Only the Brave: Wales Millennium Centre,co-production with the Soho Theatre, Daniel Sparrow Productions and Birdsong Productions.
Only the Brave tells the true story of the Airborne division, in 1943 that was recruited, trained and eventually played a crucial part of the D-Day operations.
While, as authors Rachel Wagstaff, Steve Marimon and Matthew Brind, note some events have been abridged, the musical seeks to tell their story.
The men we meet are a group of mainly working class men who volunteered for an elite division of the air force. As a powerful closing speech shows, after the war they went back to working-class jobs and ordinary lives as window cleaners or bus drivers.
The mission undertaken by the air force men in the story is a landing behind enemy lines in occupied France ahead of the planned D-Day invasion to capture Benouville Bridge in Northern France. Meanwhile French resistance forces in the occupied small town are risking their lives feeding information to British intelligence and the wives of the men involved are working in telegram offices, relaying information about the war.
It’s a lot to take in over the course of a musical, and some of the finer points of plot do become a little lost. That said, it’s rare that a writing team gives such care and attention to historical detail in this medium, and the writers of Only the Brave have set the bar high in this respect.
From soaring company numbers to delicate ballads, the emotion of the piece is found in the music. And while there is a period feel to the music the musical writing feels fresh and new.
All of the above has been brought together expertly by Steve Marmion’s direction.
Making use of some clever projections-from a tank looming over the stage, to the stark outline of the bridge the narrative focuses on. One really struck me, which was the tree at which a resistance fighter was killed, looked like the aerial shots of the trenches and battlefield in France.
Some simple staging with interlocking steps and platforms brought to life all the locations for the story-telling from a nightclub to the battlefields.
All the performances did more than justice to the piece – David Thaxton as Captain John Howard showed once again what a powerful voice he has and that he is capable of emotional, nuanced performances. Caroline Sheen was equally brilliant vocally, as well Neil McDermott and Nikki Mae – who was utterly heart-breaking as resistance fighter Isabelle.
The company worked tirelessly, and even this early on worked as a wonderfully in sync group-particular mention to the ‘Platoon’ who have the most physically and vocally challenging combinations.