★★★★

“Ipema is a wonderful storyteller. She leads us through her story with both humour and a certain poetry”

It’s a dangerous thing, walking out your front door. Especially for Sam — because there’s a ticking time bomb nestled in her brain. A clipped, but still very dangerous little aneurysm which she not-so-affectionately refers to as “Annie”.

Dear Annie, I Hate You is Sam Ipema’s autobiographical journey through young adulthood and the event that stopped her cold at just 20 years old. She weaves a lovely, warm tale about growing up with her adopted brother Micah, who lives with Down’s Syndrome. They pretend to be superheroes, they revel in imagination together, and he thinks of her as his own personal Batman — until Sam realises that other kids her age don’t think that’s cool anymore. She tells Micah to get his own friends, as she gets her own too. The classic ups and downs of adolescence ensue. There are boys, there’s gossip, and through it all, Sam is just trying to figure out who she is and what she wants. She falls in love with soccer, proudly becoming the only woman on a Division Four men’s team… then she sustains a head injury in a match, and all hell breaks loose. It’s lucky, she’s told, that she had the scans — that her aneurysm was found before it burst, potentially killing her. But how can you tell someone it’s lucky to find out that there’s a bomb in your head?

Ipema is a wonderful storyteller. She leads us through her story with both humour and a certain poetry. When she engages with the audience, you can tell they’re charmed by her. The personification of her aneurysm, “Annie”, played by Eleanor House is nothing short of sublime, especially as she introduces herself. She’s chaos incarnate, but she’s also desperately trying to get Sam to pay attention to her, almost as though she has more concern for Sam’s life than even Sam does. The performances are beautifully aided by simple, but effective set design by Hugo Dodsworth and the videography work from Douglas Coghlan and Dan Light is exceptional. The analog media on display here is a fun and interesting addition, as it beckons us (well, some of us, I’m sure) back to our own childhoods. But there’s one scene in particular that really makes it feel beyond genius — when Sam places one of the many televisions over Annie’s head and walks us through the procedure she underwent, having her aneurysm clipped. It’s definitely a bit graphic, but it’s also fascinating and viscerally real.

As we arrive at Sam’s recovery, it does feel a bit like something is missing. It’s all a touch too neat. Sam talks about the difficulties of her recovery, the excruciating pain, the loneliness of it all, and the existential dread that comes with knowing that “Annie” could still burst and potentially kill her at any moment. Yet for some reason, it doesn’t feel like it quite lands the emotional punch that it should. But maybe that’s the point of it all, really — even these massive, traumatic events are just blips in the overall scheme of things. No matter what, we’ve just got to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

CRY-BABY, THE MUSICAL

Arcola Theatre

★★★★★

“Feel-good is the understatement of the year where this show is concerned”

‘It’s a beautiful day for an anti-polio picnic’. So begins the new all-singing, all-dancing “Cry-Baby, The Musical”. This is no surprise if you are armed with the knowledge that the musical is based on the transgressive filmmaker John Waters’ 1990 film. Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan have written the book, with David Javerbaum and Adam Schlesinger providing the songs. Directed by the Arcola Theatre’s artistic director, Mehmet Ergen, it bursts onto the London stage with an effervescent eccentricity that Waters would be proud of with all his screwball heart.

A couple of words of advice. Leave your expectations at home, along with any judgements, preconceptions or theatrical snobbery. Don’t read the programme notes – the ones that allude to the show dealing with issues of class-based injustices, political relevance, privilege, demonisation… blah blah blah. It really isn’t that deep. Yes, they’re all in there somewhere, cleverly hidden in hilarious, blink-and-you-miss one-liners, but the trick is to just wallow in the whole explosion of joy that this show bombards you with. The story is as shallow as they come. A kind of ‘Grease’ meets ‘Jailhouse Rock’ – but better than both put together. It is 1954. Communism is the big taboo. Wade “Cry-Baby” Walker is the coolest kid in town. He’s a rebel with a cause. A bad guy – though we kind of twig pretty quickly that he’s not really. Allison is the strait-laced rich girl who crosses to the wrong side of the tracks, drawn to his irresistible flame. Forbidden love and teen rebellion run rife while society moral values are turned upside down.

Adam Davidson plays the eponymous ‘Cry-Baby’. His name derives from the fact that he hasn’t cried since his parents died and he was orphaned at a young age (we learn the circumstances of his mum and dad’s tragic demise later). He is the leader of the ‘Drapes’, a misfit crew of baddies with whom the ‘Squares’ (to which Lulu-Mae Pears’ clean-cut Allison belongs) are in awe of, yet fear, in equal measure. Allison has been brought up by her grandmother, the (seemingly) upright Mrs Cordelia Vernon-Williams (Shirley Jameson). Surrounded by a magnificent kaleidoscope of colourful characters, all performed by an even more magnificent cast, the narrative roller-coasts through picnics, self-awareness days, song contests, arson attacks, prison, escape, freedom, atonement, justice, hard-won-love… right up to its preposterously upbeat finale. All the while our smiles get wider and wider, the laughs get stronger, and our toe-tapping turns into all-out body shaking. Feel-good is the understatement of the year where this show is concerned.

The score must have been one of the easiest to write. There’s irony in that statement, but a snippet of truth too. The entire set list is pure pastiche. The chord structures have been handed to Javerbaum and Schlesinger on a plate. Each song is instantly recognisable, yet bizarrely unique. It’s the lyrics that can take the credit – insanely clever, witty and poignant. The writers are masters of rhyming and scanning, and the performers deliver faultlessly. We are transported back to the fifties with the genre defining songs: the close-knit harmonies of ‘Squeaky Clean’, or the rockabilly rhythms of ‘Jukebox Jamboree’. Ballads such as ‘Misery’ and ‘I’m Infected’ tug at our teenage heartstrings and rekindle the memories of our misspent teenage years. The bar is high, but there still manage to be highlights. Shirley Jameson’s ‘Did Something Wrong Once’ threatens to bring the house down, as does Chad Saint Louis (who plays bad boy Dupree) every time he opens his mouth, and lungs. Davidson and Pears smash every number they sing. The ensemble players are, without exception, exceptional. Eleanor Walsh, in particular, as Lenora Frigid (don’t blame me – I didn’t name the characters), whose solo number ‘Screw Loose’ defines her perfectly. Bonkers? Yes! Virtuosic? Without doubt! And how can you fail to enjoy a musical that includes song titles such as ‘Girl Can I Kiss You with Tongues?’ Forget the phrase ‘from the sublime to the ridiculous’. This show combines the too. Ridiculous? Yes! Sublime? Without a doubt!

You don’t need a big stage to create a spectacle. Chris Whittaker’s choreography shifts the walls outwards, playing with scale and creating deceptively big routines. Meticulously period yet innovative, it encapsulates the show’s energy and sense of fun. Shades of Jerome Robbins in no way eclipse Whittaker’s own individuality. Like every element of the show, familiarity and peculiarity dance side by side.

The finale number – a rousing ‘Nothing Bad’ – sums it up. “Cry-Baby, The Musical” is two hours of star-spangled fun. You’d be a cry-baby to miss it (I know…!). All I can say is ‘be there… or be square’.

DEAR ANNIE, I HATE YOU

Riverside Studios

★★★★

“Ipema is a wonderful storyteller. She leads us through her story with both humour and a certain poetry”

DEAR ANNIE, I HATE YOU

Riverside Studios

Reviewed on 12th May 2025

by Stacey Cullen

Photography by Charlie Flint

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:

DEAR ANNIE

DEAR ANNIE

DEAR ANNIE

CRY-BABY, THE MUSICAL

Arcola Theatre

★★★★★

“Feel-good is the understatement of the year where this show is concerned”