★★★

“Kunze and Shipman manage to get us on side by their sheer love of being up there”

In these grim times, sometimes you want a show that simply refuses to take itself seriously. Boy Band is the romping, refreshing, silly night out you didn’t know you needed.

Created by Michael Kunze, Hugh Edwards and Fergus Shipman, and performed at The Glitch by Kunze and Shipman, Boy Band roughly traces the creation of – you guessed it – a boy band in one of the member’s childhood basements. Built mostly around original songs packed with laugh-out-loud pun-filled lyrics. The show delights in squeezing every last drop out of the boy band trope, even staging a thinly veiled and extremely short-lived band break up as a marketing ploy.

The songs are deliberately terrible and catchy in equal measure, ranging from a lament about an affair with a love bot to a suggestive number about chips and nacho cheese featuring some disturbingly wacky choreography that may have permanently ruined nachos for me.

The set is a simple circle of mismatched battery-powered candles arranged in a circle on the floor– an endearingly incongruous choice that somehow adds to the impression that we are not watching a show but instead watching a couple of dope smoking friends winging it in their basement – which of course was the entire point.

Michael Kunze plays self-proclaimed “bad boy” Jools Jacuzzi with a goofy abandon that is inexplicably charismatic. Fergus Shipman is Ray Jay Jay Jay, Jacuzzi’s quieter, cooler understated self-conscious counterpart, who at one point seems to be on the verge of opening up about a body image crisis and ends up singing a song about ice cream. Early on, the two address the elephant in the room (“Hello Elephant”) by saying that their third member, Hugh Way (played by Hugh Edwards), wasn’t there. It does feel a little incomplete – leaving me speculating about what a third band member would have brought to the on-stage dynamic. They miss an opportunity to make it into a real band break up, but Kunze and Shipman are to be commended by how they step up, making me think for a while that maybe, despite the poster evidence, the third cast member had never actually been there at all.

If the characters had been a little more developed, their relationship between each other more intentional, and the story arc of the band more finely drawn, Boy Band could have been a triumph – not only making us laugh but also making us care about these full-grown would-be boys.

Nevertheless, Kunze and Shipman manage to get us on side by their sheer love of being up there. At one point they asked a brave audience member up on stage. After serenading them with an improvised song, they asked, “What advice would you give your younger self?” The answer: “Have more fun.” Kunze looked genuinely moved for a second, as if he couldn’t have scripted it better himself. Touching his heart he said, “Wow, wow, that is the whole point of this show, man…” And if that was indeed the point of the show, Boy Band pulled it off with flying colours.

REBECCA at Charing Cross Theatre

★★★★

“its sights are undoubtedly set on a bigger space”

“Rebecca” the musical has taken quite a while to come to our shores. Based on Daphne du Maurier’s Gothic novel of the same name, it was written by Michael Kunze (book and lyrics) and Sylvester Levay (music). When it opened more than a decade and a half ago in Vienna it played to sold out houses for over three years before crossing the oceans to Japan and back again to Finland, Hungary, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Serbia, Romania, Czechia and Russia. In the meantime, The English audience’s appetite was whetted by Emma Rice’s chillingly magical touring production which, in true Kneehigh fashion, was part musical, part fairy-tale, part horror fantasy.

High expectations lie in wait at the gates of Manderley for the musical, translated by Kunze and Christopher Hampton. Alejandro Bonatto’s production is quite fearless in the face of anticipation, so much so that the ambition and vision of the piece feels initially at odds with the choice of venue. With an eighteen-piece orchestra, twenty-two songs and an all singing all dancing ensemble, its sights are undoubtedly set on a bigger space. But for now, it has settled in for the autumn and it feels like this very English tale has come home.

Staying faithful to the novel it centres around “I” – the first-person narrator, known only as the second Mrs. de Winter. Having met the wealthy widower Maxim de Winter in Monte Carlo she all too rapidly becomes his wife and moves to his grand estate in Cornwall. Washed up in a ghost story without the ghosts, the new bride grapples with the oppressive presence of de Winter’s first wife – Rebecca – who died in mysterious circumstances the year before. Exacerbated by Mrs Danvers – the cold, overbearing housekeeper – she grows increasingly obsessed with the beautiful first wife. The suspense builds, secrets are revealed, and intrigues unravelled.

“The melodies are quite beautiful when needed; and stirring whenever required”

Like the novel, the musical opens with “I” famously saying (though in this case singing – and paraphrasing presumably for scanning purposes) ‘last night I dreamt of Manderley’. We immediately get a taste of the sumptuous score, and the quality of the singing voices on display. The atmosphere is created, but then somewhat dismantled as events and the central romance progress at breakneck speed. Songs come and go, often ending too soon. Crescendos and climaxes bounce off the walls leaving little space for true characterisation. While Richard Carson’s Maxim de Winter is quite rooted in his awkward and arrogant secrecy, Lauren Jones’ “I” has the more pronounced arc; even though we have to wait until after interval to witness Jones’ transformation from timid outsider to gutsy go-getter who can rightfully grab what is hers. When she looks like stealing the show, it is snatched away by Kara Lane as Mrs Danvers, with a soul of steel and voice of velvet. The duo makes compelling watching, particularly during act two’s opening number ‘Rebecca’. The gauntlet is thrown, and the stage is set. The second half of the show is indeed several notches up from the first act, and the mists of darkness and deviousness break away from the artificiality of dry ice, to form something more tangible and emotive.

The bleak Cornish setting is evoked through David Seldes’ lighting and Matt Powell’s projections, with the old school theatricality of Nicky Shaw’s sets, deftly manoeuvred and transformed by the ensemble cast. An ensemble that is equally as important as the leading players, and given several rousing numbers that set the scene and drive the plot. It is more melodrama than psychological insight, but then again – is that a bad thing? We’re not looking for Daphne du Maurier’s literary subtleties. We want the essence, which is what is achieved. The melodies are quite beautiful when needed; and stirring whenever required. Sometimes, however, it is superfluous to requirements, and therefore stretches the show beyond its natural length. A show that, in turn, is pushing at the walls of the space. The true vision is confined for now, but it is still quite thrilling. The heart may be relatively unmoved, but the senses are indeed stirred.

Tag Archives: Michael Kunze

BOY BAND

★★★

The Glitch

BOY BAND

The Glitch

★★★

“Kunze and Shipman manage to get us on side by their sheer love of being up there”

BOY BAND

The Glitch

Reviewed on 11th October 2025

by Samantha Karr

Photography by Lilla Hodossy

Previously reviewed at this venue:

NEVER GET TO HEAVEN IN AN EMPTY SHELL | ★★★ | July 2025

THE RISE AND FALL OF VINNIE & PAUL | ★★★★ | April 2025

BOY BAND

BOY BAND

BOY BAND

Rebecca

★★★★

Charing Cross Theatre

REBECCA at Charing Cross Theatre

★★★★

“its sights are undoubtedly set on a bigger space”

“The melodies are quite beautiful when needed; and stirring whenever required”