input from Micheal Auger who is most known for his involvement with the “Britain’s Got Talent” winning group Collabro. Having recently reviewed “A tale to Tell” which was a movie musical produced by fellow Britain’s Got Talent Alumni ‘Twist and Pulse’ (which you can read at https://rhysopayne.wordpress.com/2021/01/06/a-tale-to-tell-musical-short-film-review/) and so the bar was set very high for this album. It is always exciting for me to see people branch out from what they became famous for but does but a lot of pressure on the project but “Cases” did not seem fazed in the slightest.
“Cases” is a studio cast recording that has produced by a very professional team including professional performers. The show had been performed at the Other Places in London with great acclaim which shows you have great the show has been received. Every song is this song is flawlessly performed by a host of wonderful performers and generally speaking, the songs are mostly very dramatic and subdued. The majority of the songs in this recording are very emotionally powerful which is not something I usually enjoy in a show. Despite the shows being fantastic, I did think it needs something a little different as I did find that the constantly subdued melodies did become a little repetitive and a change of energy would have helped to break out the tracks.
The song “possession” was a very powerful song with the performer (Bobbie Little) pouring every emotion into this number. Bobbie is an insanely talented performer who’s vocals are stunning to listen to! One of my favourite number in this album is “let your garden grow” which was also an emotionally driven song that focuses on the importance of mental health awareness but at the same time focusing on yourself. The song describes how people need to nurture themselves so that they can ‘grow’ into who they need to be. This song was flawlessly performed by the artist known as APW who is absolutely someone to keep an eye on in the musical theatre realm. Unusually this show has a number that to me seems like the classic ‘end of act one’ style number. The song “the cost of living” is a big ensemble number that is a slight emotion change from the rest of the songs in this album. This is followed by “interlude 1” which is a reprise of the opening number with a slight change in lyrics to reflect how the story has progressed so far. I have not experienced a musical that seemed to have such an obvious point of an intermission on a digital soundtrack so that was a very unique thing to witness. The album on Spotify also contains two bonus tracks “Replaces” and “faces” with the latter being another very powerful song. The former was almost an audio blooper reel of the performers as they make mistakes while recording the number. If I ever get a chance to see this production in a real theatre o hope they find a way to include “faces” as it was another one of the songs so enjoyed the most!
Overall, this is a very high-quality recording of a new musical that draws on some very important issues. I believe that the constant emotional vibe could have been broken up by something a bit more upbeat but that is just my personal preference. I would rate this show 4 out of 5 stars and would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about the personal toll a persist of fame can have!
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