[ 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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IN THE SHADOW OF HER MAJESTY at the Jack Studio Theatre

★★★★★

“brilliantly kinetic and breezy”

This year, we’re all round Doreen’s for an absolute cracker of a Christmas.

It’s the best of times and the worst of times but this fractious and penniless Islington family have no choice but to see it through, squeezed together in their council flat like overcooked sprouts at the bottom of a bin bag.

So who’s on the guest list?

There’s world-weary matriarch Doreen (Alice Selwyn), boozing away bad memories, proud of her girls but they drive her nuts.

And sisters Gemma (wryly mordant Nancy Brabin-Platt) and single mum Riley (Lois Tallulah, more on her later). They’re at each other’s throats, one Spurs, one Arsenal, which seems to sum up their forever frenemy feuding.

And then there’s teenager Jorja (a lovely, affecting turn by Ella Harding). She’s the odd one out. She has a different father to her sisters and a secret boyfriend who is perhaps pushing a little too hard for Jorja to grow up.

Together, they are all as sparky and temperamental as Christmas lights.

Hang on. Where are all the men? Well, they are close by. That’s because this rogues gallery of feckless losers is in Pentonville prison which is just over the wall. So near and yet so far.

The wall casts a long shadow. Sometimes it’s an obstacle, especially for little lost Jorja who misses her dad. And sometimes the wall is a last line of defence against an onslaught of deadbeat drug-dealing do-nothings. Prison reform is a theme here but not so much as to be intrusive. Besides, with these men, more prison seems like the answer, not less.

Who else is coming? There’s flush Trish, an old friend (boisterous Jennifer Joseph), spreading good cheer. And pregnant stranger Jamila (Nadia Lamin showing formidable comic chops). The sisters encounter her shouting madly over that wall at incarcerated hubby Christian to keep him updated. Because Jamila is very, very pregnant. And it’s Christmas so, er, hello? How’s that going to end, we wonder.

As the sisters build up to Christmas there are secrets to be shared, some of them very uncomfortable, but in director Isla Jackson-Ritchie’s brilliantly kinetic and breezy production, the traumas are brushed past quickly, being more effective for their handling.

Enough of this doom and gloom, declares sozzled Doreen, let’s have a lovely Christmas.

The Jack Studio’s compact stage is packed and lively – three rooms in one, including a working kitchen, fridge, Christmas tree – and people are always coming and going. The whole thing is thrillingly unstagey and natural, the connections between the women – perpetually frayed, never broken – are a breath of fresh air.

The script feels less written than lived in. Lois Tallulah who plays struggling Riley with a hard face and a soft heart is the writer (and also co-director). Wow, what a talent.

Despite the friction, the endless man problems, the heartache and the cheap plonk, we could have stayed at Doreen’s a lot longer – perilous though it is – if only to find out how it all works out for the sisters. They feel like family now.

With this production, you buy a ticket, but you get an invitation: spend the festive season with the girls. They’re a raucous bunch – brutal, brittle, drunk and teetering. But you’re gonna love ’em.

[ 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]

IN THE SHADOW OF HER MAJESTY at the Jack Studio Theatre

★★★★★

“brilliantly kinetic and breezy”

IN THE SHADOW OF HER MAJESTY at the Jack Studio Theatre

Reviewed on 14th November 2024

by Giles Broadbent

Photography by Tim Stubbs Hughes @ Grey Swan

Previously reviewed at this venue:

IN THE SHADOW OF HER MAJESTY

IN THE SHADOW OF HER MAJESTY