King’s Head Theatre – until 23 March 2025
Reviewed by Claire Roderick
4****
Seattle’s most luxurious ladies’ loo is the setting for Liesl Wilke and Andy March’s fantastic new musical. Ever-present cleaner Maggie (Lauren Ward) observes the regular visitors as she chats with her daughter Robin (Rebecca-Jo Roberts) and, despite Robin’s protestations, can’t help but get involved and try to help them.
Mother daughter relationships and conflicts are explored through extreme examples. Uptight alcoholic Cynthia (Josie Benson) is afraid that she is following her mother’s parenting blueprint as she struggles to cope with the unpredictability of her neurodiverse daughter Emma (Grace Venus), computer programmer Krystal (Regina Co) anxiously hides her true self from her overbearing mother (Cezarah Bonner) for fear of disappointing her, and teenager Serena is dealing with an unhealthy relationship and pregnancy scare alone. Maggie butts in and tries to heal the relationships, even as she hides from her own trauma. The bare bones of Maggie’s situation are obvious early on, but the story of her grief and her stalled life is revealed through each encounter.
There is a lot to unpack alongside 15 songs in just 90 minutes, meaning that sometimes the book can be a little abrupt moving on to the next character, but if the show were expanded these issues could be easily solved with conversations and characters being more fleshed out. Even so, there are wonderful moments of connection and humour amongst the dramas and there are some astute observations – Serena’s spoken word performances capture the intensity and pretentiousness of a teenager’s burgeoning creativity. We see the characters’ first steps towards understanding and reconciliations rather than any solid solutions, but this would still be satisfying in a longer version as those first steps are the hardest to take.
Musical director Livi Van Warmelo and musicians Saran Davies, Isis Dunthorne and Amy Shaw perform Wilke and March’s songs brilliantly. These range from catchy poppy numbers “1-800 Help Me” with the entire cast dancing onstage – to intimate soaring heartbreakers like “Fly“. “Different Not Broken” sung by Josie Benson is an emotional highlight of the show, along with Regina Co’s powerhouse performance of “Fall From Grace“. Emily Bestow’s gorgeous set is perfect, with Vikki Stone’s slick direction allowing the performances to shine. And what a cast! Lauren Ward is phenomenal as Maggie, and there is not a weak link in the cast. The vocals are glorious.
Stalled is an emotional and arresting musical tackling hard subjects with a deft and tender touch – take tissues!