One Day the Musical Review: Engaging Drama, Frustrating Sound

David Nicholls’ 2009 best-selling novel, One Day, has already been adapted into a feature film and a major television series. Now, it takes to the stage. Serving as the flagship opening for James Brining’s inaugural season as Artistic Director, and marking the Lyceum’s 60th anniversary, the production arrives with considerable weight.

There is much to like in David Greig’s stage adaptation, which charts Dexter (Jamie Muscato) and Emma’s (Sharon Rose) 16-year off/on relationship from meet-cute to elegy. It makes for an authentically human journey—one that proves more captivating than truly heartbreaking.

Laced with comedy, strife and tragedy, the production operates wonderfully as a ‘Sadcom’, to borrow Mackenzie Crook’s term for the simply perfect Detectorists. As a musical, however, One Day is sadly underwhelming, let down by a sound mix that is simply not fit for purpose.

The Liberty to be Problematic

Aside from these immediate audio issues, there is much to admire. It’s refreshing to see a quasi-romance on stage free from lead characters designed to be likeable. Both Dexter and Emma prove to be pretty horribly flawed. As the timeline winds through the 90s and into the 2000s, Dexter dives headfirst into a toxic mix of lad-pleasing television and drug addiction. Rose, meanwhile, arms Emma with a defensive, socially aware sarcasm, waiting years for her brand of fiction to find an audience.

In fact, they are problematic to the point where their ultimate union feels like the best solution to keep others safe from their toxic, quite dysfunctional co-dependency. This liberty to be difficult injects life into their dialogue. The script is genuinely funny, the banter between Dexter and Em alive with sharply well-timed lines which effortlessly curdle into cutting barbs when things turn sour.

Greig’s ear for comedy provides some superb set-pieces, not least a hilarious, disastrous restaurant shift in Loco Caliente, complete with Mariachi themes and a chaos-inducing rat. It pushes the narrative far beyond a simple will they/won’t they, giving both actors complex material to work with.

Matching Greig’s focus, Director Max Webster wisely keeps his lens fixed on character rather than plot mechanics. After a slightly slow start, the pacing finds its feet. Rae Smith’s ambitious set is essentially a holistic redesign of the Lyceum interior, thrusting the action into the round upon a compact, revolving central rectangle. The cast is stripped of the safety of eye-forward declamation, forced to play to all 360 degrees, which injects an undeniable energy into the performances. The revolve is perhaps overused, but it certainly evokes the passing of time and creates a creeping sense of inevitability.

While the set evokes the passing of years, the production could afford to make its central chronological conceit much clearer. A digital counter looms over the stage, clicking through the years, yet there is little to indicate to the uninitiated that every single scene takes place on that same summer date—the 15th of July. Without that grounding, the narrative risks feeling like a disjointed highlight reel. Nevertheless, choreographer Carrie-Anne Ingrouille makes the most of the space, creating genuinely full-circle moments whether the stage holds a solitary figure or the entire ensemble.

A Muted Songbook

As a musical, however, One Day stumbles. Recruiting folk/soul-tinged pop duo Amanda Sudano and Abner Ramirez (Johnnyswim) to write the score was a smart move in theory. In practice, the aural execution is deeply frustrating. Muddy, thin, and underamplified, the lively full-cast ‘One Day — Opening’ number is a neutered letdown. The mix actively undermines the emotional stakes that Greig’s book works to build. Big musical talents like Rose and Muscato deserve so much better. This cannot be put entirely at the feet of Sound Designer Simon Baker—whom I singled out for praise for the National Theatre’s Hex back in 2022—but after an extended preview period, the failure to fix such a glaring audio issue is baffling.

It’s a pity to have recruited such a talented supporting cast only to lose their voices in the mix. Josefina Gabrielle brings a charismatic wit to Dexter’s sophisticated mum, Alison, and Dan Buckley—who impressed so much in the sensational revival of Nerds at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe—is spot-on as Emma’s excruciating yet nice sometime-boyfriend, Ian. Worse still, there appears to be no attempt to protect anyone’s voices; Miracle Chance is left entirely exposed, reaching for pitchy high notes in the second act without a safety net. The six-piece band under Nigel Lilley are similarly let down by the poor sound design. Their tight, rhythmic playing is buried, translating what should be a dynamic accompaniment into something frustratingly thin.

Solos and Silver Linings

When the production steps out of its own way, the talent shines. Rose gets a cracking solo outing with the folk-influenced ‘Blackbirds’, left alone to opine her condition from her bed, whilst Muscato gets a chance to whine lyrically down the telephone in ‘Pick up Em’ when Dexter hits one of his semi-regular all-time lows. Gabrielle also delivers a meaningful rendition of the gently inspirational ‘Make a Life Worth Living’. These isolated solos suggest the songbook might actually be magnificent, if only it were better mixed.

Ultimately, the show still offers characters to invest in and to find yourself rooting for, if only to watch them find the least-worst way forward. One cannot question the huge ambitions of this Royal Lyceum and Melting Pot production, judging by the dazzling talents assembled both on stage and in the rehearsal room. It is a staging that ties up well, without excessive tidiness, choosing to honour Nicholls’ beloved tale of two very messy humans rather than reaching for an unearned fairy-tale resolution. It is just a pity that a genuinely engaging piece of theatre has been sent out onto the stage with a sore throat.

Featured Image: Lyceum One Day Jamie Muscato as Dexter and Sharon Rose as Emma – Image by Mihaela Bodlovic

One Day the Musical will play the Royal Lyceum Edinburgh until the 19th of April 2026. For tickets or more information, click here: https://lyceum.org.uk/events/one-day