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Heavy meta: Why am I So Single? @sosinglemusical

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Being young and single never seemed so fun, full of energy, yet full of contradictions in this high-concept meta-musical, Why Am I So Single? The fourth wall is not so much broken as endlessly pummelled as the cast talks directly to the audience. Frequently. But essentially, it’s about young people with neuroses and smartphone addiction exploring why they can’t find love in present-day London. Told with a series of spectacular songs and dance scenes in this new musical from the creators of Six, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. But while we don’t necessarily get an answer that rings true to the question posed by this show, you are likely to be distracted mainly by the energy and the songs. It’s currently playing at the Garrick Theatre.  A new musical based on an original idea, the premise is that Oliver (Jo Foster) and Nancy (Leesa Tulley) - which are not their real names but names taken from their favourite musical, Oliver - have to write a new musical but are stuck for an idea. So, after e

La vie en rose: Dead Royal @Ovalhouse


Charbonnel et Walker pink champagne truffle boxes are piled up in an apartment. A video is hooked up playing Gone With The Wind. I’ve Seen That Face Before is playing in the background. And then Chris Ioan Roberts as Wallis Simpson vomits pink muck all over blue and white floor.

Is it an aversion to seafood that she does not want to admit for fear of being considered too common? Or was it too many Charbonnel et Walker truffles? Whatever the cause you are left without any doubt that for the next sixty minutes you are in for a show that is going to be camp and dirty.


Dead Royal, which has concluded its run at Oval House theatre makes use of original quotes drawn from interviews with Wallis Simpson and Diana Spencer.  The premise is that in 1981 on the eve of the royal wedding, Wallis invites Diana to warn her to flee the impending marriage - before she too is considered someone willing to crawl over broken glass to grab a royal title.

Chris Ioan Roberts performs both roles. Here Wallis is like a faded southern belle, forgetting the names of the help, while Diana is a bit thick, finding it too hard to read a book so she spends all day making it look like the book has been read.

With frequent pop culture references, mix tapes and video recordings the work draws on what is known (or purportedly known) about the two as Roberts moves about a gaudy room that has overdosed in eighties pastels and sickly sweet perfume.

Wallis and the rest of the Royal Family get more barbs thrown at them than Diana (perhaps it is still too soon to be making the same sort of deeply offensive and vulgar observations about her).

It is a fascinating premise although part through I did wonder whether it would have more impact if the dual roles were played by a woman.

Still the piece is less about the women depicted and more about their enduring legacy as icons of their age. Look out for where it goes next. But steer clear of the truffles and seafood.

⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎

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