A Musical with heart

Southwark Playhouse Elephant

Ten years in the making, Ballad Lines has arrived in London. Finn Anderson and Tania Azevedo’s musical follows connections between women and songs over the centuries. Some critics felt there was more work needed on it, but they loved the music and found the story heartwarming.

[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]

4 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑

Cindy Marcolina for BroadwayWorld said: ‘Ballad Lines must be one of the most exciting new musicals to hit the stage in some time. We follow Sarah, an American queer woman, as she dives headfirst into her family’s roots. Through the centuries, the same melodies come back to link the women who came before her (…) it might be a bit corny here and there, but it’s a solid celebration of women’s endurance as well as the role of music and its influence on our lives. The score and the plot are equally engrossing; the direction and performances are inspired.’

‘Brimming with ambition and warmth, it has the makings of the next brilliant thing’ reported Aliya Al-Hussan for WhatsOnStage. She admitted: ‘Touching on family, identity and motherhood, there’s a lot to pack in and some characters inevitably feel less rounded than others, but Azevedo directs with great fluidity.’ She concluded: ‘Heartwarming, poignant and deeply human, it has the potential to go far.’

Emma John in The Guardian explained; ‘It was the Ulster immigrants, passing down their boisterous tunes and melancholy ballads, who gifted the US some of its first iterations of country music.’ Anderson’s score powerfully evokes the source material it is exploring, and the ensemble’s singing positively electrifies the traditional song (…) Composer Finn Anderson and director Tania Azevedo have used that journey to tell a musical story across generations.’

Gary Naylor at The Arts Desk praised the show but ‘You shouldn’t be standing back, but few aspects of life are as inaccessible to a man as pregnancy and childbirth (…) For all the heart and soul and technical achievement on stage, that yawning empathy gap was never bridged – at least not for me. I appreciated the show because it’s a really fine musical, but I didn’t really feel it. Many will. ‘

3 stars ⭑⭑⭑

The Stage’s Sam Marlowe noted: ‘There are some soaringly impassioned performances in this new musical, but it’s the songs that are the star. Woven around traditional Appalachian folk tunes and accompanied by a live band dominated by lyrical fiddle, they are lilting, haunting and oozing with gorgeous harmonies.’ However, ‘McNamee sometimes seems a little stranded, a bystander floating at the verge of more interesting tales, and the piece sometimes bobs too long among the eddies and whorls of the multi-stream storytelling.’

Matt Wolf for LondonTheatre called it ‘a show suffused with passion and heart that comes tethered to a surging score from the fast-rising Scottish singer-songwriter Finn Anderson’. He declared: ‘There’s no faulting an eight-person cast…and McNamee should go far with her stirring occupancy of the show’s star part.’ Unfortunately, ‘Too often, the writing lapses into clunky portentousness’ and it’s also in ‘desperate need of trimming and shaping’, he said.

Anna Maloney in CityAM described the story: ‘Ballad Lines dives into the lives of Cait, Jean and Sarah, three women from the same blood line but very different times…connected by heritage, womanhood but, more importantly, the power of song, with the score blending Scottish, Irish and Appalachian folk ballads.’ She suggested it was not quite complete: ‘this could be the kind of show that really benefits from scale. With a few set pieces and the potential for big, gorgeous ensemble numbers, Ballad Lines could be a hit in waiting.’

Critics’ average rating 3.6⭑

Ballad Lines can be seen at Southwark Playhouse Borough until 21 March 2026. Buy tickets directly from the theatre

If you’ve seen Ballad Lines at Southwark Playhouse, please leave your review and/or rating below