A sneak preview of Goodall and Hart’s “Bend It Like Beckham – the Musical”
It is the afternoon of Friday 2 May in the none too prepossessing upstairs studio of the Dominion Theatre and I am one of a privileged few invited to a workshop reading of the West End bound Howard Goodall/Charles Hart/Gurinder Chada & Paul Mayeda Berges musical of that film charmer Bend It Like Beckham. It’s no secret that I am huge admirer of Goodall’s work – not least his ability to cut through the informed wisdom of what a musical can be – but what I saw here could amount to the commercial hit that has eluded him for so long. For all that we were still in the final draft stages and stripped down to bare essentials this was a joyous and moving occasion.
The cross-fertilisation of Indian music and Southall pop with melismatic chants that bend the vocal line as effortlessly and as magically as Beckham’s boot and seductive Asian drumming that morphs into beat-box – this score (even before the orchestrations are in place) connects the mystique of the traditional with the funky boisterousness of the contemporary. There is Goodall and Hart’s unerring ability to defer to Chadha and Berges’ terrifically engaging and funny book and have their songs (especially Hart’s sharp, plain-speaking lyrics) spring naturally from it – the sign of a great musical is one in which the songs seem integral to the book; there is Goodall’s instinct for placement and reprise with key songs and themes lending much to dramatic development. He teases us with the verse of the main character Jess’ anthem “Glorious” throughout the first act, only revealing the entire song at the top of act two. And if ever there was an emotionally thrilling reprise it comes when her father sees the light and in glimpsing where her true happiness might lie he takes up the song’s memorable refrain.
Best of all – and testament to Goodall’s English choral scholar upbringing – this composer knows better than most how to do what only musical theatre can do and combine those themes in full-throated affirmation. The big ensembles in Bend It are SO exhilarating and audiences may not know why but it’s because the emotional memory that goes with the songs unlocks something inside them.
I cannot wait to see the finished product and hope that producer Sonia Friedman finds the right theatre (and all those theatre owners – including Lord Lloyd Webber who produced Goodall’s masterpiece The Hired Man – were there) while the balance of spicing is so perfect. Make no mistake, Bend It Like Beckham is a major British musical in the making.
