REVIEW: Dogfight at the Southwark Playhouse

Dogfight an early musical from the powerhouse duo Pasek and Paul, written just before Dear Evan Hansen. Having previously played at the Southwark Playhouse for the Off West-End debut in 2014, five years later it returns to be performed by the British Theatre Academy. With a five piece band accompanying this intimate, no-interval performance, this show certainly takes you on a journey.

The show is set in 1963 on the eve of three young Marines being deployed to Vietnam. However, when Corporal Eddie Birdlace meets Rose and enlists her to win a cruel bet with his fellow recruits, she opens his eyes to the power of love and compassion and rewrites the game for him.

Dogfight in itself has a lot going for it as a musical – the score is absolutely gorgeous, and a great story - but for me writing wise there are flaws. Ultimately it feels as a show about twenty minutes too short (there are characters I’d have loved to have got to know more about before the abrupt end), although obviously this is not anything that can be added, but I also think it could have done with an interval – there wasn’t enough constant tension in the script to make me feel like a no-interval decision added anything.

REVIEW: Dogfight at the Southwark Playhouse

Dogfight is a new book musical based on the 1991 movie of the same name starring River Phoenix and Lili Taylor, premièred Off-Broadway in 2012 with Joe Mantello directing and a cast that included Lindsay Mendez, David Klena and Annaleigh Ashford It won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical and it was also nominated for five Outer Critics Circle and two Drama Desk Awards.

The musical is set in 1963, the night before three young Marines are sent to Vietnam. At a dance they have have a competition as to who can bring the ugliest girl, Eddie meets Rose in her mothers dinner and after taking her to the dance she rewrites the rules of the ‘Dogfight’. 

The music in this piece is beautiful, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul have written modern and interesting piece that can easily be compared to the likes of Sondheim and Schwartz. George Dyer has done wonderful things with this score, he has hit the nail on the head with this one! I've seen a few things he's worked on and this, by far, has topped them all. The book is also very solid, Peter Duchan has given the characters enough time to grow on the audience and develop. He’s got the right balance of humour and intensity and Matt Ryans staging complements this immensely. 

FIRST LOOK: Dogfight at the Southwark Playhouse

Dogfight, Music and Lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, Book by Peter Duchan, based on the Warner Bros film and screenplay by Bob Comfort, is produced by Danielle Tarento, the award-winning producer of Titanic, Parade and Mack & Mabel, and directed by Matt Ryan, in The Large at Southwark Playhouse for a six-week season from Friday 8 August to Saturday 13 September.

Dogfight, a new book musical based on the 1991 movie of the same name starring River Phoenix and Lili Taylor, premièred Off-Broadway in 2012, winning the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical and it was also nominated for five Outer Critics Circle and two Drama Desk Awards.

Cast announced for DOGFIGHT at the Southwark Playhouse

Casting has been announced for Dogfight, the new book musical based on the 1991 movie of the same name starring River Phoenix and Lili Taylor.

Heading the London cast in the central roles of Eddie and Rose are Jamie Muscato (The Light Princess, Les Miserables, Rock of Ages, Love Story and Spring Awakening) and Laura Jane Matthewson in her London stage debut in a starring role.

Joining them are Emily Olive Boyd, Cellen Chugg Jones, Nicholas Corre (West End Men), Matthew Cutts (Victor/Victoria, Starlight Express, Saturday Night Fever and Grease), Joshua Dowen (Cool Rider), Ciaran Joyce (Les Misérables, The Story of Tracy Beaker), Amanda Minihan (Merrily We Roll Along, Sister Act, The Producers), Rebecca Trehearn (Ghost on tour, Love Story, Dirty Dancing, We Will Rock You, Aspects of Love) and Samuel J. Weir (Parade, Carnival of the Animals, Monkee Business, Les Misérables feature film).