The Basic Theatre Review: Review: Ordinary Days

Hey readers!

It's time for my review of Ordinary Days.
Visiting Off-West End venues is a rarity for me, as when I go in to Central London I usually only visit the West End. However, I was kindly offered a press ticke
t to see Ordinary Days at the Bridewell Theatre, and I decided to accept. Having not been to an Off-West End theatre since March, this was a really fun experience. This production of Ordinary Days is an absolute gem; it left me with feelings of astonishment. This show is the perfect example of what fantastic shows can be found Off-West End.

The cast performing in this production were four of the most talented people I have seen in a while. Each performance was both highly memorable and more than noteworthy. Inti Conde, as Jason, gave an astounding performance. From beginning to end, he displayed such raw emotion. In addition to this, he had a tremendous voice. Kate Gledhill's performance of Deb showed us a very wide range of skills, excelling in both the comedic and more serious parts of the show. Glen Jordan's portrayal of Warren was absolutely hilarious; he had flawless comic timing and delivered every line perfectly. Furthermore, he had a lovely voice. Louisa Roberts, who performed in the role of Claire, had the most wonderful voice. Her performance of the song "I'll Be Here" was phenomenal. She was also a mesmerising actress. This was an absolutely fabulous cast, who were a pleasure to watch throughout the whole performance. All four of them had impeccable comic timing, marvellous acting and singing, and very accurate American accents. They all have the potential to have great careers.

Both the music and lyrics are extremely well written and I loved every single song. I have already started listening to the original cast recording and the more I listen to it, the more and more I like it. It would be great to hear the score performed by a large orchestra, as I imagine that it would sound beautiful. Having said that, the score still sounds wonderful when being performed solely by a pianist, and the pianist that is performing at this production is terrific.

Ordinary Days tells three different stories (four, if you hold the belief that the stories of Jason and Claire were separate), and each of them were so much fun to follow. Warren's story follows his life working as a cat-sitter for a jailed artist, Deb's story follows her life at university and Jason and Claire's story follows their decision to move in together. Despite all living in the big city of New York, they all cross paths more than once. The different storylines all displayed messages of friendship, love and hope. I felt so transported to their world and really connected with every single character.

The set was small and minimal, however it worked very effectively for the show. After having some time to reflect on the show, the set actually seems quite symbolic. The small set portrays the large city of New York, however, as the characters seem to find out, New York is not as big as it originally seems.

This was such a fantastic production, I was so glad I was able to see it. It's a shame that the production was limited to a 4 day run, as it is clear how much effort has gone in to it. However, I was glad to see that the theatre was absolutely packed, and therefore quite a large amount of people have been able to see it, which is great.

The featured star of Ordinary Days is, drum roll please... KATE GLEDHILL!

This decision took a whole 10 minutes to decide upon. In my eyes, all the cast members were equally amazing and there did not seem to be one that stood out above the others. I even thought about scrapping "featured star" for this review, however I'm a stickler for keeping the same format. I finally chose Kate for featured star. Deb is an extremely hard role to do, it requires a very wide range of skill from the actress who plays the role, as the character has both very funny and serious moments. Kate excelled in all those areas, she was perfect!

Now for my final verdict on Ordinary Days. I give Ordinary Days...