(seen at the afternoon performance on 5th May 2024)
Ten years after its triumphant premiere at the Charing Cross Theatre, the disgruntled lovelorn front of house team are back to share an updated musical exposition about those who tear our tickets, sell us our programmes and pick up after we (well, the minority who won’t pick up after themselves) have left.
From pre-show briefing to a rattlingly funny after goodbye, they reveal acting ambitions, stalker tendencies, romantic intentions, and megalomania.
Yianni Koutsakos’s music remains pretty much intact, but James Oban and James Rottger have updated the book and lyric quite considerably to reflect the current West End.
The price of programmes has risen from £4 to £29 (not an exaggeration for those who attend some one-off concerts), and life has become as hard as carrying a cake across New York or getting a ticket at “Closing Night.”
Michael Ball is the constant butt of all jokes, the press night of his “Love Island The Musical” where today’s action takes place. The stagey members of the audience will delight in the parodies and ‘in-jokes’ but most will simply enjoy a sharply observed romp complete with unhelpful video features training nobody to do the front-of-house job right.
With only a low corner platform, designer Ruben Speed uses an ingenious two-boxes-on-wheels with variously painted sides to provide a sales counter, staff room and dustbin area beneath obligatory sparkly proscenium arch.
Director Max Reynolds sensibly incorporates the auditorium aisles to allow extra staging moments, Adam Haigh and Rhianna Goodwin’s choreography able to let rip. Quick parodies of styles from Fosse to Berkeley, interspersed with their own original ideas suit the mood.
It is Bethany Amber Perrins as Rosie who crystallises it. Unhinged grinning at her own useful (but worryingly obtained) cast locating service online and ingenious paperback book, her moments of literal revelation are unforgettable.
By contrast, new girl Lucy has Danielle Rose nursing her secrets to the end. Her “Six” background gets vent with a terrific belting number to shake the room, her instant connection with Stephen (Christopher Foley) obvious and shining in Jack Weir’s well-aimed spotlights.
Foley himself is “leading men” material delivering a rollicking key number. He may be wrapped in himself, yet is affable in a way that suggests Lucy has picked a winner.
Also choosing winners, Ben (Luke Bayer) and Gary (Cleve September) are jealous of each other but can’t live without each other. Thankfully, they realise this... eventually. In getting there Bayer is pretty much every usher the monkey has ever known, thought and action in a strong character study.
September is the usher lead we hope to encounter. Confident, competent and hiding a huge pit of insecurity, his “Half-Finished Story” is a highlight of the second act.
And then there is the theatre manager himself. The clue is in the name, Robin Pocketts – geddit?! Daniel Paige is part panto, part opera diva, part lecherous Basil Fawlty, and all bastard. He is as fun to watch as it is fun watching his downfall. If the theatre want to save money, they can easily not pay him for the performance. It isn’t right to have that much fun at work and receive a wage for it, probably.
A few rough edges remain even after all these years. On an opening night, there are few inexperienced visitors present, and nobody spends a penny on anything if they don’t have to, so there is no point trying to sell as Robin wishes to. A slightly out-of-kilter sound balance also loses some of the words used to attempt it.
The constant references to current shows about to close seems a little uncharitable too, remembering everyone involved is going to be unemployed for real very shortly, and punchlining the same people happens a little too often.
Slightly sadly, the original pre-show of the cast showing audience members to their seats has also gone – particularly irritating as, in an unusual slip from the usual standard, the theatre appears to have accidentally hired the human equivalent of “Marvin” from “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy.”
More distressing is that the programme notes state the creative team of which the monkey had so many hopes a decade ago have in fact not created another musical since.
On the plus side, this remains a loving tribute to those who earn a pittance hosting those who pay a lot for a night out. If you are a musical theatre fan who cares also about the people who make it happen, this is for you.
If you have ever set foot in a theatre and been amazed at how the staff handle the crowds, it will confirm your suspicions.
Simply seeking a well-staged, wittily written night out for sophisticated teens upwards, this is just the (scanned) ticket.
And if you are a theatre mouse, there should be a nice treat left after everyone has gone.
4 stars.