Danielle Steers and Tobias Turley in Hot Mess at Southwark Playhouse Elephant, London. Picture: Helen Murray
Hot Mess continues at the Southwark Playhouse Elephant, London until 8 November 2025.
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
It wasn’t a surprise to see some high-profile figures from the musical theatre world in the audience for the Hot Mess press night (including Andrew Lloyd Webber, no less). Already known for their show 42 Balloons, Jack Godfrey and Ellie Coote’s topical new musical romcom was a huge hit at this year’s Edinburgh Festival, winning a slew of awards, including being named Best Musical by Musical Theatre Review’s team of critics at the Fringe.
Now the witty and quirky piece, running at just 65 minutes which simply flies by, is making its London debut and who knows what the future holds beyond its Southwark Playhouse run. Big things, one hopes.
The concept – that Earth and Humanity meet, have a tempestuous love affair and then break up after realising they want different things from the universe – could have turned out to be incredibly twee, but not in the hands of Coote (librettist and director), Godfrey (music, lyrics and co-orchestrator) and movement director Alexzandra Sarmiento.
It’s not long before the audience is thoroughly engaged in the relationship – after 750 million years of being single Earth is ready to move on from reptiles and single-celled organisms and try something new, while Humanity is enchanted by the natural beauty of an environment which boasts such attractive, life-affirming resources. Yet somewhere along the way Humanity starts taking Earth for granted, begins to exploit those once treasured resources, and any attempts to repair the damage done get put off until tomorrow.
What’s refreshing about the multi-layered writing is that it isn’t worthy or pretentious, instead the message is delivered in a fun, entertaining and captivating way. The quality of the work, including the infectious score (with plenty of pop, rock, rap and musical theatre references) means an audience engages with Earth and Humanity as individual characters in addition to the concepts they represent.
On top of those creative elements already praised above, Danielle Steers and Tobias Turley, as Earth and Humanity respectively, deserve a huge amount of credit for the success of this production. It’s no surprise to witness how slick they are with the material and how great the chemistry is post the Edinburgh run, but that doesn’t reduce any energy or commitment given to the storytelling.
A strong, independent planet with a touch of vulnerability, Steers is as charismatic as ever, giving all the emotions thanks to her stunning vocal depth and range. Having a front row seat to such a talent in motion feels like quite a privilege.
Likewise, Turley is brilliantly cast, convincingly taking the journey from a charming, aspirational figure, recognising the promise of a future with Earth, to a self-obsessed ambitious industrialist willing to ignore the consequence of his decisions. He impresses in all his musical numbers too and when matched with Steers on ‘Better With Time’ it is one of the evening’s highlights. The fine band is led by musical director Issie Osborne
Set and costume designer Shankho Chaudhuri does a nice job of creating a fitting, colourful palette for the show, complete with a greenhouse-style setting and eye-catching neon lights (credit to lighting designer is Ryan Joseph Stafford).
Hot Mess was the first Edinburgh Festival Fringe production from the UK’s only in-house New Musical Theatre Department at Birmingham Hippodrome, indeed head of new musical theatre Deirdre O’Halloran is the dramaturg on the show. It just shows you what can be achieved when new musical theatre writing is supported and taken seriously.
Lisa Martland
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