Director Luke Morgan told David Hennessy about the new Irish musical theatre show For the Lack of Laura ahead of its UK premiere.
The new Irish musical For The Lack of Laura is about to have its UK premiere with runs at Forum Theatre, Malvern and Shaw Theatre, London.
Created, composed, and written by Kurt Rosenberg, the show is a tale of magic and romance set to an original Celtic and musical theatre classics-inspired soundtrack.
Laura, a young Irish heroine, makes an immortality bargain with an evil sorceress which grants her the power to travel through time and space to find her true love.
Faced with a host of fine suitors across cultures and time periods, she travels through Spain, Russia, The Malverns, Paris, and New Orleans, and discovers this magic may really be a curse.
Produced by Galway-based company Morgan Brothers, For The Lack of Laura combines folk tales and magic with the music of composer Kurt Rosenberg, featuring a 16-piece orchestra and 12 person cast performing a soundtrack of 26 original songs.
Kurt Rosenberg is an award-winning composer, lyricist, filmmaker, and theatre maker based in the USA.
Luke and Jake Morgan are an Irish-based creative production company creating theatre, film and animation with an emphasis on storytelling through music.
The company’s previous theatre work includes National tours of The Little Prince (2018) and Gondla (2016) and international tour of Crime and Punishment (2017).
Their film work includes The Boat which we featured in The Irish World and was longlisted for the short film Oscar.
Director Luke Morgan took time to chat to the Irish World.
How would you describe the show?
“Kurt Rosenberg puts it perfectly.
“He coined the sentence, ‘It’s the Wizard of Oz meets Riverdance’.
“The musical style is very much harking back to the heyday of musicals, My Fair Lady and The Sound of Music, The Wizard of Oz, these musicals that Kurt grew up with and loved.
“It’s a very much a classical musical theatre style.
“There’s a big cast, there’s very lavish ensemble choreography, there are no half measures in For the Lack of Laura.
“This is harking back to that golden era of musical theatre that Kurt was so inspired by and influenced by growing up.”
There is magic in Laura becoming immortal but she soon begins to question if that is the gift it appears to be.
“There is that essential conflict or tension at the heart of the story which is, ‘Is immortality a gift or a curse? What does it mean to live forever?’
“I really do think that that theme is explored quite well throughout the story.
“The time travel aspect to the story is very interesting and Laura comes to learn that endless choice and endless time with which to choose isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
“True love is defined by the parameters that we mortal people live by: Time, death, life.
“I suppose if we wanted the audience to leave with anything, it’s to be imbued with a renewed sense of hope that true love is rare and is precious and doesn’t need to come from the ability to travel throughout time and space, it can be found just by opening your front door.
“That is something that I think is reflected in the story line of Maggie and Patrick: Laura’s house assistant who falls in love with a postman.
“So although Laura is off gallivanting throughout time and space, Laura’s house assistant finds love. Love comes to her.
“She opens the door one day and there’s a postman there and so there is this message that true love empowers the audience because they are reminded that true love can come from anywhere at any time, it doesn’t necessarily need you to be able to travel through time and space in order to find it.
“The thing that makes us a little bit different from the likes of My Fair Lady or The Wizard of Oz is that it’s got that distinctive Irish flair to it.
“It’s got charm, it’s got humour and this sort of stuff that it’s very difficult for other companies to recreate.
“That’s what we’re bringing to this story because this is an Irish production with an Irish cast and an Irish crew, it’s very hard to fake that.
“There’s a lot of craic in it.
“There’s a lot of charm and there’s music and that energy that only Irish people can have and what endears us to the rest of the world, this musical is full of that.”
It seems to me like this story started in a similar way to The Boat. In that case Ken Gibson (CEO of The Mission to End Leprosy) told you the story that started it and in this case it was Kurt’s family memory..
“That’s an interesting observation.
“I think the whole kernel of the idea was Kurt’s father asked his mother, ‘Why did you choose me?’
“And I believe Kurt’s mother said, ‘Well, I had many people to choose from but you were the one that had the gifts that I was looking for’.
“Huge, expansive, enchanting projects can evolve out of such a simple and small moment of intimacy between two people and it’s given birth to- 25, 26 years later now- this fully fledged musical which Kurt has written with the help of myself and Jake.
“It’s important to remember as well that Les Mis, Wicked and The Phantom of the Opera: These huge shows all started as kernels of something in somebody’s head.
“For the Lack of Laura, we believe, is going to be the next big show and it started as a kernel of emotion in Kurt Rosenberg’s head and it’s grown to the point now where we’re bringing over 30 people to London to put this show on at the capital of theatre.
“We are really excited to bring this to an international audience now.”
You have already put it on in front of a home crowd..
“We did a production last September in Galway and they were sell out shows.
“Everybody loved it and we were enthused enough to try and take a pot shot at the real capital of Ireland, London.
“Really looking forward to it.”
Where else do you find the Irish people only London. How did you find doing it in Galway? What was the reaction like?
“The reaction was huge.
“I think there is so much to be enamoured with in this show.
“It’s heartwarming, it’s funny, it’s sweet and, at times, it is moving.
“It’s moving because it explores the great themes of our time.
“It explores true love and finding out who we are and learning about what our destiny is.
“It’s got themes that resonate with people who are seven years old and people who are 70 years old and, like any great show, it speaks to people at the level they’re at.
“It’s full of splendour and magic and we’re kind of starved for those things at the moment as audiences.
“So much stuff is, and not to disparage this because it’s important, is very heavy, very issue based, very political.
“This is a story that speaks to who we are as people and it speaks to the magic that’s to be found in true love and traveling to places that we’ve never been to before.
“It’s a very ambitious show.
“We’re setting this story against the tapestry of Paris, of Moscow, of New Orleans in the 1920s.
“Laura can travel through time and space so the possibilities are infinite and we really make use of those possibilities.
“There is really a lot to keep people entertained from beginning to end in the show.
“We have a great cast, mostly Galway based cast.
“There’s one lad who lives in London who we’ve flown over to take part in the production.
“His name is Lenny Turner but for the most part, this is Galway talent in the cast and the crew.
“And we have something that I think not a lot of other musicals have: Five, strapping, handsome young fellas who are giving it welly.
“One of the songs at the very early stage of the musical is called Who Will I Choose? and it’s a moment where Laura is standing on stage with a painter, with a dancer, with a bullfighter, with a vicar, with a wordsmith and she’s singing to herself Who Will I Choose?
“And the audience themselves are invited to participate in this because each man has their own gifts and talents to offer.
“I think it’s something that’s going to be very exciting for audience members to experience.
“One of Kurt’s main wishes for the show is that people at the interval will be talking among one another about, ‘Oh, who would you choose? I would choose Salvador because he’s brave’. Or, ‘I would choose Louis because he’s sensitive’.
“But there is this audience participatory element to the show that I find very exciting.
“There’s a great variety in it.
“Across the dancing and costumes, everything, we’re transported through different worlds.”
So you don’t mind if people in the audience do get involved and react, it’s not a stuffy, ‘Please be silent at all times so the performers can concentrate’ type of thing..
“This show is a great night of entertainment.
“It’s not pantomime obviously but this is a show that is cheeky, is enchanting, is full of wanderlust and it’s got some good humour in it as well.
“I do think something that the actors really fed off in the Galway shows was that live element that only theatre has, the energy was hopping off the audience and was being thrown back into the audience.
“People were laughing.
“People were going, ‘Aah’.
“It was exhilarating for the audience but it was exhilarating for the cast as well.”
Another symmetry between this and The Boat is that they are both about young women or girls affected by life altering circumstances that they are not prepared for..
“Yeah, both stories are coming of age stories in a way.
“Laura is an adult so she’s not a child like Dhuckia but it’s a nice observation because they’re given something that can be widely regarded as either a curse or a blessing and they need to learn to come to terms with it and in doing so, they find out who they are.
“This is very much Laura’s journey.
“She embarks on a journey across time and space but ultimately, the journey she makes is the one that leads her to herself.”
Do you and Jake have a similar responsibility here as with The Boat? That story was personal to Ken Gibson, this is personal from Kurt’s family background..
“The reason we love working with Kurt Rosenberg, and we’ve worked with him many times across many projects.
“Kurt Rosenberg, much like Morgan brothers, is in the business of enchantment.
“There’s other companies out there who are trying to make work that highlights certain issues.
“We’re in the business of entertainment, education and enchantment.
“Kurt’s values are very much aligned with ours in that there’s so little magic in the world these days that to create magic and to create art together is almost an act of rebellion.
“We created something in For the Lack of Laura that we’re truly proud of and we think that is really going to be quite a memorable piece of theatre for English audiences.”
It is a huge ensemble piece but it’s obvious from the title alone that a lot of it rests on the shoulders of Laura. That’s a huge part, isn’t it?
“Yes, we have a lady called Jane Patterson who’s going to be playing Laura.
“Jane has sung with the likes of Dua Lipa and Elton John so she’s a name to watch and it’s a fantastic to be working with Jane.
“We have Lenny Turner who has performed in many theatrical shows on your side of the pond before.
“And then we have people who have literally done nothing except amateur theatre in Galway, who are getting their first shot at professional theatre, these raw, talented performers, dancers, singers that are getting a genuine opportunity to perform at this level.”
You’ve seen the reactions in Galway, what do you expect in London?
“It’s going to be really interesting to see because in Galway, our friends and family formed a huge contingent of the audience.
“London is a little bit more daunting because we’re going to the world capital of theatre and London audiences don’t owe us anything.
“We really are determined to lift the standard of the show that we had in Galway, although it was a standard we were very proud of, even further to give ourselves that chance because this is genuinely a life changing opportunity for some of these cast members.
“There will be producers from the West End in the audience, there will be national newspapers in the audience, there will be talent agents in the audience and these are the kinds of projects that change careers.
“And to be able to give that opportunity to a new generation of artists from Galway and bring them to the capital of theatre is just a tremendous opportunity.
“I think English people have a very similar sense of humour as Irish people because we have a long history together and we’ve influenced each other as neighbours down through the years.
“There’s certain jokes that I think English audiences will really resonate with and they’ll find very funny but ultimately, this is about strengthening the friendship that exists between London and the Irish community in London and also Ireland itself as an artistic community.”
Your mission with The Boat was to change the world regarding leprosy diagnosis and treatment but is the mission here to change the world in a different way?
“There’s a real heaviness and there’s a dread about being alive these days.
“Every time you turn on the news, there’s some other bad story.
“Laura is a release from that.
“It’s a return to the basics and it’s a return to humour.
“It’s a return to magic.
“It’s a return to just pure, warm hearted entertainment.
“In Galway the audience really responded to that.
“People came, they laughed, they cried and they left theatre singing the songs.
“Our mission for London is that we will endear ourselves to the London audience through our charm, our wit and the sheer force of the talent that is part of our troupe of actors and cast and creative, both on the stage and off.
“Phantom of the Opera started as a kernel in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s head and look at the success it’s had.
“Kurt Rosenberg is, we believe, the next great American composer and we’re just thrilled to be associated with his project.”
For the Lack of Laura comes to Forum Theatre, Malvern 16- 19 July and Shaw Theatre, London 24 July- 2 August.
For more information and to book, click here.
