Theatre review: Eugenius!

Since its 2016 concert debut Ben Adams & Chris Wilkins' (book, music & lyrics) musical Eugenius! has been popping up in various concerts and full stagings; I have a feeling I was planning to catch its West End transfer, but that became a lockdown casualty. But the show's become known for developing an instant cult following, so instead we now get Hannah Chissick's revival at the Turbine Theatre, which may in fairness be a better home for a comic book musical much of whose appeal comes from a likeably thrown-together feel. Set at some point in the 1980s in a generically John Hughes Ohio high school, Eugene (Elliott Evans) is a bullied geek who dreams of an intergalactic superhero called Tough Man (Dominic Andersen) and his evil nemesis Lord Hector (understudy Louis Doran) by night, and turns the stories into comic books by day.

Theatre review: Heathers

London might have to wait a bit longer for the musical adaptation of Mean Girls, but another classic American high school movie about, well, mean girls, gets the musical treatment in the meantime. Laurence O’Keefe and Kevin Murphy’s Heathers, based on the film by Daniel Waters, premiered off-Broadway and has been further workshopped since, now arriving on The Other Palace’s main stage in a production directed by Andy Flickman. Heather Chandler (Jodie Steele,) Heather McNamara (Sophie Isaacs) and Heather Duke (T’Shan Williams) are top of the social ladder of an Ohio High School, and led by the fearsome Heather Chandler they pass judgement on who should be accepted or demonised. When they discover Veronica (Carrie Hope Fletcher) has a talent for forgery they allow her to join their gang, but when she refuses to go along with bullying her oldest friend Martha (Jenny O’Leary) she’s kicked back to the bottom of the social pecking order.

Theatre review: The Rocky Horror Show

I toyed with calling this a "non-review," my term for when I don't feel qualified to pass comment on something (usually because I didn't stay to the end.) In this instance it wouldn't have been because of me but because Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show has gone beyond anything that can actually be reviewed, into a surreal immersive experience where most of the audience know the script better than the cast do. In fact I've never seen the show on stage before, although I have seen the film; Christopher Luscombe’s production seems to be almost permanently touring the country so I always figured there'd be another chance to catch it. But after seeing the obscure sequel Shock Treatment last year it seemed about time for a visit to the famous original, in which newly-engaged couple Brad (arsehole) (Ben Freeman) and Janet’s (slut) (Diana Vickers) car breaks down and they go to a spooky mansion to see if they have a phone they can use (they don't.)