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Creators: Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss
Director: Lucy Moss
Producers: Kenny Wax, George Stiles and Ameena Hamid
Venue: Garrick Theatre, London
Cast: Jo Foster, Leesa Tulley, Noah Thomas
Alternate leads: Jordan Cambridge-Taylor, Collette Guitart
Ensemble: Jemima Brown, Josh Butler, Natasha Leaver, Ran Marner, Jamel Matthias, Olivia O’Connor, Joshian Angelo Omaña, Natasha Wilde, Rhys Wilkinson.
Until February 13, 2025
Running time: two hours, 30 minutes, including interval
From Jane Austen to “Friends,” the pursuit of heterosexual love has been the goal of romantic comedy.
Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, the makers of the international musical hit “SIX,” have turned that on its head with a musical comedy that celebrates “love friendship” between a non-binary man and a woman. It is, after all, the highly successful creative chemistry of Marlow and Moss’s relationship.
Getting to a happy ending is still complicated. What in essence could be a two-hander – with central characters Oliver and Nancy (named after the musical “Oliver!”) never leaving the sofa in Oliver’s flat – therefore needs to be “a big fancy musical,” featuring a riotous ensemble and a foil.
Artie, the foil, is an updated gay version of one of Helen Fielding’s smug married friends, although Bridget Jones is one character from the panoply of singletons never mentioned. The many references instead focus on “Oliver!” the musical, complete with exclamation mark, and Ross and Rachel, the happy couple of “Friends” – held up as a benchmark of impossibility for our single leads.
The ensemble members double as the flat’s furniture, wearing Max Johns’ cunningly designed costumes to great comic effect, and they erupt into life in Ellen Kane’s ebullient choreography.
The overall result is often silly, at times sentimental, always life-affirming and empowering and not without depth.
Nancy’s big emotional issue is the premature death of her father and Oliver’s is his sexual identity, at once worn on their sleeve – or lack of sleeves in “Shhh!!!” – a musical number in which a pink satin gown with a huge bow plays tribute to Hollywood glamour – and repressed until it bursts into the open in the sparking, spinning “Disco Ball”.
Once we have confronted Oliver’s realisation that their sexuality was the very thing all the playground games had ridiculed and society typically was horrified by, we can all move on from the blame game behind “Why Am I So Single?” to the triumphant acceptance that all you need is “love friendship”.
It’s a conclusion in tune with our times. The question for the duo whose creative relationship has pulled off another great hit with characters the audience unquestioningly loves is: what will they do next?
Why Am I So Single?
Creators: Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss
Director: Lucy Moss
Producers: Kenny Wax, George Stiles and Ameena Hamid
Venue: Garrick Theatre, London
Cast: Jo Foster, Leesa Tulley, Noah Thomas
Alternate leads: Jordan Cambridge-Taylor, Collette Guitart
Ensemble: Jemima Brown, Josh Butler, Natasha Leaver, Ran Marner, Jamel Matthias, Olivia O’Connor, Joshian Angelo Omaña, Natasha Wilde, Rhys Wilkinson.
Until February 13, 2025
Running time: two hours, 30 minutes, including interval
From Jane Austen to “Friends,” the pursuit of heterosexual love has been the goal of romantic comedy.
Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, the makers of the international musical hit “SIX,” have turned that on its head with a musical comedy that celebrates “love friendship” between a non-binary man and a woman. It is, after all, the highly successful creative chemistry of Marlow and Moss’s relationship.
Getting to a happy ending is still complicated. What in essence could be a two-hander – with central characters Oliver and Nancy (named after the musical “Oliver!”) never leaving the sofa in Oliver’s flat – therefore needs to be “a big fancy musical,” featuring a riotous ensemble and a foil.
Artie, the foil, is an updated gay version of one of Helen Fielding’s smug married friends, although Bridget Jones is one character from the panoply of singletons never mentioned. The many references instead focus on “Oliver!” the musical, complete with exclamation mark, and Ross and Rachel, the happy couple of “Friends” – held up as a benchmark of impossibility for our single leads.
The ensemble members double as the flat’s furniture, wearing Max Johns’ cunningly designed costumes to great comic effect, and they erupt into life in Ellen Kane’s ebullient choreography.
The overall result is often silly, at times sentimental, always life-affirming and empowering and not without depth.
Nancy’s big emotional issue is the premature death of her father and Oliver’s is his sexual identity, at once worn on their sleeve – or lack of sleeves in “Shhh!!!” – a musical number in which a pink satin gown with a huge bow plays tribute to Hollywood glamour – and repressed until it bursts into the open in the sparking, spinning “Disco Ball”.
Once we have confronted Oliver’s realisation that their sexuality was the very thing all the playground games had ridiculed and society typically was horrified by, we can all move on from the blame game behind “Why Am I So Single?” to the triumphant acceptance that all you need is “love friendship”.
It’s a conclusion in tune with our times. The question for the duo whose creative relationship has pulled off another great hit with characters the audience unquestioningly loves is: what will they do next?
Barbara Lewis.
By Barbara Lewis • added recently on London Grip, musicals, plays, theatre • Tags: Barbara Lewis, musicals, plays, theatre