The Lumber Room: British Musicals: ‘I Should Be So Lucky

British Musicals: ‘I Should Be So Lucky – The Musical’ (2023)

Book by Debbie Isitt

Music & Lyrics by Matt Aitken, Mike Stock & Pete Waterman

(also: Timothy Lever, Michael Percy, Peter Burns, Stephen Coy & Robert Van Leeuwen)

History

‘I Should Be So Lucky’ is a British jukebox musical written by Debbie Isitt (the creator of the Nativity! franchise), which uses the music of the 1980s pop writing team Stock Aitken Waterman to tell the story of Ella, and what happens after she is jilted at the altar by the love of her life, Nathan. The show is choreographed by Jason Gilkison, the creative director of Strictly Come Dancing, and features orchestrations and musical direction from George Dyer, who had previously collaborated with Isitt on ‘Nativity! The Musical’.

It opened with a residency at the Manchester Opera House on 1^st November 2023, followed by a UK tour that began at the Wales Millennium Centre, followed by Theatre Royal, Plymouth, the Grand Theatre, Leeds and the Mayflower Theatre, Southampton. According to the initial announcement, the tour was due to close here on 27^th January 2024 but more dates were subsequently added extending the tour to 4^th May 2024.

Story

Kylie superfan Ella is at the altar ready to get married to the love of her life, Nathan, when he suddenly tells her that he can’t go through with it and runs off. Being comforted by her family and friends, Ella decides to go on the honeymoon to a couples resort in Turkey with them instead. Nathan realising that he has made a mistake chases after her with his Best Man. But is it too late ? Has Ella found a new love ? Will he be lucky enough to get a second chance ?

In A Nutshell

‘The wedding’s off – but the honeymoon is on !’

Production

I caught one of the first dates of the extended tour, at the New Wimbledon Theatre. The plot seemed a little similar to ‘Club Tropicana – The Musical’ which I had seen at the same venue four years before, but I had been won over by the teaser trailer that had popped up on Facebook, featuring two performers that I had enjoyed before – Jemma Churchill (from ‘Doctor Who: Village of the Angels’) as Ella’s Nan and Scott Paige (who I had seen in ‘Eugenius’ and ‘The Great British Bake Off – The Musical’) as the gay best friend. The show featured around thirty ‘Hit Factory’ classics, and with a recorded Kylie Minogue appearing as Ella’s confidant in a ‘Snow White’-style Magic Mirror, nine of the tracks were from the Pop Princess’ 80s back-catalogue. The show started with the title song, and all too soon, Ella and her entourage were making their way to Turkey. The sets were amazing, but it was the vocal performances and the very funny script that held the attention, along with multiple sub-plots along with the will-they-won’t-they of Ella and Nathan. All the performances were amazing, with Lucie-Mae Sumner more than adequately carrying the show on her back as Ella, with Churchill and Paige providing laughs, but not as many as Jamie Chapman playing Spencer, the manager of the resort, who seemed to be channelling Larry Grayson. Matthew Croke also made the most of being ‘the other man’. Everything was resolved in a predictable way (save the reappearance of a character from the start that I had forgotten), and there was an audience singalong before the final bows.

Very, very funny !!! And with all the eighties hits, definitely right up my street.

I Should Be So Lucky – The Musical runs at the New Wimbledon Theatre until 3^rd February 2024. It then tours to The New Theatre Oxford, Kings Theatre Glasgow, Hull New Theatre, The Milton Keynes Theatre, The Southend Cliffs Pavilion, The New Victoria Theatre Woking, Churchill Theatre Bromley, The Alexandra Birmingham, The Bristol Hippodrome, The Liverpool Empire, Sunderland Empire Theatre and finally His Majesty's Theatre Aberdeen. [See website for dates]