The Highwayman
See this wonderful new musical now, if you can.
Norwich Theatre
Described as 'a fierce musical ride through love, larceny and 17th Century debauchery', Kitty Morgan's brand new stage musical, co-produced by Norwich Theatre and St Albans-based OVO, is being previewed this week as a series of work-in-progress performances at Norwich Theatre Playhouse. Later this month it will move on to The Roman Theatre in St. Albans, New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich, and finally the Theatre Royal in Bury St Edmunds.
Inspired by Alfred Noyes' romantic poem and ballad published in 1906, Morgan's musical re-imagines a version of the tale of Claude Duval, the Frenchman born in 1643 who came to England and gained a reputation for being a glamorous highwayman, holding up stagecoaches travelling on the road between Highgate and Islington. The real Claude Duval was arrested in the Hole-In-The-Wall tavern in Covent Garden, and was executed by hanging in Tyburn, aged 26.
In Morgan's version, Duval, played with bucketloads of lotharial gusto by Kevin Wathen, is enjoying a duplicitous love-life spent between London, where his thirteen year old daughter Peggy (Natasha Spencer-Levy) and her mother Rose Lowe (Melissa O'Donnell) run the Hole-In-The-Wall tavern, and coastal Suffolk, where Bess (Josselyn Ryder) leads a life as wife and mother to a family of smugglers.
Morgan's musical numbers are packed with emotion and passion, as are the vocal performances (especially from O'Donnell and Spencer-Levy), but the clarity of the plot still slightly stutters as we try to acquaint ourselves with each of the key characters. But, remember this is still only a work-in-progress, and audiences might still need to use a healthy amount of imagination in order to distinguish between the stage versions of two very similar looking taverns, the Hole-In-The-Wall in London, and Suffolk's Black Swan.
But, as the plot unfurls, the theatrical experience develops into an empowering journey for the female protagonists. Whilst Duval, and his very close friend Thomas French (Guido Garcia Lueches), are dealing with their own emotional turmoil, young Peggy is already making plans for a new life in America. And whilst Bess is exiting her domestic turmoil in her own dramatic way, Rose remains ultimately triumphant.
See this wonderful new musical now, if you can. It will possibly change and develop, and take on a life of its own, as its theatrical journey unravels. But if you get a ticket for this week, you could be one of those who, in years to come, will be saying, “I remember when I first saw 'The Highwayman', back in 2024, at Norwich Theatre Playhouse.”
