This show is trying too hard. It is trying so hard to be funny that it ends up being unnatural and wooden, and painful to watch. The pace is also all wrong as it feels slow and laboured.
Everyone completely gives their all in this show, and the set is pretty incredible in the ways in which is transforms between scenes. For example, the ‘reveal’ of Daphne’s car and the driving scene, where Sydney tells her all about his idea, is pretty clever. And I loved the little song segways between scenes by Matthew Durkan.
However, these are the best things about this production. Not only was this not my kind of humour, it just wasn’t very funny anyway, and ended up being ridiculous. I don’t know the movie, so maybe ridiculous is how it is supposed to be. But, if that’s the case, this production didn’t go far enough. If a show is going to be ridiculous then you need to really exaggerate it and make it so: this felt like it was ridiculous because it was trying too hard to be funny and failing. There was also no chemistry between the characters, so none of the relationships felt real or made much sense.
The show is still in previews, so maybe this is just teething problems and will settle down before it opens. I won’t be rushing back to see it though.