Review: Striking 12

A great good mood blast

Striking 12 combines rock concert and theatre. Behind it are the core duo of the band GrooveLily, musician-composer Brendan Milburn and his wife, violinist-songwriter-singer-bandleader Valerie Vigoda, as well as dramatist and theatre pedagogue Rachel Sheinkin. The creators have called their work a concert musical, among other things.

In the wake of the huge popularity of Striking 12, Milburn and Vigoda have continued in the same vein with works such as Wheelhouse, Long Story Short and Ernest Shackleton’s Loves Me. In addition, they have been involved in making Toy Story and Sleeping Beauty Wakes musicals for Disney.

In Helsinki, excellent performers have been found for the roles of Striking 12 Musician and music pedagogue Veera Railio is a discovery for the role of a central female soloist and violinist, like the perfect Finnish equivalent of Vigoda. Despite their young age (b. 1987), Samuel Harjanne and Petrus Kähkönen have also been involved in many things.

Striking 12 combines pop, rock, classical, schlager songs, dance melodies, etc. Between 20 songs, we tell the stories of three young people at whose gig everything happens. There is drama within drama, Andersen’s Match Girl fairy tale and New Year’s Eve celebrations. The fireworks, translated into Finnish by Jukka Virtanen and Kristiina Drews , captivated the audience.