What I liked
Favourite bit: Estelle – such a great song, and Emily knocked it out of the park. For a bit of a comedic side character, Estelle was a lot of fun and a vivid personality. If you’re looking to expand the show in the future, it would be great if her B-plot of chasing up her errant writer got fleshed out a bit. Why is Mitch her favourite writer? What compels her to personally drive out into the desert to rescue him? Does she learn a bit about the case in the process of digging up where Mitch has disappeared off to?
Other favourite bit: So Alive – since the audience has probably twigged from pretty early on that Margo is a ghost, this song has such a melancholic irony to it.
Other fun things:
I don’t know if Beryl is possessed or influenced by the ghost of Cliff or just violently obsessed with her ancestor’s legacy but either way she is delightfully unhinged and scary.
The bit where Mitch and Margo hang out a little while Mitch is halfway through drowning is very sweet and I almost expected the happy ending to be them being ghosts together… though I’m glad Mitch got out alive in the end!
What I didn't like
If there’s one part that I would have liked to see tweaked a little, it would have been the ballroom scene. Mitch went from 0 to ‘oh I feel like I’m going to die’ extremely quickly, in a way that wasn’t quite supported by the music or atmosphere. I think it would benefit either by a slower build of dread as he enters the ballroom, or a slight shift in tone where he’s feeling a bit more brave and exploratory while investigating this spooky place and maybe not taking it as seriously until he comes across the truth about Margo and Cliff as a ‘wham’ moment.
My overall impression
I loved Belladonna Highway – it’s a really fun little spooky and romantic story, and the music is fabulous. I’m boggled that it was pulled together in a couple of weeks, even if there was some old material to work with, and the cast did a great job. I loved the projections too – the wonky collage-style art was really great at setting the scene and the mood. I had a fabulous time, and look forward to seeing whatever’s next for this show!
