Wild About You – Theatre Royal Drury Lane

Rachel Tucker and Jamie Muscato in Wild About You at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London. Picture: Mark Senior

Wild About You at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London.

Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩

Presenting a small-cast, work-in-progress musical at a venue as historic, opulent and downright huge as Theatre Royal Drury Lane is wild. Sure, the sense of occasion does create a palpable excitement for the new work, but it also sets expectations sky-high. As it takes to this large stage that usually hosts Disney’s ultra-polished Frozen, can a smaller-scale work possibly live up to the high standards Drury Lane patrons are used to?

Wild About You (book by Eric Holmes and songs by Chilina Kennedy) has seen a concept album release, but this concert was its first live staging. The show tells the story of Olivia: a woman whose sudden amnesia forces her to piece together her messy romantic history, then reckon with its consequences in this life and the next.

As far as the book goes, there is a lot to be applauded. What could have been a pedestrian story of romance, infidelity and motherhood is granted extra layers of intrigue through the aforementioned amnesia plot device, as well as an unexpected Act II supernatural twist. Its ultimate emotional reckoning is satisfying in a way that does retrospectively justify the build-up, though a relatively long Act I that focused largely on romantic betrayal did result in some complaints about unappealing characters in the interval bathroom queues.

Connecting with an audience through musical theatre is not easy. We can be put off by the smallest things and fine-tuning a musical’s pacing when there are so many large factors to consider is tricky. There is a lot in Wild About You that hints at how great a musical this might become. In particular, a clever Act II disclosure reveals the extent to which our protagonist Olivia is an unreliable narrator and that the questionable characters and situations depicted may well be more nuanced than initially presented. However, this disclosure came after we had already sat through a sizeable chunk of the play. When we as an audience don’t know much about even the protagonist (and to be fair, neither does she), we lack characters to invest in emotionally.

The disconnect was amplified by the cavernous venue. In a more intimate space, I suspect this version of Wild About You might have been a lot more successful. Instead of competing with the slick polish of Frozen in audiences’ subconsciouses, it would be compared more fairly to other musicals-in-progress and chamber works. Of course, every theatre artist hopes to see their work on a big stage one day, but at this point in its evolution, it might not be quite ready for that pressure.

On the positive side, this high-budget premiere presentation allowed the producers to attract an outstanding cast whose talents papered over many cracks and largely redeemed Wild About You as a solid night of entertainment. As Olivia, Rachel Tucker was simply extraordinary. She was centred in 95% of scenes and was never anything less than a magnetic stage performer. Her voice is widely acknowledged as one of the West End’s best, and Kennedy’s pop-rock score provided an excellent showcase of not only her legendary belts and runs, but also her divine softer tones.

Olivia’s first love Michael was played with a perfect mix of understandable frustration and risible conservatism by Eric McCormack. As Olivia found herself pulled away by other romantic interests, we were blessed with a stunning performance from Tori Allen-Martin as former college flame Jess, followed shortly by the ever-charming and golden-voiced Oliver Tompsett as the hunky artist Thomas. Jamie Muscato didn’t appear until Act II, but when he did, he blew us all away with his sensational rock vocals and brooding characterisation of a teenage Billy. Meanwhile, Todrick Hall made the most of his two somewhat one-dimensional characters, providing moments of genuine comic brilliance and a knockout solo song in thew second half.

Kennedy’s score gave all six of the cast ample opportunity to show off their sensational voices. This ‘concert’ presentation leant more towards full-staging than most, but even without the sets and props, the pop-rock tunes on offer performed by these remarkable voices ensured that this was a thrilling evening of theatre.

The presentation, choreographed and directed by Nick Winston, succeeded in convincing me that there is a fine piece of art waiting to be chiselled out of the attractive but raw marble that is Wild About You. The material thrums with originality and passion from its creators. After some refinements, this show may well have a great future. When we see it again, let’s hope it doesn’t need such a stunning cast to save it, but that it has such a stunning cast nevertheless. Ideally this same cast. If the right stars align, Wild About You could well be one to watch out for.

Ian Bowkett