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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
