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# REVIEW: Vanara The Legend – The Musical
- URL: https://www.scenemag.co.uk/review-vanara-the-legend-the-musical/
- Published: 2021-10-26T16:17:24.000Z
- Updated: 2021-10-26T11:11:35.000Z
- Description: Brian Butler finds a rain forest love story to rival Romeo and Juliet in Hackney Empire’s Vanara The Legend – The Musical
- Author: Brian Butler
- Tags: Arts, Musical Theatre, Reviews, Hackney Empire, Michael Conley

Gianluca Cucchiara and Andrew Whelan ( music and lyrics ) have created[ a mythical love story](https://www.vanarathemusical.com/?ref=scenemag.co.uk) with heavy climate change resonances that pounds and soars,with its tribal rhythmic dances- it’s a show that entrances and sometimes baffles. Occasionally the colloquial, darkly comic book by Michael Conley seems at odds with the overall aura of other-worldliness that director Adam Lenson and designer Libby Todd have created in this strange land of Vanara.

[![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/emily-bautista-ayla-and-jaco600.png)](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/home/)

Like Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, we have two households with an ancient grudge that breaks out anew. We have star-crossed lovers and the accidental murder of a brother and you don’t need to be a top brain to realise that Vanara is not a million miles from Verona.

[![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/johnnie-fiori-the-oroznah-_c2_a9jane-hobson600.png)](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/home/)

But it seems we are wrong – the weirdly comic prophetess The Oroznah( Johnnie Fiori) tells the wayward tribes that Vanara is not the forest, not a place at all: it is a people. Make of that what you will. The storyline is straightforward -as they move towards a long night of darkness, the Pana – servants of the sun – must steal the secret of fire from the Kogalisk – servants of the moon.

[![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/l-to-r-cavin-cornwall-crohm-emily-bautista-ayla-and-chris-george-lordu-_c2_a9jane-hobson600.png)](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/home/)

Into this rivalry, Ayla ( Emily Bautista) as heir to the Kogalisk dynasty, falls in love with Mohr ( Jacob Fowler) the Pana heir with fatal consequences. Can the two tribes not go to war but live in peace? It’s a world inhabited by feisty, domineering women and rather feckless subordinate men.

[![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/full-company-of-vanara-the-legend-the-musical-2-_c2_a9jane-hobson600.png)](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/home/)

The great quality of the show is the musicality of it – real echoes of Miss Saigon -especially in Emily Bautista’s soaring, beautifully toned solos. There are strong songs too from Jacob Fowler and from the villainous Rooh( Joaquin Pedro Valdes ) as Ayla’ s unwanted love interest.

Glenn Carter gets a lot of comedy out of his subservient role to his wife, who really leads the Pana, and I could listen all night to Cavin Cornwall’s Kogalisk patriarch, with his rich deep velvet voice.

[![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/kayleigh-mcknight-sindah-shem-omari-james-caladar-samantha-mercer-utza-c-jane-hobson600.png)](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/home/)

I suspect this is a Marmite musical – you’ll ether be drawn in by it or dismiss it. I think it’s a show that has somewhere to go – and I’m sure with further development it could take its place on a West End or Broadway stage. Like its main characters, it has a fire within.

Vanara is at Hackney Empire until 31 October – [vanarathemusical.com](https://www.vanarathemusical.com/?ref=scenemag.co.uk)