[ TITLE OF SHOW ] at Southwark Playhouse Borough

★★★

“you have to hand it to the four performers – they know how to deliver. All of them have solid pipes and their whip crack dialogue rattles along at pace”

It’s cold and wet in Southwark. If your idea of an autumnal pick-me-up is to watch four perky Americans sing a running commentary about themselves for 90 minutes, you’re in for a treat.

If you’re looking to bury yourself further into your damp irritation, you can attend the same show and find validating levels of pique.

It’s that kind of show. Often at the same time.

The title of [Title of Show] comes from the entry form for the New York Musical Festival. Clueless about what to enter, aspiring writers and performers Hunter and Jeff decide to turn their mundane blather into the product. What we’re watching is the creative process as both the creative process and the result of the creative process. Meta on steroids.

“We could put this exact conversation in the show,” says Hunter after a particularly moribund exchange. But “would other people want to watch something like that?”

We’ll see.

The problem is apparent straight away. The creative process, even fictionalised, is notoriously indulgent. You end up with songs about writing songs about writing songs. Russian dolls with nothing at the centre.

[Title of Show] – directed by Christopher D Clegg, with musical direction by Tom Chippendale – is utterly obsessed by the mechanics of its own creation. The conceit throws up some genuinely witty moments and clever-clever theatrical in-jokes but has the feel of a student end-of-year showcase aimed at a knowing audience.

When the two women, Heidi and Susan, are left alone for the first time after the two main characters go off stage to do some business, they have nothing to offer except a song about two women being left alone for the first time while the two main characters go off stage to do some business.

It’s like that all the way through. Clever but without purpose.

You’re never left alone to enjoy a moment without the nature of the moment being retold as a rhyme. To be fair, the script does frequently question whether this is one huge mistake.

However, you have to hand it to the four performers – they know how to deliver. All of them have solid pipes and their whip crack dialogue rattles along at pace.

Jacob Fowler (Hunter), Abbie Budden (Heidi), Mary Moore (Susan) and Thomas Oxley (Jeff) have sumptuous voices, great range, and an endearing jazz hands energy.

Maybe this is a British thing, but the upbeat can-do fame school exuberance is the worst of it. After the festival and a taste of off-Broadway, they return to ordinary life and something more interesting happens. They struggle. They pout. They bicker.

Suddenly, these varnished mannequins acquire a second dimension. Some of their singing becomes heartfelt, some of their plights seem grounded. The irksome sweetness becomes something more savoury, perhaps even bitter.

But if that also is too affected, you could slot your grouch into the umbrella stand, turn off your head and just enjoy the songs. There’s a bunch of styles, some swish choreography, some deft solos and arrangements. Many of the songs individually are exceptional, the lyrics clever and often catchy. The sentiment is wholesome, the energy lively, and you can admire their (fictional) pluck and (actual) craft.

There’s a number which has the (clunky) line “I’d rather be nine people’s favourite thing than a hundred people’s ninth favourite thing”. That captures the ambivalence, and maybe even courage, of this production.

[Title of Show] is about overthinking something to the point where the enjoyment fades. My bad.

[ TITLE OF SHOW ] at Southwark Playhouse Borough

Reviewed on 18th November 2024

by Giles Broadbent

Photography by Danny Kaan

Previously reviewed at Southwark Playhouse venues:

THE UNGODLY | ★★★ | October 2024

FOREVERLAND | ★★★★ | October 2024

JULIUS CAESAR | ★★★ | September 2024

DORIAN: THE MUSICAL | ★★½ | July 2024

THE BLEEDING TREE | ★★★★ | June 2024

FUN AT THE BEACH ROMP-BOMP-A-LOMP!! | ★★★ | May 2024

MAY 35th | ★★★½ | May 2024

SAPPHO | ★★ | May 2024

CAPTAIN AMAZING | ★★★★★ | May 2024

WHY I STUCK A FLARE UP MY ARSE FOR ENGLAND | ★★★★★ | April 2024

[TITLE OF SHOW]

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CRUEL INTENTIONS at The Other Palace

★★★★

“an evening of unadulterated fun and escapism, with a fabulous soundtrack delivered with passion, right up to its climax”

With a core cast of eight triple-threats, bolstered by an equally talented ensemble, “Cruel Intentions: The ‘90s Musical” bursts onto the stage at The Other Palace in a glorious blaze of fun and virtuosity. However cruel the protagonists may be, the true intentions of this talented troupe are to entertain and send us home with our heads full of ‘poptastic’ tunes and a smile as wide as the Cheshire Cat’s. Ay, there’s the rub – the toxic treachery is let off too lightly. Based on the 1999 teen romantic drama, in turn based on the eighteenth-century French morality tale ‘Les Liaisons Dangereuses’, the wages of sin are just a token penalty. Yet to their credit, Jordan Ross, Lindsey Rosin and Roger Kumble – the creators of this memorable musical – inject some of the behaviour of the characters with a modern-day sensibility to redress the balance.

But such conjecture misses the point and is ill-suited to a show that thrives on not taking itself seriously. Jonathan O’Boyle’s racy and pacey production dishes out the story and the jokes in delightful, digestible bitesize scenes with brilliantly choice hit songs for punchlines. Which is where the ingenuity really shines, for it never feels like a juke-box musical. Even in the most abrupt jolt from dialogue to song, the transition is smooth, natural, uncannily appropriate, and often very, very funny.

It is a winning formula, proven by its Off-Broadway debut seven years ago which was extended three times back in 2017. Even if the London revival is somewhat emotionally disengaging, we are drawn into the protagonists’ world as we follow the sociopathic stepsiblings’ shenanigans. The charming but devilish couple place a bet. Kathryn (Rhianne-Louise McCaulsky) wagers on whether Sebastian (Daniel Bravo) can deflower their high school headmaster’s daughter, Annette (Abbie Budden). As the couple set out to destroy the innocent girl, they find themselves in a dangerous game of revenge and malice. Kathryn is equally intent on corrupting new girl Cecile (Rose Galbraith) using Sebastian as a pawn – among others including music teacher Ronald (Nickcolia King-N’Da), gay couple Blaine (Josh Barnett) and Greg (Barney Wilkinson), and Cecile’s nouveau-riche mother, Bunny Caldwell (Jess Buckby).

“Gary Lloyd’s power-driven and energised choreography is devilishly divine”

Each cast member has ample opportunity to showcase their outstanding vocal abilities as they soar through the musical numbers, giving a whole new slant on the original lyrics. It will be difficult to disassociate, now, Ace of Base’s ‘The Sign’ from Cecile’s first orgasm, or TLC’s ‘No Scrubs’ from Bunny’s innate racism. Elsewhere a real poignancy pours from Jewel’s ‘Foolish Games’, courtesy of Abbie Budden’s heartfelt portrayal of the prim Annette. Reaping the biggest applause is Rhianne-Louise McCaulsky’s Kathryn whose outstanding solos almost make you forgive her character’s maleficence. The Counting Crows ‘Colourblind’ is a gorgeous duet for Daniel Bravo and Budden, before the ensemble kicks in with spine-tingling harmonies.

There is little time to do so, but between songs the performers manage to flesh out personality onto the skeletal bones of their personas. Rose Galbraith is at once raunchy and kittenish as the ingénue Cecile, while Budden’s virginal Annette bewitches with sex appeal and sassiness despite the prim exterior. Daniel Bravo’s amoral coolness melts along the path of redemption, whereas McCaulsky remains as cold as ice: the self-confessed mistress of self-absorption. Her performance is indeed a highlight, although generously allowing the stars surrounding her to shine as bright.

There are inevitably moments of implausibility. And for all its salaciousness and profanity, the show is somehow not very shocking. There is a clean gloss that renders the scandalous a touch scandal-free. It is all about sex, but is sometimes sexless as though the intimacy directors are on overtime. But let’s not single them out – it seems the rest of the creative team are on overtime too. Gary Lloyd’s power-driven and energised choreography is devilishly divine. Chris Whybrow’s sound is crisp and perfectly balanced to pinpoint each vocal and each note from the four-piece band, led by musical director Denise Crowley.

Slick, snappy and sometimes sensational, “Cruel Intentions” pokes fun at its source material and itself. Who cares about its intentions – cruel or otherwise? The result is an evening of unadulterated fun and escapism, with a fabulous soundtrack delivered with passion, right up to its climax.

[ TITLE OF SHOW ] at Southwark Playhouse Borough

★★★

“you have to hand it to the four performers – they know how to deliver. All of them have solid pipes and their whip crack dialogue rattles along at pace”

[ TITLE OF SHOW ] at Southwark Playhouse Borough

Reviewed on 18th November 2024

by Giles Broadbent

Photography by Danny Kaan

Previously reviewed at Southwark Playhouse venues:

[TITLE OF SHOW]

[TITLE OF SHOW]

CRUEL INTENTIONS at The Other Palace

★★★★

“an evening of unadulterated fun and escapism, with a fabulous soundtrack delivered with passion, right up to its climax”

“Gary Lloyd’s power-driven and energised choreography is devilishly divine”

CRUEL INTENTIONS at The Other Palace

Reviewed on 30th January 2024

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Pamela Raith

Previously reviewed at this venue:

CRUEL INTENTIONS

CRUEL INTENTIONS