Cruel Intentions: The ’90s Musical continues at Assembly George Square Gardens – Palais du Variete, Edinburgh until 25 August 2019.
Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩
Having seen the original film of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, I quickly recognised that this musical is another adaptation of the original novel by Laclos. I was not aware of the more recent film which this musical is named after and I am now keen to see it to experience the whole fascinating journey of how this strange erotic material is travelling through the ages and genres.
Laclos’ original 19th century French novel is a quite an explicit story of sexual cruelty, manipulation and intrigue told in a series of letters. Setting the same story in American high school culture works surprisingly well, as does the use in this production of familiar 1990s pops songs to comment and expand upon the action.
The well-chosen cast can all really sing which helps and Jonathan O’Boyle’s production make very clever use of the space in the Spiegeltent in George Square Gardens. A couple of stylish sofas at the back could be part of the set for the Laclos novel/Christopher Hampton play and all the character interaction takes place far forward into the audience.
The live band times the musical entries perfectly and the cast performs just enough of each song, first to inspire our recognition, then to make a dramatic point, before they move on. The a cappella material also works really well. If you can accept the strange manipulative nature of Laclos’ original material and the fact that it is mixed with ’90s pop anthems in a musical, then this whole thing is a great success and one of the most stylish productions on the fringe.
On a more dismal note, the production struggled with painful microphone issues both on the night I was there and in a different theatre when I saw an excerpt of the show. I hope they got unlucky both nights and are not trying to achieve something with sound equipment that is not up to the task.
Clare Walters
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