The studio space at The Other Palace has provided the incubator for many a show that has gone on to greater things. The small stage and intimate surroundings concentrate minds and creativity by both imposing limitations and providing the security for safe experiment. Things promise well here as the overture strikes up – the stage is lined with colourful sofas maximising the forestage space for this four-hander musical; there is a varied, complex lighting scheme in rainbow colours, and some jaunty themes appear on the piano. Unfortunately, by and large, this cheering start is not sustained over the next two hours.
This musical first appeared Off Broadway a few years back, and though the setting is here transposed to London, nothing can really overcome its origins as another musical about the romantic entanglements and mishaps of a group of friends in a New York flat share. This is hardly unfamiliar fare, and there is little novelty or departure from convention here. The characters seem as much stuck in their mutual and internal contradictions at the end as they were at the start and it is hard therefore to take much interest in them.
You could of course say something similar about Sondheim’s Company, where there is effectively no plot, just character-study; but that is character-study of Shakespearean depth and subtlety with music to match, and there is unfortunately not very much sign of either here. Each of the four characters present sterotypes that do not change much, and the music, for all of the technical features that remind you of Sondheim, remains stuck in a repetitive groove of romantic disappointment for too much of the show. There are exceptions – the ballad Darling I loved You/Who Knows Why? in Act One has a good match of memorable tune and apt lyrics, but generally the songs are too similar and awkwardly wordy to sustain interest.
The scenario involves a flat share in which Lili and Stephanie are partnered with Ryan, who was earlier linked with Lili before he came out as gay, and Chris who was previously in a relationship with Stephanie that ended badly. Stephanie, Ryan and Chris have all just recently ended connections with others and as a result no one is in a good place. While the acting is mainly fine, the singing is often quite rough and ready, with each of the performers at their best in situation numbers which serve to trigger expressions of comic awkwardness or romantic regret where the acting can carry the weight of the message. Musical director Tom Noyes provides a skilful piano accompaniment where the piano part is often rhythmically independent of the vocal lines.
While a great deal of effort has gone into this production to make it distinctive and different, and director Cecilie Fray ensures the actors make good use of the space constraints, it cannot escape a range of dramatic and musical cliches, and in such a crowded field this genre is ultimately unforgiving to newcomers.
Composer & Lyricist: Seth Bisen-Hersh
Book: Mark Childers
Director: Cecilie Fray
Cast: Lewis Bear Brown, Clodagh Greene, Tom Newland, Ayesha Patel
Until 12 October 2025
2 hrs with interval
Photo Credit: Anna Clare Photography