CD Review: The Fix (1997 Original London Cast)

“The economy, crime, taxes!”

I’ve seen The Fix twice now – once at the old Union and once at the new and to be honest, it’s not a show I particularly love. With a rock/pop score by Dana P Rowe and book and lyrics by John Dempsey, its political shenanigans schtick has now been overtaken by the real-life ridiculousness in the political spheres on both sides of the ocean and in any case, aimed for a kind of melodrama that never really worked for me as far back as the comparative calm of 2012.

A big issue for me is the score and its magpie nature, beginning with the power-pop chorus of ‘One, Two, Three’ with its forceful guitars and then dipping in and out of the worlds of vaudeville, lounge jazz, straight-up balladry, even folk songs. Sprawling in such a manner means we never really get a sense of the kind of world that the show is trying to conjure – only in Philip Quast’s charismatic ‘First Came Mercy’ with its Kander + Ebb sharpness does The Fix express its identity.

It’s interesting to hear John Barrowman here at an early stage in his career, clearly expressing a rock edge to his voice which has now long been smoothed out in the name of showmanship and Kathryn Evans is a Machiavellian delight as his manipulative mother Violet. Krysten Cummings as the jazz singer mistress also sounds lovely but incongruous, in a cast recording that doesn’t really do it for this listener.

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