Kathy & Stella Solve A Murder! – Ambassadors Theatre

Bronté Barbé and Rebekah Hinds in Kathy & Stella Solve a Murder at the Ambassadors Theatre, London. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography

Kathy & Stella Solve A Murder! continues at the Ambassadors Theatre until 14 September 2024.

Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Following two seasons at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and a previous UK tour, Kathy & Stella Solve A Murder! has finally landed in the West End and is already bringing undeniable joy and murder-themed escapism to London audiences.

Kathy and Stella, played by Bronté Barbé and Rebekah Hinds, are two childhood best friends from Hull who host their own podcast from Kathy’s mum’s garage. The topic is a shared but morbid fascination – unsolved murder cases. In a bid to launch themselves to podcast stardom and impress their idol, true crime icon Felicia Taylor (Hannah-Jane Fox), they attend her book signing but are left deflated by her disinterest in their show. When Felicia herself meets an untimely demise later that night, Kathy and Stella find themselves catapulted into the spotlight after all, in the midst of a murder case much closer to home.

While an unlikely subject matter for the basis of a comedy musical, the storyline has a well-presented balance between overt humour and relatable depth. Aside from delving into Kathy and Stella’s past and present personal circumstances, the show also explores the complexities of systemic police corruption, internet culture and the ethics of true crime investigations, expertly woven around some truly entertaining songs in a way that surprisingly doesn’t feel at all disingenuous.

The songs from Matthew Floyd Jones (music and lyrics) and Jon Brittain (book and lyrics) are super catchy and very cleverly written, coupled brilliantly with choreography from Fabian Aloise that is setting-appropriate – largely focused on the podcast studio’s wheelie chairs – and enhances without distracting. Cecilia Carey’s design focuses largely on a murder board backdrop but shifts cleverly into other settings, from Murder Con to the hospital morgue.

The cast of seven, led by Barbé and Hinds, is small but perfectly formed. Unusually for a West End production, all of the ensemble (Elliot Broadfoot, Ben Redfern, Imelda Warren-Green and Elliotte Williams-N’Dure) also play other significant characters within the story – and equally unusually, all of them also enjoy extensive dialogue and impressive solo opportunities to boot. Casting here is superb – they are all astoundingly vocally talented as well as having some incredible comic timing and an excellent rapport between themselves, which very much translates to the audience.

Barbé and Hinds are outstanding and complement each other perfectly – Barbé as the anxious and slightly nerdy Kathy, and Hinds as the brazen but hilarious Stella – and the blend of their vocals in their many joint musical moments is a delight. Special mention must also go to Warren-Green as the obsessive podcast superfan Erica (amongst other characters), effortlessly combining awkward keenness with powerful vocal skill to create a character who is somehow terrifyingly intense but also has moments of vulnerability.

The true testament to this production (co-directed by Brittain and Aloise), however, must be the audience reaction – from almost constant laughter throughout the show, to earnest interval chatter trying to decipher ‘whodunit’ and humming along to the catchiest tunes while leaving the theatre, this is surely set to be a “killer” London run.

Sorcha Exworthy