Short Reviews [Madmen And Dreamers - 2024 - "Water Inc."]

Take a trip over to their website and you will find the following statement, "Artists are society's immune system: Our mission is to write, record, and perform rock musicals about current issues in order to raise awareness and build a community that will get involved to make the world a better place". The people behind this are Mark A. Durstewitz (producer/composer /lyricist/keyboards), Christine Hull (composer/lyricist/vocal captain/actor), and Mario Renes (composer) and this is the second project from the collective, following on from "The Children of Children". To my ears the most obvious comparison is with Clive Nolan and his Caamora Theatre Company, with "Alchemy" still being the flagbearer for the ultimate in combination of progressive rock, musical theatre and storytelling. Whereas Clive tends to set his stories in the past, here Mark wants to raise in our consciousness the dangers and worries of global warming and the way that big business is trying to make a fast buck out of the issue. I found I kept thinking of the film "Don't Look Up", as they both use art to attempt to get people to understand there is a real issue which impacts all of us and do not expect big business (Elon Musk and Donald Trump et al) to be good for us as all they ever look out for is themselves, even if it causes the world to burn in flames around them. There are only eight characters in this story of a woman who owns the farms above the last clean freshwater aquifer, the man who owns the company that wants the water, and the terrible secret they share. It is a live recording, so we get applause here and there, as the audience is obviously highly invested in what is going on in front of them, but the focus (and the microphones) is clearly on the band and singers. Mark is at the heart of everything, underpinning the arrangements with complex and rippling piano, with the rest of the band (drums, bass, guitar) all tying into that. This is a musical without speaking, which does mean that there are times when the words can feel a little forced as information is put into a song which may have been better spoken, but overall this is an interesting art rock project which straddles the worlds of progressive rock and musical theatre which is not an easy task to undertake. The message comes through loud and clear, although sadly most people attending their productions will already be onboard to what it means, but to my ears and mind it is wonderful when artists use their talents to try and make the world a better place. This will be appreciated more by those who enjoy musical theatre than progressive rock, but if you are intrigued it is certainly worth checking out.