'The Boy Next Door: Concert Presentation' - Review

 I am once again guilty of abandoning this blog, and I truly have no other excuse for it apart from lack of inspiration. The lack of inspiration left me feeling disconnected from my blog but having gotten into reading a lot more again this year as well as starting a new writing project (I’m sure I’ll touch on that more in the future), I’ve found myself missing writing for this blog but still desperately trying to find inspiration.

With impeccable timing, yesterday we attended Sharon Sexton and Rob Fowler’s ‘The Boy Next Door: Concert Presentation’ and as soon as it ended, I knew I wanted (and needed) to share my thoughts slightly more coherently than I could manage in person or on Twitter.

With a time limit of sixty minutes, Sexton and Fowler, along with the talents of Steve Corley, Liam Ross Mills, Jessica Cervi, Stuart Boother and Sam Cassidy, shared a beautiful glimpse into this heart wrenching musical by Rob Fowler and book by Stephen Clark.

Grief is sadly something that many of us have dealt with in our lives in one way or another and it is the main topic in ‘The Boy Next Door’. The musical showcases the different ways in which grief affects us all and how differently people cope in the aftermath of a close loss.

The show is based on Fowler’s life, so it already has that personal feel to it, but as the show deals with the difficult subjects of bereavement and grieving. You immediately feel a sense of connection to the characters as you empathise for their pain especially whilst watching them trying to continue with everyday life.

The story focuses primarily on the characters of Mother, Boy, Sister and Dan - who is trying to help each of the aforementioned characters through their grief whilst – presumably – also trying to cope with his own feelings.

Navigating through grief is messy, hard, and so far from linear and despite only being a concert presentation of the musical itself – this was easily portrayed through the speaking parts and the fourteen songs we were treated to. A story that deals with such sensitive subjects (especially when based on true events) is something really vulnerable to share and to watch, and from what I could tell, ‘The Boy Next Door’ encapsulates the raw feeling of vulnerability whilst also gently reminding people that we aren’t alone. Grief and battling our own demons can make you feel completely isolated, but this show serves as a reminder that we all definitely need (particularly in this day and age): there is always someone out there to help you through and in this case – it was the boy next door.

Obviously, they only had one hour to showcase a condensed version of the full show so what we saw were snippets stringed together to make a concert presentation and were left on a cliff-hanger but I can say for certain that everyone in the audience will be waiting with baited breath for when a full version of the musical crops up.