Griffin Theatre Company is always at the forefront of new musical productions and Afterglow is the latest in their Griffin Lookout series celebrating emerging theatre creators. Presented by Purple Tape Productions, with book and lyrics by Sheanna Parker Russon and music by Lillian M. Hearne, this tale is centred around a barbershop singing national championship where the participants must confront the traditionally male nature of barbershop as many members of the group confront their sexuality and gender as the play progresses.

The play is a tight 75 minutes and features a strong cast of Lincoln Elliott, Cassie Hamilton, Lillian M. Hearne, Nat Jobe and Nic Prior. The play is centred around Cassie Hamilton’s Michael, who undergoes several transformations throughout the production, which is at its heart concerned with Michael’s relationship with Tom, which provides the emotional backbone of the story as Michael grapples with identity and belonging. As the story seeks to convey an important message, the thematic elements of this production are where the play is strongest, confronting an important story set against a traditionally gender-normative backdrop of barbershop. 

There are also frequent gags which are very funny and are another selling point of this production. However, the play does fall short when it comes to actually conveying this message and giving credence to its themes, with the storytelling falling apart in places and feeling quite derivative and generic, which is a shame because the premise is interesting. While Michael and Tom’s relationship is clearly intended to be the emotional core of the production, the script never quite develops it enough for the emotional moments to land with their full impact.

Additionally, the music really didn’t stand up to scrutiny as while the use of barbershop singing is an interesting theatrical concept and suits the story well, some of the vocals left a lot to be desired, with a fair bit of pitchiness and struggles throughout the production. There were a significant number of word flubs and mistakes on the night reviewed, which did make the production feel a little amateurish at times, with the characters frequently breaking out of the moment and breaking the theatrical spell. That definitely detracted from the production and made it feel somewhat under-rehearsed.

On the other hand, Geita Goarin’s set and costume design was excellent and really lit up the Downstairs Belvoir stage, while Tyler Fitzpatrick’s lighting was also excellent. Of the cast, Nat Jobe’s Rupert was by far the highlight, bringing an earnest sensibility to his character and delivering most of the jokes with great comic timing. Cassie Hamilton gave a committed central performance as Michael, carrying the emotional weight of the production even when the script did not fully support the character’s journey.

Overall, this was a solid show which has a lot of promise, especially in its messaging and concept, but it just didn’t quite execute in this production, with struggles in both the script and its execution. This production also felt a little under-rehearsed and the script needed a little more development to really sing. This is the point of Griffin’s Lookout program and I’m sure that with a bit more development this play will become something special as it has all the right bones but it just needs that little push to really get it there. 

Rating: ★★★

Afterglow plays at the Belvoir St Theatre until 25 July 2026. For more information, click here. 

All photo credits: Lucy Parakhina