50 First Dates: The Musical, The Other Palace review - romcom turned musical

About halfway through this world premiere, I realised what was missing. Where is the sinister lift, where are the long corridors and, most of all, WHERE IS MR. MILCHICK?

You could be forgiven for having forgotten that 2004 Drew Barrymore / Adam Sandler romcom, but writers, David Rossmer and Steve Rosen and director/choreographer, Casey Nicholaw, hadn’t. Fast forward and, like so much else just now, what was born in a pandemic conversation is on stage at last.For a while, it’s pretty standard fare. Travel blogger and serial turn-downer of one-night stands (that’s not the last time you’ll find yourself saying, “Really?”) Henry, walks into a cafe in Key Largo, Florida and there’s the meet-cutest of meet-cutes with blonde-haired, blue-eyed Lucy. Smitten, Henry breaks his own rule on never staying anywhere more than a day, refuses to answer his agent’s calls about his trip to Europe and returns to the cafe next morning, flowers in hand where… Lucy doesn’t know him at all.

With neurological damage after a car crash, Lucy’s memory of the day just past is wiped and each morning begins with only the memories formed before the accident. To avoid her suffering a daily dose of PTSD as she rediscovers her condition over and over again, her friends in the cafe and her father and brother back home, keep this from her. But Henry threatens this well-meant ruse, even if it is an uneasy infantilising of a grown woman who must surely soon notice wrinkles etc in the mirror. This artfully constructed time is about to be put out of joint.   

It’s probably best not to think too hard about plotholes and instead relax into a show that may have a high level concept underpinning it, but is, in every other sense, a crowdpleasing musical with an eye on a transfer to a bigger house. 

Josh St. Clair (pictured above with Charlie Toland and John Marquez) and Georgina Castle make a handsome couple, but neither quite deal with the fact that both their characters come with completely abandoned backstories – he suddenly soppy and sensitive, she continually finishing Little Women and setting up two friends at the next table. The premise requires their chemistry to be set alight every day and that creates a drag on the conventional romcom narrative arc that is probably too much for any actors to overcome.

Speaking of which, the rest of the cast get some cookie-cutter characters to portray. Chad Saint Louis is the obligatory gay guy with dreams of his own, a sharp tongue and a heart of gold. John Marquez is Lucy’s over-protective father (and we can guess why) while his son is the last Florida incel without a gun to hand, played winningly by Charlie Toland. Back in the cafe, three couples, young, middle-aged and old, behave exactly as you would expect – this is not a production dedicated to challenging stereotypes.

Neither does the score. Sure the singing and the playing (by George Carter’s tight band) is fine, the two principals harmonising well, with Castle’s soprano a highlight. Aisha Naomi Pease gets her belt out and, though it got some help it didn’t need from the body mic, it’s still impressive. 

The songs feel very predictable for this kind of show. None jolt the story to a standstill (as can happen, especially if a new musical falls into the trap of including too many) but there’s no real standout, no 11 o’clock number, no tune I was humming on the way home wondering if the earworm would be gone by bedtime. If the production is to have a life after this run, a couple of showstoppers are probably required to supplement a passable score.

Symbolic of that "not-quite-there-yet" quality that clings to the evening, Fly Davis’s set is ingeniously adaptable, catches a Florida vibe and is beautifully lit by Aideen Malone, but every time the cafe benches are wheeled on, they wobble disconcertingly when Lucy or Henry sit down. I can’t have been alone in being distracted by the possibility of them tumbling off at any moment. Falling for each otrher is one thing; falling with each other something else entirely!

Okay, cards on the table. This is a show for an audience whose last experience of a first date was weeks ago, not decades ago or, if it were deep in the past, perhaps they still hanker for another chance to catch the thrill of possibility surging in their breast again. That’s a hefty chunk of the public and, for all the flaws, major and minor, highlighted above, they’ll be won over by a musical that charms as much as it comforts. 

This "When Henry Met Lucy… Every Morning For The First Time" will be right up their street, even if this reviewer is not too keen to have what they’re having.  

• 50 First Dates: The Musical at The Other Palace until 16 November
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