Snowfall in July - Starbuck Theatre Company

Snowfall in July is a brand new acoustic musical taking place over at the Old Joint Stock Theatre until Saturday. Performed by Midlands theatre company Starbuck, the group have always prided themselves on presenting new or rarely performed musicals. Yet again, they have found a nugget of beauty in the form of this show, with music composed by Andy Smith and Sam James (also Musical Director) and written by James Edge - alongside support from the company.

Staged in traverse the storyline flits from the UK to Amsterdam and back again. As tensions rise in the UK, and following a late night argument, Jack leaves his girlfriend Beth to seek solace in Amsterdam, where his Aunt Jean runs a rather unfortunately named Irish bar - ‘Jean’s Tally Whacker’.

Still coming to terms with the loss of his mother, Jack tries to find himself, meeting Charley along the way, whilst his cousin Ollie resides back home in the UK with Beth.

The overarching storyline is held together by protagonist Bernard (Ben Andrew), a hapless busker who has attempted to win the heart of Jean for seven years. Andrew’s depiction of Bernard is utterly endearing and his relationship with Sarah Pavlovs as Jean is simply heart-warming to watch.

As all of the character storylines interweave throughout the show, you find yourself fully immersed and invested in their world.

The whole cast delivered polished performances, with Ashleigh Aston’s brilliant vocals in the role of Beth, whilst Robert Dearn brought much comic relief as Ollie, Tom Silverton excelled in the role of Jack and Jessica Rowe was excellent as Charley.

Particular highlights of the show included Jessica Rowe’s performance of Run, Ben Andrew’s Rose for Jean and the ‘letter song,’ beautifully performed by Sarah Pavlovs.

The story had a real heart to it. And although there’s definite scope to trim it; there were some real moments of beauty captured in this new musical production. I