Ordinary Days | Upstairs at the Gatehouse

Ordinary Days, which is written by Adam Gwon and directed by Karl Steele, is a charming, quietly beautiful and ultimately inspiring song cycle about everyday life. Told through the stories of four individuals in New York, the musical becomes a powerful and burning reminder about community, love, positivity and friendship. 

The musical follows feisty grad student Deb (Dora Gee), struggling artist Warren (Aidan Cutler), and unsteady couple Jason and Claire (James Edge and Melisa Camba) as they navigate their lives in the bustling city of New York. Their lives interweave in unexpected ways, changing them all for the better with renewed energy and hope for the future. 

Ordinary Days, a well known and beloved song cycle, has enormous impact on audience members as it explores feelings of loneliness and human connection with emotional maturity. The musical, although filled with humour, tackles a variety of negative emotions, magnifying the small quiet moments that pass by that are never really addressed. The musical chooses to dissect these emotions, breaking the characters down to their cores in a satisfying and strong way, allowing for audiences to reflect on themselves. 

The musical is a slowburn, setting up the characters world with painstaking detail and depth, before the characters are slowly unravelled. Whilst the final result and final few scenes achieve this powerful and tremendously moving revelation, the first act of the show feels slightly repetitive. At times, the first act feels a little lost, echoing that of the characters themselves, which whilst interesting to dissect later, leads to an unengaging start that has audience members waiting for something to happen. Each character, justifiably, have their own song explaining how lost, stuck and stagnated they feel in life, allowing audiences to understand where they come from, yet this feels like a barrel of negativity that floods the first act with only the rare moment of humour.

The production attempts to address this by having the characters fly by in a flurry, as they interact with their props and rush across the stage that ultimately distracts from the genius of the lyrics. Although still enjoyable, the musical strives to coat the smaller moments of introspection with a larger production, and as a result doesn't quite achieve either. However this is remedied in the second act, choosing to let the lyrics speak, or sing, for themselves with less distraction. 

Gee is excellent as Deb, with her frustration and fear of failure propelling her through life with a fiery attitude and little patience for art and relaxation. Gee's moment of improvisation at an audience interaction gone wrong was a hilarious addition to the show and her performance. Cutler is charming and deeply likeable as Warren, a struggling beaten down artist who still hopes to create and inspire change through his art. Seeking a friend and embracing the beauty in the mundane, the good in the bad, and the possibility and potential in the unsuspecting, Cutler brings out the best of Warren's wholesome characterisation. 

Camba as Claire neatly guides audiences to the internal struggle that the character is facing with sincerity, a deceptively complicated feat that Camba makes seem effortless. Claire's moment of revelation and of unrestrained vulnerability are both touching moments with a brilliant performance. Edge as Jason brings humour and warmth with his performance as the ever longing, hopeful and romantic half of the relationship. Edge does a marvellous job at navigating the line between real life and his vision for the future, with an impressive emotional journey that had audiences hooked. 

The songs are gorgeous, with a few standouts such as Life Story, Hundred-Story City, Calm, and I'll Be Here, with the lyrics taking the spotlight. The music flows gently, but it's the lyrical language that really captures the emotions of the characters and makes the soundtrack so beloved. Nick Allen serves as musical director on this production with an impressive talent for undertaking the entire musical score as a one man army with his keyboard. Slightly disappointingly, Allen is tucked away in a corner out of sight for the musical, when this is one of the rare few shows that could have welcomed the MD on stage to be watched by all. 

The staging is minimal, with seven wooden blocks becoming furniture, transport, a tall hill and more. The characters are given their defining props, Deb her laptop, Claire her sweater, Jason the ring box and Warren his artwork, which work well in pivotal moments. The bare black staging is given a splash of colour with the roof of strung up umbrellas, and gorgeous lighting from Joanne Marshall. However, the musical's most incredible moment is the tossing of Warren's artwork onto the streets of New York, showering the audience with pages of positivity, colour and joy. 

Ordinary Days is a wonderful example of how extraordinary a small story, a bold idea and wonderful songs can be.

★★★☆☆ (3*)

Gifted tickets in return for an honest review | Photography by Perro Loco Productions