
Hannah: The Soldier Diaries
Listening to a traditional musical cast album with no dialogue between each song can make it hard to understand the musical’s plot. However, Hannah - The Solider Diaries has been released in an audiobook format, with each section of dialogue paired with a song. This gives the listener a complete audio picture of the musical.
Hannah—The Soldier Diaries, written by Steve Wallis with music by Nick Martin, is set in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, UK. The story is about Lance Corporal Jack Webb, who is home on four weeks of leave from the army before he leaves for the Afghan War. During his break, he meets Hannah, a 20-year-old hairdresser, and they start a whirlwind romance.
The audiobook is narrated like reading Hannah’s (Zoe Wright) diary. It's incredibly descriptive, putting the listener firmly into Hannah’s world and life as she is instantly smitten by the attractive Jack. We are brought through the highs of the relationship and then follow Hannah through the turmoil when Jack returns to the army and ultimately to the Afghan War.
Wright’s narration of the text was colourful and bright, giving Hannah a lot of personality right from chapter one. This means the listener could also feel the pain Hannah was feeling once Jack had left for the army again.
The only point where anyone else's perspective is added is with the rap lyrics, sung by Tyler Stevenson, in which Jack’s feelings are expressed. This is done really well in songs like Not Passing Through.
The songs are wonderful additions to the story, all performed by Wright. There are many upbeat, catchy songs, such as Butterflies and Funk It, mixed with some beautiful, heartfelt ballads, such as Live for Today.
Unfortunately, this musical ends very abruptly and leaves the listener with many questions. Without spoiling the plot, what happens in the final two chapters feels more like an act one closer than a completed musical.
However, this is likely because there are plans for part two of Hannah - The Solider Diaries, to come out in December this year (which we hope to review as well). Which means, the final two chapters likely were the act one closer, not the end of the show. However, as a general listener, this isn’t mentioned in any of information on the audio book blurb. A listener would have to go looking for this information, and I only know this because I read a press-release that was provided with the copy of Hannah - The Solider Diaries while researching to do this review.
Additionally, the blurb provided with the audio book gives away all of the major plot points for this half of the musical, therefore, as a listener when the musical stopped and the major plot points had all been in the blurb, and not resolved it was somewhat disapointing.
Hannah - The Solider Diaries is a captivating audiobook musical with catchy songs that have been performed beautifully with fantastic descriptive narration to bring you into Hannah’s world. However, the fact that no where does it mention its part one is a huge let down to a show with so much potential, because knowing that this is act one means end of the audiobook doesn’t feel abrupt and unfinished. Changing up the blurb so less is given away, and it says that this is part one, with part two to come out soon would make such a difference in the way a listener experiences this great show. ​
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Read more about Hannah: The Soldier Diaries here: https://hannahthesoldierdiaries.co.uk/