How do you follow a megahit like "Six"? That's been the question facing Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss since their musical – a retelling of the fate of Henry VIII's wives, presented in the style of a pop concert – "took the world by storm" six years ago. Their answer, said Sarah Crompton on What's on Stage, is that you write about what you know. "Why Am I So Single?" is about two young writers – best friends and plainly based on Marlow and Moss – who are trying to write a musical while agonising about their unhappy love lives.
A warm, generous "hymn" to the joys of friendship, the show overflows with ideas. Not all of them land, and it lacks the broad appeal of "Six", but "it feels like a hit".
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What elevates the production is the score, said Arifa Akbar in The Guardian, which ranges from rap and disco to rock and musical ballad – via a "fabulous" tap number. "Every song is a powerhouse", even the "preposterous" Interlude in B Minor, about a bee in the pair's flat. But overall, one yearns for "less archness and greater momentum".
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