(seen at the afternoon performance on 25th July 2024)
A pop star was once rightly castigated for noting in public that his fans were mostly unattractively fat teenage girls with personal hygiene issues. In theatre, fans at the “Wicked” stage door became notorious for buying ridiculously expensive gifts – a scooter and microwave oven were mentioned - for cast members.
Basically, teenage girls trying to work out who they are and where they fit into the world get a rough time from almost everybody. Yve Blake’s musical is an attempt to explore more deeply the personalities behind the adoring screams.
“Heartbreak Nation” are one of those ‘boy bands’ formed on a British TV casting show by the judges, from some attractive boys thought not quite strong enough for a solo career. One always stands out, “Harry” this time, and they girls (and some boys) of Sydney, Australia are obsessed.
When mega-fanfiction writer Edna (Jasmine Elcock) hears they are heading her way, she moves into overdrive. Only problem is, she has $26 in the bank, and tickets are $139.99. Suddenly, the outlandish kidnapping scenarios she concocts with fellow writer Salty (Terique Jarrett) become an inspiration.
The show itself thus has two definitive halves. The first act deals in the realities of teenage girl friendship and the difficulties of being socially, emotionally and economically powerless.
An awkward link brings us into the second, in which fantasy becomes reality as obsession reaches the ultimate extreme. Heading for a dead end, Blake twists perceptions rather brilliantly to bring the whole to a satisfactory close.
David Fleischer and Ash J Woodward do an excellent job with three curved screens behind the actors providing a projected arena and space for commentary. Fleischer’s bedroom architrave is less than successful, but the messy bed is instantly recognisable (if not the warm body in it).
Around it, much of the action takes place. Elcock is always engaging, long-suffering mother Caroline (Debbie Kurup) locking horns as a teen girl’s parent must in order to guide her offspring back to reality.
Both get excellent musical moments, Kurup’s “Brave Thing” is a well-written tune delivered strikingly well centre-stage. Elcock’s “Silly Litte Girl,” a touching moment of self-realisation, follows soon after.
So-called friends Brianna and Jules (Miracle Chance, Mary Malone) are delightfully dizzy and vicious respectively. Malone reveals a singing voice to match her known acting abilities, “Actually Dead” a perfect whine about parenthood and ticket prices as well as teen life unfairness.
Sound work too from major supporting actors Terique Jarrett as a writer experiencing shock at realising fiction is now less strange than truth, and Gracie McGonigal as Lily – chief fangirl / aspiring-wife spokesperson with a “Heartbreak Nation” opinion for every occasion.
Ebony Williams keeps the tribe moving, high school choreography as well as classic boy-band step-on-the-beat-if-you-can-but-we-know-you-cannot-and-the-fans-do-not-care moves (and the monkey doesn’t worry about that sentence either, ‘cos it’s true!).
The oddities of Paige Rattray’s directorial choices either side of the interval (get back early from the bar, there’s a pre-show before act two) may be hers alone, but Blake may want to explain the repetition of one scene in both halves, as well as an odd basket-case moment we maybe didn’t need to see that soon.
If the music isn’t quite catchy and there is little biting teenage humour, for the most part we are engaged. The current generation do not seem to go in for that anymore, and this is an Australian show, so there may be a culture gap between relaxed Aussies and cutting Brits?
Still, the monkey was amused at one delirious fan improvising a line about its opera-glasses as she was dragged from a place in front of the stage, past its seat and on to the exit.
This musical avoids judgement just as much as it entertains and indeed explains this peculiar world. Certainly, the young audience reacted with noisy empathy to much of it, and demonstrated the wisdom of bringing it to London.
Whether young pop stars should visit Sydney without military-grade security is a whole other matter...
4 stars.