THE CAST OF FIVE WERE VERY EMOTIONALLY DRIVEN

By Sophie Clark | Muck Rack Portfolio ⭐⭐⭐ | Press Invite

Entertaining Murder is an exciting new musical exploring the lurid details of one of Britain’s most infamous female convicted killers…or was she? 

The production, written and directed by Chris Burgess, does a compelling job diving directly into the drama: the tragic love triangle of Edith Thompson, Percy Thompson, and Freddy Bywaters, which ended in Percy being stabbed to death in 1922. 

The plot is cleverly constructed around a very convincing Sue Kelvin — a West End fixture known for her roles in Wicked, Streetcar, Fiddler, and more — in the role of an older Avis Graydon, narrating the audience through her plea to pardon her older sister, who she believes was wrongly convicted. 

The cast of five were very emotionally driving. I was not expecting a show called Entertaining Murder set in a pub theatre to pack so many punches, but Dominic Sullivan as the brooding soon-to-be killer, Freddy Bywaters, Dora Gee as younger, naive, Avis, and Daisy Snelson as vixen-turned-victim Edith Thompson, all brought a full world to the small pub stage. 

The standout performance of the night was Alex Cosgriff who played several roles including menacing Percy Thompson, a campy court reporter, the lawyer for the prosecution, and more. 

Unfortunately, cracks are apparent in this production, especially when it comes to the musical aspect of it. Despite containing several songs, the show lacked stand-out tunes or memorable hooks. Most of the songs were very similar, with a predictable pattern of rhyming couplets and unremarkable chord progressions. There were no standout songs that I could pinpoint, or tunes that stuck in my head after leaving.

Burgess’ instinct to set this story to music is an inspired one, but perhaps not this music. 

Additionally, the entire story is focused around Edith’s letters, but lacks many actual quotes from them – the penultimate song being a standout exception. It would be a lot more interesting and educational if the letters were blended further into the script. 

Lastly, like many new shows, the second half really began to drag. I understand why it was so jampacked, as there is a lot of history to cover, but this is a classic case of killing your darlings. Shouldn’t be too hard. It is a show about murder, after all. 

There is a lot of promise in this show, but it’s not quite there yet.

Entertaining Murder is running at Upstairs at the Gatehouse until Sunday 10 May.

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