Over the Threshold

Over the Threshold arrives in Jermyn Street fresh from a successful run at Edinburgh’s Fringe, clutching the MTM award for most promising music for a new musical. But shows that stand out from the raw mix on display at the Fringe may sometimes get lost in the bright lights of London’s West End.

The evening opens with four thirty-somethings singing about their woes: unemployment; relationships in crisis; and worries about aging. “When will things get better?”, they all wonder. It’s an opening that seems to promise a wide-reaching scope, something for the angst-ridden, recession-hit noughties. Instead what follows is a narrow look at two failing relationships. Tom is out of work and commitment-shy, Kate has been dreaming of marriage since she was six-years-old. He’s suffering a loss of libido, she thinks he doesn’t love her. Across the landing lives Sam, who’s just discovered she can’t have children and whose husband Charlie has walked out on her.

A night of misunderstanding, miscommunication and soul-searching ensues. Tom finds himself in nothing but his boxer shorts in Sam’s flat, while Charlie and Kate, fuelled by tequila, exchange words of love and a kiss. Finally, after much darting from flat to flat, the original couples end up back together again. This night, they each claim, has taught them something about themselves, though frankly it is hard for the audience to see what. At the end the only real change is that Tom finally proposes to Kate. The other couple, Charlie and Sam, are still unable to save their marriage.

As story lines go, even for a show of this length (just 70 minutes), this is pretty thin. The four actors do their best to convince the audience of their sincerity. However none of the characters seems to have a problem worthy of sympathy and it’s hard to really care what happens to them. The show also struggles to find its tone. There are moments of irony such as when Kate accuses out of work actor Tom of being “over-dramatic” and much use is made of those old stalwarts of farce – doors and underclothes. But these work against the tragedy of Sam and Charlie’s dying love and undermine the supposed significance of the night’s events.

Over the Threshold is writer Christopher Hamilton’s first musical. All in all the music, while not ground-breaking, works well with the story such as it is. Kate and Sam’s bitchy duet, “Women like you give women like me a bad name” and Charlie’s chastened appeal to Kate, “Please can we leave this behind?”, stand out. Hamilton can clearly write music and it is a shame the story does not match his potential. It would be interesting to see what he could do with a stronger subject to inspire him.

- Louise Gooding