★★★★★

“The magnetic cast shimmers with soul and skill”

I’ll be honest: when ‘50 First Dates: The Musical’ was announced, I feared a carbon copy of the problematic 2004 film, ‘50 First Dates’. But like Henry, I’m glad I stuck around. The stage version is surprisingly fresh, bursting with heart, charm and pain. Forget 50: one date’s all it takes to fall for this musical!

‘Perfect Day’ travel blogger, Henry Roth, has it all – influencer status, an ambitious agent, success with the ladies. The world’s at his feet, even though he’s outrunning his past. During a pitstop in Key Largo, Florida, Henry meets Lucy, the town’s sweetheart. Suddenly he sees a reason to stay. But one perfect day isn’t enough when Lucy forgets everything by morning. Can love overcome memory loss? Or is one day all they’ll get?

With a hilarious book, music and lyrics by David Rossmer and Steve Rosen, ‘50 First Dates: The Musical’ removes and/or softens the film’s more controversial elements, landing in 2025 with depth and compassion. Henry is much less creepy, no longer deceiving though still disappearing; Lucy’s hopes and dreams are central rather than shoehorned in; Lucy has more agency, even though the men still steer the ship; racist portrayals are gone. The intrinsically flawed, overly romanticised medical premise remains, but the whole resonates much more deeply, heightened by the writers’ sensitive portrayal of pain: for all the sunshine and silliness, both script and score are imbued with quiet tragedy. The result is a breathtaking gut-punch of beauty and sorrow – an entire town forever changed by Lucy’s accident.

The score is hauntingly beautiful. Rossmer and Rosen’s music and lyrics, with arrangements by Matthew Jackson and Richard Beadle, are filled with hope and sadness. Such poignancy is woven into harmonic progressions, key changes and chords, it demands a cast recording. And not every song is sad, with the tongue-in-cheek ‘Key Largo’ bringing showgirl swagger, and the rousing ‘Finale’ ending on a high.

Casey Nicholaw’s direction paints in multicolour strokes, capturing the full breadth of emotion with effortless flair. He expertly shapes a relatively large cast into a living, breathing portrait of connection and chemistry. The staging is well balanced despite the unusual footprint. Standing on lobster pots to create different levels is very on brand, though could be more impactful with more elevation.

Fly Davis’ ingenious set design focuses on a spinning central structure, serving as various locations with some surprisingly fast turnarounds (get it?). Wood-panelled wings frame the space, transforming every inch into a canvas for projected imagery. George Reeve’s projection design is stunning and impressively varied, shifting from photo album to tropical beach, to expressionist art and more. It’s elevated by Aideen Malone’s lighting, shifting from realism to dreamscape with precision. Davis’ costumes radiate summer energy and capture each character’s essence, especially Lucy’s dad’s transformation and her brother’s colourful choices. There are also clever costume changes, with one sequence squeezing in five outfits by my count!

The magnetic cast shimmers with soul and skill. Georgina Castle’s Lucy is its beating heart, combining breezy allure with wicked wit and gut-wrenching grief. Her powerful vocals soar through the score – fierce, flawless, and in full control. Josh St. Clair’s Henry starts out broken but blooms into a steadfast supporter, powered by commanding vocals and irresistible charm. Charlie Toland’s Doug starts out brash but finds brotherhood, stealing scenes with killer comic timing. The whole ensemble radiates love and connection, uniting us all in shared struggle and flooding the stage with their glorious voices.

‘50 First Dates: The Musical’ pulses with warmth, soul and aching beauty. A richer, wiser version, you’ll want to see it again and again!

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’.

50 FIRST DATES: THE MUSICAL

The Other Palace

★★★★★

“The magnetic cast shimmers with soul and skill”

50 FIRST DATES: THE MUSICAL

The Other Palace

Reviewed on 24th September 2025

by Hannah Bothelton

Photography by Pamela Raith

Previously reviewed at this venue:

50 FIRST DATES

50 FIRST DATES

50 FIRST DATES

CRY-BABY, THE MUSICAL

Arcola Theatre

★★★★★

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