Lovestuck: a 'warm-hearted' musical with a 'powerhouse score'
Team behind the hit podcast My Dad Wrote a Porno have created a hilarious show about a disastrous viral Tinder date
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
"Readers of a sensitive disposition" might want to look away now, said Clive Davis in The Times, because it is not possible to describe this new musical at Stratford East without "wading through a vast expanse of very British toilet humour".
Created by the team behind the hit comedy podcast "My Dad Wrote a Porno", "Lovestuck" is based on a story – which went viral online in 2017 – about a young woman who produced an unflushable poo while on a first date. Her solution to this embarrassment was to wrap it up and throw it out of her date's bathroom window. Alas, it became wedged between two panes of glass, and she then became stuck upside down as she tried to retrieve it.
"There's a hell of a lot of poo chat, but if you can get on board the toilet train, you're sure to leave laughing," said Anya Ryan in The Guardian. "Lovestuck" is funny and sweet, and boasts a "powerhouse score" in which "every number is a hit".
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"I confidently predict a big future for this warm-hearted piece," agreed Fiona Mountford in The i Paper. Ambra Caserotti, drafted in at the last minute after the original lead was injured, delivered a terrifically polished press-night performance as the nerdy, self-critical Lucy. And Shane O'Riordan, who plays her equally nerdy date Peter, "possesses a nervy, self-deprecating charisma that makes you root for this bumbling charmer", said Alun Hood on WhatsOnStage. Both convey the "rapture" of making a romantic connection, and the "gut-wrenching insecurities" that come with it. There are some great secondary characters; the songs are witty as well as catchy; and the script "unerringly finds the middle ground between snarl and sweetness".
Well, I'm afraid I couldn't get on board, said Nick Curtis in The London Standard. I like a "scatalogical gag" as much as the next person, but the characterisation here feels "toilet-paper thin". Still, "honesty compels me to say that I was humming the closing number, 'Everybody's Got Their Shit', on the long cycle ride home".
Theatre Royal Stratford East, London E15. Until 12 July
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Democrats push for ICE accountabilityFeature U.S. citizens shot and violently detained by immigration agents testify at Capitol Hill hearing
-
The price of sporting gloryFeature The Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics kicked off this week. Will Italy regret playing host?
-
Fulton County: A dress rehearsal for election theft?Feature Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is Trump's de facto ‘voter fraud’ czar
-
6 gorgeous homes in warm climesFeature Featuring a Spanish Revival in Tucson and Richard Neutra-designed modernist home in Los Angeles
-
Touring the vineyards of southern BoliviaThe Week Recommends Strongly reminiscent of Andalusia, these vineyards cut deep into the country’s southwest
-
Nan Goldin: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency – an ‘engrossing’ exhibitionThe Week Recommends All 126 images from the American photographer’s ‘influential’ photobook have come to the UK for the first time
-
American Psycho: a ‘hypnotic’ adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis classicThe Week Recommends Rupert Goold’s musical has ‘demonic razzle dazzle’ in spades
-
Properties of the week: houses near spectacular coastal walksThe Week Recommends Featuring homes in Cornwall, Devon and Northumberland
-
Melania: an ‘ice-cold’ documentaryTalking Point The film has played to largely empty cinemas, but it does have one fan
-
Nouvelle Vague: ‘a film of great passion’The Week Recommends Richard Linklater’s homage to the French New Wave
-
Wonder Man: a ‘rare morsel of actual substance’ in the Marvel UniverseThe Week Recommends A Marvel series that hasn’t much to do with superheroes