Wonderville has opened the doors to a new musical by Mark Janicello The Finellis. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the press release and I wasn’t sure what to think once I left the Theatre, which is very rare for me.
When Tony Finellis is released from prison with his friend and music manager Juergen. Tony isn’t aware just how much life on the outside has changed including his personal home life. Fifteen years is a long time to be away from your family.
At the beginning of the performance the audience was informed that Mike Stirling who plays Juergon Drahseil is battling a respiratory infection at the moment and some points throughout the musical sound recordings would be used instead of him performing live. I didn’t notice any obvious points in which that happened.
The Musical is just over two hours long which is far too long considering the final act is predictable from around thirty minutes into the performance. Some of the songs were padding the production out and ideally needed to be edited out as they added nothing to the storyline.
I am not convinced that audiences are particularly interested in Mafia-based storylines anymore, especially in the style of a musical.
Many of the cast have strong voices but the acoustics in Wonderville don’t do them the justice they deserve and certain songs didn’t pack the impact they should have done. Sadly I don’t think this musical is going to appeal to large audience numbers with such a wide choice of higher-quality shows available in the West End Theatres.
I have tried hard to look for the positives in this musical that is simply overcomplicated and all the place. One is the strong cast who are making the best of the material they have been given. A second is some of the costume choices, especially the classy outfits worn by Tina, Tony’s ex-wife. These aren’t enough to win me over and recommend this Musical to anyone else. It is with a heavy heart that I cannot justify rating this musical more than one star, I think this has to be my first one.
For more information on The Finellis A New Musical please visit the link below.
One Star.
https://thefinellis.com/thefinellismusical.html
Theatre, Art and Film Reviews 
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