I was able to partake in the world premiere of a brand new musical this evening, Battersea Bardot.
Battersea Bardot, a one woman show, tells the story of former film star Carol White, a London native. This musical takes place in August of 1991, in Miami, Florida, where Carol White was rushed into the hospital after having collapsed without dancing. We are now watching as she drifts in and out of consciousness reliving a pivotal event in her life, the event that changed everything. The evening in which she is alone with the internal demons, and ghosts of her past, that haunt her. Having become too pressured with the Hollywood nightmare, she tries to take her own life.
Anne Rabbitt, who portrays Carol White, does a good job of telling this story to the audience. Though Rabbitt’s performance lacked a bit of emotion in certain areas, she held her own with being the only actress in this show. There were times when Rabbitt would be standing flat foot delivering a massive monologue, whereas this could have been more impactful if more movement had been incorporated. It is not an easy task to be the only one on stage, singing all of the songs and carrying the show, but Rabbitt did what needed to be done and for that, I applaud her.
The staging and lighting of this production, in my opinion, needed work as they took away from the raw emotion that could’ve been felt by both the actress and the audience. The lights were a little too dim with not enough light on the actress’ face. With this studio at the New Wimbeldon Theatre being so small and intimate, the little things make a huge difference. With that being said, I believe the quality of the show could be enhanced if a little more time and thought was taken into account with regards to the theatrical elements.
I applaud the entire creative team of this show as they took a story of something that many people avoid talking about and giving it a beautiful space to be heard. I enjoyed how the songs were connected to the pieces of Carol White’s story and could tell that time and thought were spent making sure each lyric had meaning and held weight to the events in her life.
Though this is a small production with a few minor flaws, I would recommend this show to anyone who loves a good musical with great story-telling and a great message. Battersea Bardot is currently playing at the New Wimbledon Theatre studio until 23rd. For more information and tickets, you can follow the link here.
⭐️⭐️⭐️
{AD | gifted}
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