Wild About You-A New Musical in Concert.

Wild About You by Eric Holmes is a brand new musical in concert with the lyrics and music by Chilina Kennedy, whose nineteen songs form the main body of the production. Performing for two nights only at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on 25th and 26th March 2024.

Casting by Harry Blumenau brings together some very well-known cast members from Eric McCormack of Will and Grace fame as Michael. Award-winning actor Rachel Tucker as Olivia. Along with Oliver Tompsett as Thomas, Tori Allen-Martin as Jessica, Todrick Hall in two roles Nurse Shae/Robin and Jamie Muscato as Billy.

Michael and Olivia have been together a long time and are planning on getting married. Both families hold strong religious beliefs and heterosexual marriage unions are important. However, Olivia isn’t happy with Michael and in all honesty nobody can blame her. He is controlling and quite boring. Against his permission she heads off to find “herself” in New York.

The storyline is delivered in Act One to the audience from a casualty hospital room as Olivia has what I presumed to be trauma-induced amnesia and she can’t remember who she is and how she ended up there. With the help of information stored in her phone, her life opens up in ways she would probably rather forget. As the story unfolds you can’t help thinking who could blame her?

Todrick Hall in the roles of Nurse Shae during Act One and then Robin in Act Two in my opinion is the star of the show. In both roles, Hall commands the stage and adds plenty of humour into the Musical with perfect timing and excellent delivery throughout.

The Musical feels like two separate performances when the curtain goes up for Act Two. Olivia finds herself in another realm and after arguing with Robin who works there she attempts to rectify what she deems to be her mistakes! The storyline at times feels disjointed with a few scenes dragging slightly in the first Act. The cast is an incredibly strong team and I am not sure that in the current format, the musical concert would work with a different cast. However, this is musical theatre and anything can happen on the stages in theatre land.