Maytide Theatre Company was established in 2025 and “It Is Well With My Soul: The Musical” is their first production. It’s a new work based on a true story written by David Maegraith, adapted by Ally Gum and Andrew Broadbent, and with original music by Alana Lymn.
The story is set in the late 1800s. It starts in Chicago and follows couple Anna and Horatio Spafford from their very first meeting, through to them marrying, raising a family, losing everything twice: firstly to fire and then to a tragedy at sea. Their Christian faith gives them comfort and strength to put their lives back together and start over, but the sad losses they endure cause them to question their faith. It’s a sad story, and front-of-house staff offer free pocket packets of tissues to the audience as they enter the (cavernous and unforgiving) auditorium just in case!
There is no doubt that the large cast, crew and creatives have fully invested themselves in this production. Many of the cast have limited experienced but lots of passion, and many of the production team fulfil multiple functions.
There is an almost undefinable sense of community that pervades the company and its supporters, but that is not enough to produce quality theatre. The production has many deficiencies that need to be addressed before its next performance in just over a week’s time.
David Maegraith’s novella, upon which the production is based, is relatively short, yet Maytide’s creatives have turned it into a musical of nearly two-and-one-half hours duration. Many short stories have generated full length films, plays, musicals and operas, but this one is overwritten. There is considerable effort made to tell ‘the story’ in detail, but frequently this is done at the expense of creating characters in whom we really care, and a number of the songs get in the way of clarifying the narrative and the character development.
The co-leads Zachary Baseby and Kaila Barton as Horatio and Ann Spafford share much stage-time – they are quite large roles – and several of their scenes towards the end of the play are quite poignant as they seek solace in each other and desperately search for new faith in their god.
The production needs tighter vocal direction, so that the ensemble and soloists can follow the pre-recorded backing music that seldom provides a melody line against which they can pitch: it is more an accompaniment than anything else. The adult members of the cast sing with passion, if not always in tune, but the sound engineering often lets them down through over amplification leading to distortion. Sometimes backstage chatter can be heard over the sound system because microphones have not been muted.
At times, the simple set is more elaborate than it needs to be, and slow set changes add to the languidness of the production. (For example, the laying, taking up and then re-laying carpets to create a sense of place is not necessary.) The stage at Blackwood Memorial is very large, and difficult to use, and Maytide fall into the trap of using too much of it too often. The intimate and deeply sensitive scenes, of which there are many, sometimes lose their potential impact as a result. The shipwreck scene was however effectively executed.
Producing musicals is never easy, especially new ones that have not been ‘field-tested’. Maytide have bravely taken on a huge challenge, and the largely parochial audience at their opening performance loved them for it. There is time for director Ally Gum and MD Alana Lymn (also the composer, musical director, accent coach, sound designer and sound operator! Phew!) to review some of the key production elements before their main season ‘kicks off’.
