Southwark Playhouse Elephant, London – until 29 March 2025
Reviewed by Emily Smith
3***
Scissorhandz, based on the 1990s film Edward Scissorhands, promises to be ‘a musical reinvented’. Unfortunately, it falls flat of being a cohesive piece of theatre, ultimately being a concoction of well-known songs sprinkled between disconnected parts of the original plot, often lacking emotional depth.
That being said, if I could give more stars for talent alone, this brilliant cast would be deserving of at least one or two more. Emma Williams stood out as Peg, alongside Lauren Jones (Kim) and Dionne Gipson (The Inventor), who together and individually delivered some powerful and beautiful vocals to classic pop rock songs. Lauren Jones’s rendition of Fighter was a real standout of the evening!
Another brilliant trio were Tricia Adele-Turner (Joyce Vanderpump), Annabelle Terry (Esmerelda) and Ryan O’Connor (Helen/Bill/Delia Deetz). Both Tricia and Annabelle had both flawless vocals and comedic delivery, while Ryan, who makes his London debut in Scissorhandz, was an absolute standout of the evening. His comedic performance, including some ad-libbed moments, offered some much-needed relief from the confused narrative and really made the show for me. The live band were also great – they were clearly loving their jobs – and the music was definitely loud enough!
The staging is relatively simple given the size of the venue, which is intimate, but the show makes the most of the available space including aisles, the balcony, and even audience member’s laps! There is no raised stage – it is all floor level – so if you’re in any of the first rows you’ll need to mind your feet! The audience interaction was a fun addition to the show, which helped with keeping the audience’s attention given that the running time is 1 hour 45 minutes with no interval. To recreate the famous scenes where Scissorhandz is trimming bushes or sculpting ice, this show uses paper confetti and hand-held fans – not very high tech, but it did give the desired effect.
Costume-wise, a bug bear for me was that Scissorhandz’s infamous hands were clearly slide-on scissors i.e. you can see their real fingers behind. This wouldn’t perhaps be an issue on a larger raised stage, but given the proximity of the cast and audience in this venue, and the number of times Scissorhandz shows their hands to the audience, it was a detail that I felt could have been improved.
The main let down of this show is unfortunately in the writing. Bradley Bredeweg (writer/director/producer) wanted to ‘reinvent’ Scissorhandz (no ‘Edward’ here), taking the audience on an exploration of gender identity and belonging. However, it seems he has taken snippets of the film, added songs that are disconnected to the narrative, and merged the two together with a sprinkle of drag-favourites. Without the full plot, the story loses its way. Without songs that are related to the plot, the music doesn’t connect. Add this together, with a random Kiki in the middle, it seems this show is trying to achieve too much without having a stable foundation first.
One of the most significant issues for me was Scissorhandz as a character. In the film, Edward is a quiet man of few words, taking time to think before replying, yet in this show they burst into upbeat songs and that feels very out of character. Jordan Kai Burnett (Scissorhandz) does their best with what they are given, and did channel some of Johnny Depp’s original iconic movements, but the character doesn’t develop enough for the audience to have a strong connection to bring the message of belonging to fruition.
While this show promises a lot, it fails to deliver a reinvention of a well-loved classic. That being said, the cast are incredibly talented and perform the show with a lot of love and passion which makes up for some of its failings.