Latest news with #Rose-Lynn
The Guardian
23-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Wild Rose review – heart-grabbing musical of the Jessie Buckley-starring film
Rose-Lynn is twentysomething and wild, feisty (an understatement), funny. Her dream? To sing country songs on Nashville's Grand Ole Opry stage. The reality? Glasgow, a criminal record, a curfew bracelet on her ankle, two young children and a job as a cleaner. In this fast-moving, heart-grabbing new musical by Nicola Taylor, directed by John Tiffany, we follow Rose-Lynn – a star performance from Dawn Sievewright – as she stumbles, staggers, dances, sings and fights her way along the path to self-realisation, backed all the way by a mood-shifting eight-piece band country-kaleidoscoping from rockin' rhythms to hushed ballads under Ali Roocroft's toe-tapping direction. Taylor's storyline, based on her award-winning 2018 film starring Jessie Buckley, follows a Wizard of Oz trajectory, mussed up and gritted down, highlighted in the lyrics of the climactic closing number: 'Ain't no yellow brick road/ Running through Glasgow… Ain't no place like home.' In overcoming obstacles of self-doubt and social deprivation, Rose-Lynn is fairy-godmothered by her art school-trained, bored housewife employer (pitched perfectly by Janet Kumah) and enlightened by an invisible presence (real-life DJ, 'Whispering' Bob Harris, 'appearing' as voice-off in a BBC studio). At times, plot improbabilities require us to do more that merely suspend disbelief: we have to eradicate it from our consciousness. What makes us want to do this is an involving emotional through line. Rose-Lynn's evolving relations with her three companions – mother (played by Blythe Duff) and children (Lily Ferguson and Alfie Campbell) – are touchingly credible. Their peculiar, particular situation nevertheless connects to anyone who has ever felt torn between family and career. The gradual shift from fracture towards healing begins with their soul-stretching rendering of Peace in this House (who knew Duff could sing like that?). Changes of tone, tempo and location are executed with the brio of a Texas two-step thanks to an excellent creative team and Tiffany's clear-sighted direction. In Sievewright's generous performance, the mega-watt Rose-Lynn commands the stage without dominating an impressive ensemble in which every actor/singer and musician shines. Wild Rose is at the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, until 19 April
The Guardian
16-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Wild Rose review – Glasgow meets Nashville in big-hearted country musical
If you can't be sentimental in a show about country music, when can you be? The most affecting moments in this big-hearted musical come when tough talking gives way to tenderness. Like the genre itself, Wild Rose is forthright, vibrant and emotionally raw. Wittily adapted by Nicole Taylor from her 2018 film of the same name and staged with elan by John Tiffany, it is the story of ex-con Rose-Lynn Harlan as she tries to reconcile the need to care for her children with her ambitions to make it as a singer. Believing no country star ever came out of Glasgow, she sets her sights on Nashville. That is, after she has dealt with the cleaning job, ankle tag and night-time curfew. This is all the excuse choreographers Steven Hoggett and Vicki Manderson need to stage exuberant line dances, propelled by Ali Roocroft's jolly eight-piece band sitting across the back of the open set by Chloe Lamford. That's all great fun, as is the class-based comedy provided by the hard-up singer who uses 'Shazam for bathrooms' to identify the price of fancy floor tiles and the appeal court judge who is surprisingly well versed in country music's origins in Irish/Scots folk. Beneath the fanfare, this is also a show about inequality of opportunity. But what strikes deep is the scenes of fragility. It is when Rose-Lynn (Dawn Sievewright) quietly articulates why country music means so much to her: 'Three chords and the truth.' It is in the delay before she finds a way to sing with her children (on my night, Alfie Campbell and Lily Ferguson, both excellent). And it is when mother Marion (Blythe Duff) stands alone and vulnerable for a second-half solo. Through it all, Sievewright is a star in the most unstarry way. Quite brilliantly, she captures Rose-Lynn's charm and streetwise patter as well as her defensiveness and fear. Scarcely off the stage, she retains an air of modesty even while singing, gloriously, without fanfare or histrionics. As with the film, the ending does not quite deliver the feelgood bounce you crave – but, fronting a joyful ensemble, Sievewright's aim is true. At the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, until 19 April
BBC News
24-02-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Wild Rose: Glasgow country music film blooms as a musical
Long before Taylor Swift made country music cool, a character called Rose Lynn Harlan took root in writer Nicole Taylor's head."I was just obsessed with this girl who was just chatting away in my mind," she recalls."I wanted to bring her to life but back in 2009, country music was the love which daren't speak its name. It was really cringey."Sixteen years later, Nicole has not only brought Rose Lynn to the big screen in the Bafta-nominated film Wild Rose, but a stage version is about to have its world premiere at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in story is the same: Rose-Lynn is a former prisoner and single mum in Glasgow working as a cleaner by day and fronting a country band by night, with dreams of fame tempered by the reality of caring for her two young rooted in Glasgow's real-life country music scene, as home to the UK's biggest country club the Grand Ole Opry and Celtic Connections' Transatlantic Sessions. The film version starred Jessie Buckley as Rose-Lynn, with Julie Walters playing her long suffering mother had its Scottish premiere at the Glasgow Film Festival in whose screen credits include Three Girls, The Nest and the recent Netflix hit One Day was delighted when the film won audiences and awards, including Best Actress and Best Feature Film at the Scottish she was already thinking where Rose-Lynn could go next and despite never having written for the stage, she reserved the rights for the show."I just knew it was naturally theatrical," she says."The way she expresses herself through country music. What is that, if not a musical?"During the pandemic, she wrote to director John Tiffany who had directed Black Watch for the National Theatre of Scotland."I loved how audacious it was, how Scottish it was and I wanted it to have that amazing Scottishness and energy."John Tiffany had moved to London, where he'd directed Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and Once, a musical adaptation of the Oscar winning film which went on to win eight Tony he already knew Rose-Lynn. "I had seen the film in London when it first came out and absolutely adored it," he says."That last scene with Jessie singing the song Glasgow in the Fruitmarket where Black Watch had been first staged, had me and my partner in tears."I was so homesick for Scotland, having left five years earlier and I said to my partner as we left the cinema, if I had still been working in Scottish theatre, I'd be all over that like a rash."The musical is now in the final stages of rehearsal, ahead of its world premiere in features songs by Wyonna Judd, The Chicks, Patti Griffin and Dolly Parton - as well as that original song Glasgow (No Place Like Home) which reduced John Tiffany to nominated actress and singer Dawn Sievewright, whose credits include Legally Blonde in London's West End and Twelfth Night at the Lyceum will play Rose-Lynn. She too recalls being "blown away" by "this film about a wild Glaswegian lassie"."I love slipping into her skin," she says."I think she's the most exciting, unpredictable emotional character I have ever played. "It's testing me to every end. The singing, the dancing, the way the set moves, the way the people move. "It's a swirl of a world which is amazing to be part of." Blythe Duff takes on the role of her mother. Best known for her long running role in TV's Taggart, she has been in a number of theatre productions in recent years, including Harry Potter and the Cursed says the role has brought her full circle, having started her career in Edinburgh with the musical infused Wildcat Theatre company. The company was co-founded by Dave Anderson, whose son Davey Anderson has worked with Sarah Travis on the orchestration and arrangements for Wild music is performed onstage by a band of eight musicians playing 14 different instruments, and of course there's line also believes that the show brings country music full circle."I think we've always had a strong connection," she says."Partly because of the Grand Ole Opry in Glasgow but also because of Celtic Connections and in particular, the Transatlantic Sessions. "Those moments have brought incredible country singers to Scotland so we've been really lucky and well served and that audience has been there for years and I think this will just tap into that."Dawn agrees: "We love anything that's about big emotion."We love to laugh hard, cry hard, shout hard. Country music encapsulates that in a way that there's no shame. "I got dumped, I'm bankrupt, and I've got nowhere to live. There'll be a song about that." Wild Rose opens at The Royal Lyceum in Edinburgh on March 14th, with previews from 6 March.
