Anywhere You Go opens Friday 28th August at the Upstairs at the Gatehouse, bringing a musical about love and friendship to stage. Learn more about what to expect:
1: How would you describe Anywhere You Go to someone who’s not heard of it?
‘Anywhere You Go’ is a musical following 3 people in their mid 20’s who are terrified about the uncertainties of modern day life in London. There’s not any huge dramatic plots or tap numbers but what we get instead is a deep dive into the many layers of these complicated character’s. We see them go through the highest of highs of new love and the feeling of finding home, to the realisation that they may be growing out of their once most treasured friendship and feeling completely lost in all the changes surrounding them. Told through an original contemporary score, this quirky musical will hopefully make an audience feel like the messiness of your 20’s is entirely universal and will leave us forever questioning if it’ll ever get any easier…
2: The musical is told through ‘”rose-tinted memories.” What does that mean in the context of the musical?
Our main character, Flo, is struggling to move out of her flat because of all these “amazing memories” and sentimental objects she has in this flat (her so-called ‘home’). So, we thought the best way to see what she’s referring to is to structure the musical through memories, importantly from her perspective, yet, as other characters thoughts and cynicisms come in, we see that maybe these memories aren’t always quite as sweet as they seem and a lot of bitterness has conveniently been blurred out…
Lizzie – “I saw a play at the National called ‘Mnemonic’ where the first line was ‘every time you remember something, you’re remembering a memory of a memory of a memory etc…’ and I found it absolutely fascinating and it stuck with me. I thought that this idea should be told through a musical form, as music itself is so romantic and takes a lot of repetition in its composition, a melody seemed similar to a memory you’re so in love with. Nostalgia and yearning for the past is fascinating to me and I feel like it has to be seen on stage as I feel like it is a very universal experience.”
3: Have you got a favourite song from the show and if so, what makes it your favourite?
Lizzie – “I think my favourite song is ‘Sleepless’, it’s one of the first songs I wrote for the show and it came so easily to me, the song is sung by Flo who is so giddy there’s someone she loves sleeping by her side, she literally is pinching herself – and the last thing she’d want to do is lose this experience to SLEEPING???!!
She wants to take in every single second of being with this new person in her life, she doesn’t care if she’s exhausted tomorrow, these feelings of love and relief are worth everything. I think there’s something so romantic and sweet about breaking your routine for someone and it feels like the most natural thing in the world. I also think Flo’s view of love in this show is so beautiful and genuine and this song expresses her gratitude of someone finally seeing her for all she is, perfectly. I think anyone who’s ever experienced falling in love will fall in love with Flo, especially in this song.”
Em – “I have to add on to ‘Sleepless’ quickly as I fell in love with it more once we put it in the context of the script. The rose-tinted memories really come into play and what might be a really romantic song at first is actually a lot more heartbreaking than it seems. However, it is really hard for me to pick a favourite song but I have to say “Beautiful Room”. It was the first song Lizzie and I wrote together and it is so much fun! Lizzie came to me with the first half of it and we needed to introduce the romantic lead, Caleb. Initially, he is this awkward but really sweet guy who is so nervous for his date with Flo that he just starts spouting random shit, when writing his part, all I could relate him to was Ogie from Waitress and although his character develops in a not so sweet way, this initial interaction the audience sees is one of my favourites.”
4: Original musicals are always a leap of faith but have gone on to do well through different Fringe events. What made you want to create something entirely new?
We need more original musicals! Revivals and film to stage definitely have a place in the west end and have broken barriers. Some are my favourite shows (Amelie, Benjamin Button)! BUT we think it’s time there’s more space for original stories and new writers, there’s so much more to say and see, so why keep on reviving the same shows? And yes it’s easy to think everything’s been done before, but to quote my (Lizzie’s) hero, Stephen Sondheim “Anything you do, let it come from you, then it will be new” – if it has your perspective, it’s honest and you allow yourself to be creative and entirely yourself, it will be new in itself and that quote is best gift I have ever received.
Concepts for new work are hard to come to, but ‘Anywhere You Go’ started as a song cycle, one that was almost autobiographical of Lizzie’s life after drama school but when we decided to turn it into a full show we knew we needed to separate it more, so we took the bare bones of some of the songs and decided that it was going to be a slice of life of something we knew well, living in London.
New work that is good and honest will always be more interesting to watch because everyone is so beautifully individual and there will always, always be more stories to tell!
So we hope people take a chance on us and come and watch something entirely from our hearts.
5: What has been the biggest challenge in developing Anywhere You Go?
Making sure the characters are as layered and multidimensional as possible without them being too similar to ourselves! One thing I’ve been doing over the years is collecting several friends’ thoughts (via voice notes) on what ‘home’ means to them, how they’re coping in the city life after graduating, their thoughts on both romantic and platonic love, and everything in between; this has meant the characters are beautiful amalgamations of real feelings from lots of different people heading in many different directions, which I think has really helped make these characters as real as possible without it only being our (writers) perspectives.
6: What has been the most enjoyable part about creating Anywhere You Go?
Hearing our cast sing these songs! A lot of writing is done in solitude and sometimes it’s easy to forget the bigger picture, so when we all come together for rehearsals and we hear our amazing cast sing these songs so well and with so much dedication, it really makes us very very proud and grateful. It is also the first time either of us had written a script and so we weren’t sure how it was going to be received but having such a creative cast has made bringing it to life an absolute joy, and not to toot our own trumpet but we think it’s pretty good.
Also, so extremely excited to be giving space for our amazing cast, Isabel Hinchcliffe and Lewis Stevenson to sing on stage and to have their amazing skills SEEN!!! It’s ridiculously difficult to get recognition in this industry so I’m very pleased audiences will see their talent! And a massive shoutout to our pianist and Assistant MD, Rumi Edozie, who joined us in the middle of July, coming straight from a cruise job to our team and has enhanced the songs so much with his own style as well as respecting our vision. Lewis’s performance as Caleb has changed this character a lot for us in the best way. We’ve found his vulnerabilities and his flaws and not only is he the perfect casting for the character, he also has the perfect voice to go along with such a complicated character.
Isabel plays ‘Hope’ and has been in the process since before all the songs were written, so naturally, we’ve had her voice in mind when writing the material and writing for another voice which is so smooth, jazzy and belty and is so different to Lizzies has been such a wonderful experience as writers to be able to explore different styles and colours and it has really widened our approach to writing. Her big number is ‘Home’ and it was completely and utterly written for her, you are guaranteed to get chills seeing her perform it.
Anywhere You Go opens Friday 28th August at the Upstairs at the Gatehouse. Many thanks to Lizzie Jones and Em Strang for answering our questions. Book your tickets here!
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