Why Am I So Single? review - A victim of self-conscious Gen Z narcissism
The new production by the team behind SIX is a set of attractive performances that doesn't quite add up to a satisfying whole
The creators of the all-conquering SIX were always going to have a hard time following up their debut. Instead of going for the easy option of more of the same, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss have plunged right into the heart of the current zeitgeist.
This is a Gen Z, Queer extravaganza that includes trans, internet dating, toxic masculinity and meta-theatricaticality. It is also about twice as long as SIX’s dynamically torqued 80 minutes.
Non-Binary Oliver (Jo Foster) and more-or-less-straight Nancy (Leesa Tulley) are besties who are struggling to come up with ideas point. To maintain the air of fourth-wall busting artifice, they romp around a set and furnishings for a new musical and decide that their own woebegone love lives would be a good starting in the manner of Beauty and the Beast, with a fridge, curtains, a coat stand, etc all played by the hard working ensemble.
The problem is that the predictable narrative doesn’t stand scrutiny however much it is dressed up by co-directors Moss and Ellen Kane with superb song and dance numbers.
While it plays to the creators’ songwriting strengths it also exposes their structural deficiencies.
The tap dancing mischief of C U Never, the furious desperation of Disco Ball and the wounding ballad Just in Case are outstanding but they are randomly assembled in between linking references to Friends and Lionel Bart’s Oliver!.
The performances are enormously attractive - hats off to Foster, Tulley and Noah Thomas as Artie - but it doesn’t quite add up to a satisfying whole. Like the generation at which it is aimed it’s a victim of its own self-conscious narcissism.
Why Am I So Single? is playing at the Garrick Theatre until February 13
Tickets: 0330 333 4811
