The Barn Theatre goes choose-your-own-adventure with The Secret Society of Leading Ladies with mixed results
“Leave them wanting more”
There’s no faulting the ambition of the Barn Theatre as they continue to lead the vanguard of theatres exploring how far they can push the digital realm. The Secret Society of Leading Ladies sees them adopt something of a choose-your-own-adventure model for this concert, which means there’s over 150 different ways in which it can be experienced.
It’s a fascinating way to delve into the breadth of the female musical theatre canon, as audience members get to choose their own way through various archetypal characters to hit on a wide range of musicals both classic and new. And directed by Ryan Carter, the performance level from a highly talented company is certainly admirable from multiple starts to multiple finishes.
Any review is necessarily a subjective exercise but more so than ever here, what I experienced won’t be what you do, or you do, or even you do. Plus there’s an element of wanting to maintain the surprises held within here. For me, the whole thing feels a little too brief in its entirety given the tricksiness of the conceit, the multipass ticket allows to repeated visits to cover more routes through the work but that kinda feels beside the point.
