Why Am I So Single? - Review

Garrick Theatre, London

***

Written by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss

Directed by Lucy Moss

Co-directed and choreographed by Ellen Kane

Leesa Tulley and company

It’s quite something for writers to have a brace of shows running simultaneously in the West End, but with Six at the Vaudeville and now Why Am I So Single? round the corner at the Garrick, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss have achieved that double.

Six was famously created around the wives of Henry VIII, lending itself to a tightly written book based on a rich chapter of world-famous history. It enjoyed a stratospheric and deserved rise from humble beginnings on the fringe to the globally touring phenomenon of modern musical theatre that it is today. Why Am I So Single? however, drawn from the lives of Marlow and Moss themselves, makes for a narrative that’s lightweight and superficial in comparison. While the pair's close platonic friendship and respective life stories may be touching, they do not support a 2 1/2 hour show that itself could do with a trim of at least 30 minutes.

Where Stephen Sondheim once brilliantly explored the angsts of being single in Company, Marlow and Moss offer little more than an immaculately produced evening of self-indulgent introspection and navel-gazing. Written by anyone other than these now acclaimed wunderkinder the production may well have struggled to gain traction and backing - that is if it were even conceived at all - let alone this big fancy West End opening that frames its commercial rollout.  

Amidst countless references to classic musicals and frequently smug breakouts across the fourth wall, Nancy and Oliver (played by Leesa Tulley and Jo Foster) are Marlow and Moss’s leading characters, effectively their onstage "fictional" representations. The show is technically whip-smart and while its lyrics may be repetitive and its melodies forgettable, both Tulley and Foster sparkle with performing excellence and gorgeous voices. Noah Thomas as their mutual friend Artie is also at the top of his game.

Ellen Kane’s choreography and co-direction is another of the evening’s stunning treats with her company drilled to a glorious visual perfection.  Atop the stage, Chris Ma’s eight-piece band are equally slick.

The storyline may be thinly crafted but who knows? With its Marlow and Moss imprimatur, Why Am I So Single? may yet appeal to Gen Z. It’s certainly been rolled in enough glitter!

Booking until 13th February 2025

Photo credit: Matt Crockett

Hot Gay Time Machine - Review

Trafalgar Studios, London



****



Written by Zak Ghazi-Torbati and Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss
Directed by Lucy Moss

Zak Ghazi-Torbati and Toby Marlow

You enter a dark basement in the heart of the West End. RuPaul is blaring, lights are flashing and there is dancing. Yet this is not a club. Instead it’s Hot Gay Time Machine.

What is that, exactly? It’s hot, and gay and a time machine, so proclaim co-writers Toby Marlow and Zak Ghazi-Torbati (the third member of this creative team is Lucy Moss). A not entirely helpful answer but one that does provide an indication of what’s to follow in the ensuing 75 minutes.

This show tells a version of the performers’ stories, specifically those incidents that bear relation to their identities - such as coming out to their mums, navigating school and finding a gay best friend. It’s a story about their friendship, packaged up in a musical ‘extravaGAYNza' comedy cabaret.

They - the Hot Gays and Lucy - describe this show as a joke that’s gone too far. It was an idea that escalated into an actual commitment at their university and was produced on a £400 budget in a week.

We know that Marlow and Moss can write fantastically sharp songs. They are, after all, the creators of SiX: The Musical - the award-winning hit show - and something that the former pleasingly refers to on stage. With Ghazi-Torbati added into the mix, the result is even sharper and, on occasion, close-to-the-bone humour. Its a trifecta of witty lyrics, pop music structures and strong vocal performances that delivers immense joy.

The beauty of a production like this is that it allows for performers’ personalities to shine through with a full beam, beyond what is intrinsically woven into the script and score. It’s the moments where they break character as a result of ad libs or improvisation that heighten the laughs. This fluidity works well in the Trafalgar's bijou Studio 2, a veritable cockpit where no expression goes unseen.

Standout elements include songs such as ‘Couldn’t Get It Up’, Marlow’s pink hot pants and both performers’ flawless make-up looks. - and all of the sass. Marlow’s character is the more cutting of the two, while Ghazi-Torbati’s is the sweeter foil.

A former Edinburgh hit, it’s now been transplanted to London’s West End, while firmly maintaining its Fringe feel. It’s a tricky challenge to address; how do you maintain a balance between raw creativity and a polished production? But this team manages to strike the right chord.

In a very fitting end, the show ends with a standing ovation, followed by a dance party and, finally, a sashay away.

Runs until 5th January 2019

Reviewed by Bhakti Gajjar

Photo credit: Pamela Raith

Six The Musical - Review

Arts Theatre, London


***


Music and lyrics by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss
Directed by Lucy Moss and Jamie Armitage

The cast of Six The Musical

Beheadings are brutal and barbaric, whether they occurred 5 months or 5 centuries ago. And yet, with heads jauntily skewed, grim grins (albeit momentarily) and hand-held mics tightly grasped, the cast of Six The Musical make light of Henry VIII’s murderous misogyny. 

Judging by the response to the show, both in its sold-out Edinburgh run and now at London’s Arts Theatre, the passage of time appears to condone such laughter. To be fair there is occasional light shed on some of the unpleasantness associated with being one of Henry’s six wives - witness the sinister hands that grope and paw at Aimie Atkinson’s Katherine Howard. But for the most part the evening serves as a high-volume, sugar-coated history lesson, aimed at todays reality-TV entertained masses and not having to make them think too hard.

If the show’s moral compass may be adrift, at least its technical standards are excellent. Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss have written some sassy songs, Carrie-Anne Ingrouille’s whip-smart choreography is well drilled while Tim Deiling’s stadium-inspired lighting only adds to the rock gig feel of the piece.

One might have hoped that today’s Woke generation of theatre creatives might have delivered more from a musical treatment of one of English history’s most monstrous monarchs, although at (thankfully) a little over an hour long perhaps the creatives recognised the attention span of their target demographic.  Ultimately though the same old metropolitan hypocrisies prevail, with the show serving as little more than shallow entertainment for its prosecco-fuelled audiences. Marlow and Moss clearly have great technical and creative potential ahead of them – Six The Musical however deserves to be filed away in the history books, and soon.

Runs until 14th October, then tours

Photo credit: Idil Sukan