Glory Ride was a delightful fringe show Alex, Madison and I saw on a free night last week. We went in with no expectations and left pleasantly surprised.
Glory Ride was set in the early 1940s, and is a musical that depicts the true story of famous, Tour de France-winning cyclist Gino Bartali, who helped smuggle Jews out of Italy during Mussolini’s dictatorship.
We started off almost missing the show, as it was under a train station in an alleyway. It was in a quaint theatre, only a little bigger than the one we saw Jules and Jim in. The space really worked for me and I think it immersed us in the world of the play well. The fact that it was under a train station surprisingly really added to the show. Every 15 minutes or so a train would rumble over the theatre. Specifically, there was a scene where they were hiding in a house while there was a bombing going on, and the train rumbled above them, adding to the drama. Something I love about fringe theatre is that it can be in more unconventional spaces, yet that can sometimes be a better experience than being in a huge professional theater.
We also had the experience of sitting front row of the theatre. The stage reached the height of about my shoulders, so sitting right up on it was a bit of a neck-breaking experience. But it was cool being so close to the actors, and we really only missed the view of their feet, so it was worth it. The actors came up to the edge of the stage a lot, and it was really cool being so close to them and helped us be so much more immersed in the story. We were so close they even spit on us!
The music in the show was also very good. It told the story well, and specifically, Gino and his love interest Adrianna had strong, booming voices that worked well together and told the story beautifully. Some of the supporting characters were weaker vocally than the leads, but it never took me out of the story. The Italian accents were really good but were inconsistent during the songs. Even though it technically wasn’t West End professional theatre, it felt up to that par and cost a lot less. I’m so glad we saw it on a whim and hope to experience more theatre like it soon!
Theatre in London U of A 