COME DINE WITH ME: THE MUSICAL at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

★★★★

“an absolute treat”

Come Dine With Me is a national treasure of British television, having been on our screens on Channel 4 since 2005. It’s contributed greatly to the world of meme culture and is much-loved (and watched) by people all over the world. Given the success of previous television-inspired musicals, such as the hugely popular Great British Bake Off: The Musical, it makes perfect sense that someone has finally had the idea of turning this TV classic into the next big fringe musical hit.

The team comprises writer and lyricist Sam Norman, composer Aaron King, and is co-created with Nell Butler and Genevieve Welch, who both work directly on the actual TV show itself. It all starts with the TV crew – producer, camera, and sound operator – farcically falling about the auditorium as the audience take their seats. The show starts and there’s a problem: the nation loves Come Dine With Me, but ratings aren’t what they used to be, and the producer Mary (Daniele Coombe) needs something really special to happen to maintain the show’s success. The format then follows that of the TV show: four contestants take it in turns to host a dinner party, each getting a score from the others, and the winner receives a £1000 cash prize. The writers do a neat job at briefly packing this exposition into the start of the narrative, just to make sure anyone who hasn’t seen the show is caught up. What follows is a bit different though. As the nights begin the contestants are being sabotaged by someone, but who? A nightmare for the contestants, this becomes an opportunity for peak TV drama for Mary.

I’m a slight cynic when it comes to big title musical adaptations based on reality TV shows, but turns out I had nothing to fear with this one. The songs are excellent, with some cracking lyrics; Teddy (Harry Chandler) self-describing as ‘a virgin on the verge of turning into a hermit’ as a standout line.

Sure, there’s not much depth to the story, but with a slick 60-minute run time you don’t need it really. The cast give fantastic performances. Coombe’s vocals are electric and her stage presence commanding, with a semi-villainous number giving her a real opportunity to shine.

The top performance though comes from Chandler as Teddy, who plays the awkward nerdiness to perfection. He makes his body small and wriggly, and is charmingly adorable in his interactions with love interest Janey (Sophie Hutchinson). His vocals are incredible, with a rich, deep voice that is tightly controlled and a joy to listen to. I was going to add that he’d make a superb Enjolras in Les Mis, but a quick CV search shows he’s actually played the part already! And no surprise there. Chandler and Hutchinson delight with their duet singing ‘We could drink champagne, we could light a candle, we could share a meal, when the world feels inhumane.’ It’s a real highlight of the show.

Some of the characters feel more fleshed out than others. Kim Ismay is a lot of fun as the stiff upper-lipped Barbara and her song about cooking French cuisine is a hoot. It would be great to see the other contestants developed a bit further for the show’s future life, which I really hope this gets as it’s an absolute treat.

COME DINE WITH ME: THE MUSICAL at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Underbelly – Bristo Square – Cowbarn

Reviewed on 16th August 2024

by Joseph Dunitz

Photography by Mark Senior

COME DINE WITH ME

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★★★★

“It’s messy, muddy, beautifully chaotic but in a way which feels totally composed and in control”

On the day that The Female Eunuch was released in America in 1970, a transgender woman ran up to its author and one of the key voices in the second wave feminist movement, Germaine Greer, took her hand and thanked her for everything she’d done for women. In 1989, Greer wrote an article in The Independent, expressing deeply transphobic views, entitled ‘On Why Sex Change is a Lie’. Ugly Sisters examines this relationship, that between transgender women and someone who at one point might’ve been considered a progressive icon, in a show whose tone reads not as pure anger but rather crushing disappointment.

Early on, audience volunteers are encouraged to bury Greer’s body, after one of the performers Laurie Ward kills her. There’s a burial. The body is carried to the grave and ritually covered in handfuls of soil. But burial isn’t always a bad thing, as we’re informed ‘burial can nurture’. At other moments in the show, there’s dance, an interview, a sequence where they drink and spit out water at each other, scenes where they give Greer a very respected amount of patience and opportunity to correct her words. Obviously she doesn’t. And they’re just left feeling disappointed. In another moment, probably the most touching in the whole show, the other performer Charli Cowgill invites another volunteer to plait her hair. It takes about five minutes. It’s a beautiful, wholesome moment. Finding these moments of real humanity, of human connection, of strangers just caring for and looking after each other because it’s the genuinely good thing to do, is a real delight in a show which could so easily be just about visceral hate.

There are some great, often funny, often darkly-funny interactions with the show’s Stage Manager, Daze Corder. An electric sound design pulses and pulsates, as the performers thrash or jump or swing their bodies; one of Ward’s costumes, a cage hoop skirt, moves elegantly with her. This is a common theme in the piece, moments of tenderness and beauty juxtaposed with small acts of violence of physical discomfort. It’s visually intriguing.

Beyond the visuals, the content is rich and intellectually layered. Ward and Cowgill take it in turns taking on the role of Greer in a piece which feels like some sort of therapeutic ritual at times. It’s messy, muddy, beautifully chaotic but in a way which feels totally composed and in control; one of those shows that you can spend just as much time thinking and talking about afterwards, and which you may very well want to then go and watch again.

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COME DINE WITH ME: THE MUSICAL

★★★★

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

COME DINE WITH ME: THE MUSICAL at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

★★★★

“an absolute treat”