Grand, if not ground-breaking, Kathy & Stella Solve a Murder is a real Fringe pleaser.
📍 Summerhall – ROUNDABOUT
📅 Aug 3, 5-8, 10-15, 17-22, 24-28
🕖 9:50pm
🕖 Running time (approx.): 1 hour 10 minutes
✍️ Book, Lyrics & Director: Jon Brittain
🎵 Music & Lyrics: Matthew Floyd Jones
💰 From £9.00 (Previews), £12.00 thereafter
🎬 Executive Producer: Francesca Moody Productions
🎂 12+
🎭 Wheelchair Accessible Venue, Captioning
Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder has some pedigree, boasting a creative team including Olivier Award Winning playwright Jon Brittain, emerging musical star Matthew Floyd Jones, and originating Fleabag producer Francesca Moody. Indeed on opening night, Phoebe Waller-Bridge was in the audience to see whether lighting was about to strike twice.
Straight off the bat, it’s clear the show is spoiled for talent, both on, and off stage. From the first notes, this is a first-rate production from people who know what they’re doing, and how to cast their show to perfection. Played in the round beneath the domed tent of the Summerhall Roundabout, it’s a whirling dervish of entrances and exits, a truly 360° theatrical experience.
Leading the cleverly choreographed action are Bronté Barbé (Kathy), Rebekah Hinds (Stella), the least successful true-crime podcasts in Hull. Long-time friends, and with a fondness for few beside each other, they beam their love of murder most foul into the ether from a garage ‘studio’. Their exploits and ambitions, hopes, and anxieties are sung to a tight, energy-infused score, created and led by Floyd Jones from an on-stage piano. A sometimes rag-time infused web of accomplished show-tunes, the music creates a celebratory ambience very fitting to Brittain’s delightfully satirical book.
The story, a murder-mystery (surprise surprise!), sees our bold twosome investigating the gruesome slaying of their favourite true-crime author. Determined to see their heroine avenged, Kathy & Stella soon find internet finally fame thrust upon ’em. Their adventures & mis-adventures in social media age sleuthing offer ripe opportunities for fun: not one is missed. Spanning dead-pan to farce, the show delightedly riffs on an industry built on murder, and the soul-corrupting, mental-health imperilling temptations of the fame it can offer. There’s no ridicule of serious issues such as anxiety and depression, simply a welcome inclusion of their reality in many/most lives.
The stand-out musical number is likely If I didn’t have you (I would die), a suitably melodramatic anthem for the all-consuming friendships of youth. It’s not easy to make people laugh with showtunes, many try and fail; but the book is strong, and Barbé & Hinds have the needed vocal chops, and comedic timing in spades. Such is their narrative integration as characters, that were one stronger than the other, the whole thing would topple. Fortunately both are simply terrific, and enjoy a rich chemistry which suffuses the action around them.
An honourable mention is also required for Kathy and Stella’s Murder Podcast, a song which really does make exposition of our leads’ backstories a light, and tuneful affair. This isn’t, however, the most hummable soundtrack otherwise. Though technically accomplished, it’s more the wonderful feel of the show, the many laughs, rather than the melodies which may stay with audiences after.
(Aside: The New Yorker hated Wicked when it opened. Does my slightly underwhelmed response make it more or likely it’s the best musical you haven’t heard yet? You decide!)
The supporting cast are absolutely excellent, Jodie Jacobs proving quite the musical-comedy-theatre powerhouse as the slain author (and her siblings…). A versatile TJ Lloyd fizzes with energy as both friend and foe, whilst talented character-actress Imelda Warren-Green easily finds both laughter and the audience’s sympathy. In choir with the leads & Floyd Jones, they create a show which sonically punches way above its weight.
Brittain, as director, runs a very tight ship, the whole thing razor sharp, and not even a touch frenetic. With so many moving parts, it’s an impressive achievement, and leaves no production gristle betwixt audience, music, and comedy. It sounds great, looks great, makes ’em laugh, and sends the people away happy.
The show ends on a surprisingly nuanced, and thus satisfactory note. Friendship lies at the centre of Kathy & Stella Solve a Murder. Despite the melodramatic comedy hi-jinks, this is a relationship one can easily believe in, invest in, and root for. The opening night received a standing ovation: with such a positive message, and so much talent gathered beneath one yellow dome, it was certainly deserved.
(Image Credit: Mihaela Bodlovic)
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