Music Review: Why am I So Single? – Original London Cast Recording

Why Am I So Single? – Original London Cast Recording (Warner Chappell Music).

Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

There were so many things to love about Why Am I So Single?, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’ big fancy follow-up to Six The Musical. The meta concept, of two musical theatre friends (one of whom is non-binary) trying to concoct a musical out of their bruised and tattered love lives to put onto the Garrick Theatre stage, meant that the characters treading the boards had as much love for the West End musical oeuvre as the people watching.

For those of us who loved it, it is sad that the production closed earlier this year. But while the show was preceded by an EP with some key songs from the musical, it’s only now that we get a full cast recording that reminds of the fun and versatility of Marlow and Moss’ songwriting.

Jo Foster and Leesa Tulley’s double act as Oliver and Nancy (pseudonymously named after the key characters in Lionel Bart’s musical, “Oliver (exclamation mark)” [sic]) is delightfully re-enacted through a soundtrack that explores their dating experiences. Elements of personal recognition will abound for anybody who’s had to dip their toes into the dating world.

Joe Beighton’s orchestrations incorporate the sound of phone notifications, most notably in the infectious tap number ‘C U Never’ and a song about the cut-throat world of online dating, ‘Meet Market’. The latter is also notable by starting as a fun pastiche of Oliver!’s ‘Who Will Buy?’. That’s far from the only homage to other musicals – references to Oliver!, Wicked and Chicago are only the more obvious ones – but in general, it’s the infectious quality of Marlow and Moss’ lyric writing abilities, coupled with some spectacularly catchy melodies, that drives the pleasure factor.

Listening to the musical’s songs in cast recording form allows for some delicate moments to shine through. From the tempo of Foster’s ‘Disco Ball’ being just that little bit too quick, giving the impression of someone burning up with barely controlled anger and desperation, while in the slower ‘Lost’, Foster sings eloquently and heartbreakingly about the father her character has lost. Away from the stage performance, it becomes easier to hear that song’s melody is a balladic reinterpretation of ‘C U Never’, compounding the grief at never being able to see her father again.

The album curiously omits the variant of the show’s title number that the cast sang during the bows, thus omitting the payoff for a Mamma Mia! joke that’s set up in the album’s first number.

To compensate for that, though, a couple of bonus tracks include a full length version of ‘Men R Trash’, a number that in the musical itself is prematurely curtailed for dramatic reasons. Here extended to a full-length song, this version includes guest vocals from Patti LuPone, leading the ultimate in call and response work that one dearly wishes had been present in the show.

Listening to the cast album of Why Am I So Single? makes one appreciate the songwriting skills in the musical even more than its original staging did. More than that, it reaffirms that there’s something worth treasuring. This musical may have left the West End stage, but for those who have come to love it – well, just like Oliver, we want more.

Scott Matthewman