Alick Glass and his daughter Suzanne have written and composed this new musical , Reputation about plagiarism in Hollywood and set it on the long road from the page through workshops to its first public performance at The Other Palace and it feels harsh in their presence to judge what still looks like work in progress on a good idea.
In the small studio space and with a cast of ten they presented a concert version of the piece with a handful of props and some pretty costumes. It was hard to get a sense of the period - 1935 to 1937- aside from the references to the then movie stars and an Atlantic crossing of six days, it could have been set in any period. It is a simple story of a small-time crook who rips off New writer's scripts as his own for a Hollywood and stumbles across one that can get nominated for an Oscar. Written by a young American in Paris, The Page is her passion and she set out to prove her case. In the course of two hours there is very little character development, an absence of sub plots and a critical character, her father, never actually appears on stage. There is no jeopardy in the plot and the outcome is always obvious from the start. The obvious feminist and #MeToo implications are underplayed.
