Audrey Niffenegger’s novel, published in 2003, sold 8 million copies. It’s been made into a film and a television series. It’s now a musical. The book is by Lauren Gunderson. The music and lyrics are by Joss Stone and Dave Stewart.
The complex narrative, a mixture of SF and Romance, has the hero zigzagging through time. The story begins with 20-year-old Clare meeting 28-year-old Henry in a library. Actually, they first met when she was 6. They go on to have lots of little meetings but they are never chronological. He dies at 43. She waits a lifetime for him to reappear. She lives to be 82.
Henry is a librarian. He suffers from a genetic disorder which causes him, involuntarily, to travel back and forth in time, his age changing every time. Clare is an artist. She falls in love with him but their relationship, inevitably, is constantly out of synch.
He keeps disappearing and disappearing at inconvenient moments, such as on their wedding day and just when they are about to have sex. His instant vanishings, cleverly staged by illusionist Chris Fisher, are fun for the audience.
Henry has a vasectomy. Clare becomes pregnant. How you wonder? With time travel going back and forth, anything is possible.
David Hunter and Joanna Woodward are an engaging couple. They sing and act well; but the relationship never goes deep enough.
Bill Buckhurst directs. Anna Fleischle designs. The main asset is the revolving stage which means the constantly changing locations are quickly and smoothly staged.
A high spot are Andrzej Goulding’s animated projections, which open the second half and have Henry crashing through space and flying to a rousing number, Journeyman.
The major problem for The Time Traveller’s Wife as a musical is that there are no memorable songs and that the choreography is naff.
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