Esther Stephens as Kate SheppardKate Shep­pard, “the lead­ing light of the New Zealand women’s suf­frage move­ment” tells her sto­ry in this rock musi­cal by Luke Di Som­ma and Gre­go­ry Coop­er. Direct­ed by Kip Chap­man, (with Jen­nifer Ward-Lealand this season’s Rehearsal Direc­tor) the show is ter­rif­ic.  All the ele­ments of the best musi­cals are here — a well con­struct­ed dra­mat­ic arc, catchy and affect­ing songs, bril­liant per­form­ers, backed up by strong design choic­es. One song I’m angry, the next I’m try­ing not to ugly cry, then I’m in tears from laugh­ing.

The Gang Ensem­ble – Amy Strak­er, Phoebe Hurst, Cameron Dou­glas, Kyle Chuen – are ener­getic, fun, and use their voic­es well in the dif­fer­ent songs styles. (It seems redun­dant to say they can sing, but WOW, they can sing. I appre­ci­ate that they get to be show­cased indi­vid­u­al­ly as well as show off their ter­rif­ic har­monies.) They’re on stage first as they set up for Kate Shep­pard. There’s a lot of respon­si­bil­i­ty rid­ing on per­former Esther Stephens’ abil­i­ty to con­nect with the audi­ence. No wor­ries though because she’s fan­tas­tic.  Her voice is clear and sparkling and she effec­tive­ly shows us the emo­tion­al jour­ney of her char­ac­ter. Geof­frey Dolan plays Richard Sed­don, the vis­i­ble vil­lain in this piece. Blus­tery and pompous- he’s per­fect. All of the singing cast are com­mit­ted to the emo­tion of the show even when they’re danc­ing (won­der­ful musi­cal chore­og­ra­phy by Olivia Ten­net.) They’re backed by a skilled band. Musi­cal direc­tor Andy Man­ning is a bit hid­den behind his key­board while Tim Heeringa (gui­tar), Emma Hat­t­away (bass gui­tar) and Cameron Bur­nett are vis­i­ble but not intru­sive.

Cos­tume design­er Lisa Holmes dress­es Stephens in pale clothes and ele­gant hair. Her cos­tumes are often won­der­ful­ly tex­tured and are linked to the style of the time. For the ensem­ble, their inspi­ra­tion is punk styles – lay­ers of den­im with rips, and mesh, studs and straps. Richard Sed­don is appro­pri­ate­ly boot­ed and suited…I’m not going to spoil what he wears for his first appear­ance. Orig­i­nal light­ing design­er Bren­dan Albrey set the foun­da­tion which Abby Clear­wa­ter has adapt­ed  for the Opera House space. It keeps the focus where it’s need­ed while high­light­ing the excite­ment and dra­ma of the show.

Kate Shep­pard had rad­i­cal ideas for her time that still res­onate today. “All that sep­a­rates, whether of race, class, creed, or sex, is inhu­man, and must be over­come.” After the show I heard peo­ple talk­ing about the peti­tion and the elec­tion and the events of the show as real and imme­di­ate con­cerns. This is a tes­ta­ment to the clev­er­ness and affect of the pro­duc­tion.

I laughed, I cried, I cack­led, I shout­ed. Mar­velous.

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