(seen at the afternoon performance on 7th October 2026)
All the monkey remembers of the film is seeing it at its local cinema, now sadly gone. It boasted the third largest screen in London, and the car entering the Grand Canyon was spectacular. Beyond that, it remembers nothing.
We see the car early on, but this show does not animate it for the finale. Director Trip Cullman and Scenographers Christine Jones and Brett J. Banakis, possibly wisely on the budget, don’t even attempt it.
The problem is, their solution is unoriginal and cannot provide the emotional weight to anchor the entire show firmly in our hearts. Which sums up the entire effort.
This proves to be one of those musicals which does not need music. Neko Case’s score is bland, lacking variety and containing not a single witty or memorable turn of phrase.
Worryingly, it took the monkey two verses before it realised Louise (Rachel Tucker) is singing about a major life trauma. A similar situation in other songs, the point buried in desert sand beige.
Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber choreograph an endless stream of line dances, effective initially but with diminishing visual returns.
More exciting, our Scenographers produce a lavishly detailed roadhouse club set, proving flexible and vibrant as it becomes apartments, motels, alleyways and deserts.
Natasha Chivers picks out moments with well-placed spotlights, and creates energy working with the Scenographers on wrapping beams around the audience.
Callie Khouri’s book follows the film closely, but if the movie was full of memorable and significant lines – the monkey didn’t pick up on anything here.
Tucker and Amy Lennox as Thelma never fail to engage us, though. The pair carry the drama and have us rooting for them as they (at first inadvertently) challenge the patriarchy which continuously does them intentional harm.
Lennox gets the main emotional arc. Excellent comic timing and a memorable audience interaction highlights during her Krakatoa release of pent-up anger.
She also survives one of the most inexplicable pieces of musical theatre staging the monkey has ever seen on a stage, involving an inflatable paddling pool containing a couple of inches of water. Trust the monkey, you will know why when you see it.
Rachel Tucker’s practical approach is the driving force of the show, and her triggering events and subsequent situations are carried through to perfection.
Trevor Dion Nicholas as Detective Hal and wife Sarah – Letitia Hector, add a racism subplot to flavour strongly the tale.
Jordan Luke Gage is a rotten and seductive JD, revealing a deep bitterness under a breezy criminal exterior.
Jack Butterworth has fun, first as a lounge singer, then as a Trooper caught literally with his pants down.
For the most part the action moves along briskly, with several immaculately staged set pieces. The problem is that the songs often interrupt and slow things rather than keeping them motoring.
Difficult enough to stage a road movie, though this does achieve the fluidity. Harder to justify every pitstop for a musical number.
The hefty tyres of the increasingly relevant female experience story grip the road. The load they carry is unevenly distributed, however.
We reach our destination, but the wear is uneven and there are changes needed if this show is to hit the trail again.
3 stars.
Photo credit: Helen Murray. More photos can be seen at www.instagram.com/theatremonkey1