Indecent Proposal – Southwark Playhouse

Norman Bowman and Jacqui Dankworth in Indecent Proposal at Southwark Playhouse, London. Picture: Helen Maybanks

Indecent Proposal continues at Southwark Playhouse, London until 27 November 2021.

Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩

The immortal playwright Tennessee Williams wrote: “In this world, there are only two kinds of people: The buyers and the ones that get bought.” This musical adaptation of Indecent Proposal clearly explores the darker side of this premise, suggesting that love and money are perhaps not so compatible after all.

The past two decades have been filled with musical adaptations of famous movies, milking bankable titles that do not always naturally lend themselves to musicalisation.

Unfortunately, Indecent Proposal does occasionally move into that category with composer Dylan Schlosberg and librettist and lyricist Michael Conley’s often bland score falling short of moving the story forward or even enhancing it.

Ironically the best songs are the ones delivered by the lounge singer Annie, undeveloped as a character in the plot, but impeccably portrayed by Jacqui Dankworth, clearly the saving grace of the show, delivering us the hummable ‘Atlantic City’.

The three leads also impress, it’s just that their material isn’t of the same quality. Lizzy Connolly is quite moving and multi-layered as Rebecca and Norman Bowman is a handsome and convincing leading man in the role of Jonny. Ako Mitchell is slightly less convincing as ‘the buyer’ Larry, while Eve de Léon Allen helps adds an actor-muso dimension as Heidi.

The show’s set design by Anna Kelsey, with the band onstage and the bed sliding out from underneath, may well be the production’s best asset in addition to the immersive direction from Charlotte Westenra. The latter makes the non-musical scenes so effective that I sometimes wished the piece was more of a play.

Again, not all movies lend themselves so well to being turned into musicals, but the good news is that ‘musicals are never made but always remade’. In other words, there is real potential here and some of the aspects of the show that don’t work so well at the moment might be fixable. There’s always hope and pleasure in discovering a brand new musical, however imperfect and despite its flaws, especially with such a bold subject matter.

Although the show doesn’t clearly resolve its conflict between love and money, Indecent Proposal – if only for its excellent cast and much stronger second act – is still well worth seeing.

Patrick Honoré