Review: Indecent Proposal the musical at Southwark Playhouse

By James Haddrell

Some of the most memorable stories are those that force you to ask – what would you do? If you could travel back in time, would you or could you kill to save others?

If you met your double at a time of mortal threat, would you do the “far far better thing” and sacrifice yourself to save someone else?

Or if you found yourself fallen on hard times and a night with a millionaire would change the fortunes of you and your family, would you do it? And if you did, could your relationship survive it?

The latter is obviously the premise of Indecent Proposal – the novel by Jack Engelhard that became a Hollywood blockbuster starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore.

And now, it’s a new musical at Southwark Playhouse by Dylan Schlosberg and Michael Conley.

The key to a successful transition from another format – from the pages of a novel to the stage, or in this case from a novel that everyone thinks of as a film to the stage – is to find a new life, a new storytelling vocabulary, a whole new style that embraces the new format.

Handspring’s puppets in War Horse, Bunny Christie’s set design for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, the knowing wit of Tim Minchin’s songs in Matilda – all acknowledge that the stories are being relocated from their previous homes and remade in a theatre.

This new musical staging of Indecent Proposal does just that.

The principle setting for the show is the Atlantic City hotel bar where singer Johnny (Norman Bowman) struggles to eke out a living on stage while his wife Rebecca (Lizzy Connolly) does the books to support her real passion, working for a women’s charity.

The show opens with an introduction to the band by Annie (Jacqui Dankworth) and while we move from the bar to Johnny and Rebecca’s run-down apartment, we always return to the bar, and the seating on three sides blends into the cabaret seating in the bar making us feel that we’re there in the world of the show.

That idea is extended by Dankworth’s casting as Annie.

Placing a well-known jazz singer as our guide through this story makes it clear that we are in a live, theatrical world, different to the pages of a book or a cinema screen.

That guiding role could be extended, in the songs and the narrative, but in any case, this is a show that knows it’s a show, and that’s important in the success of the adaptation.

Whatever audiences go away thinking – what the offer of a million dollars would mean to them – they’ll also leave with the songs going around in their heads (I certainly did), having seen a show that is inspired by, but has its own identity distinct from, the original novel.

The show is produced by 10 to 4 Productions, established in 2018 to commission, develop, present and support ambitious musical theatre.

Indecent Proposal is a strong start for the company, and the promise of Cable Street, A Musical Riot which is hinted at in the programme is definitely one to look out for.

Website: Indecent Proposal the musical at Southwark Playhouse