To a rhythm “suspiciously like Cell Block Tango” the audience is introduced to the line-up – following the death of Bedheads Recording Studio’s star act Lucille Spaff everyone left in the office is a suspect, and we are guided through their interrogations by the disembodied voice of a detective-narrator. As each member of the five-person cast takes the stage to bring to life each suspect, their comic monologues act as segues into an eclectic series of sketches ranging from a young Julie Andrews nervously participating in an improv jazz version of The Sound of Music to a homicidal HR director taking the movie The Purge a little too seriously after office drinks. Bedheads is a murder-mystery play unlike many others.

The use of five sequential monologues is a strong framework for the sketches, and helped keep the show coherent when the sketches are maybe too loosely themed. The entire cast carried their monologues extremely effectively, conveying a set of eccentric possible murderers – two jealous singers, a posh-voiced sound engineer, Jamie Bisping’s brilliantly weird cleaner and arguably the show’s most sympathetic, and plain pathetic character, a long-suffering receptionist. The setting does well to accommodate such variety, making the show seem half murder-mystery, half office sitcom. It’s an interesting mix of genres, but one that the very capable cast manages to navigate successfully.

"I clung on to every moment one of the cast took the opportunity to sing"

A real strength is the final musical number, which certainly left me wishing we’d had more opportunity to listen to such a fantastic group of vocalists. Opening with a section of 'Cell Block Tango' perhaps led me to think I would get a little more music from this musical sketch comedy, which meant that I clung on to every moment one of the cast took the opportunity to sing (Amaya Holman and Lottie Elton were particularly fun to hear make use of their full ranges), and so I was very satisfied when the toe-tapping closing number (also written by the cast) was both well-polished and brought all the individual monologues together into a group narrative.

With so many short sketches packed into the approx. 70 minute run it is inevitable that some will be stronger than others, and it also seems likely that the energy suffered from a small opening night audience, but more jokes carried well than fell flat. Written collaboratively between the cast, the sketches and monologues play to the cast’s varied strengths, whether physical or verbal comedy. Unfortunately the frequent changes of scene affected the pace of the show, and more than once was a cast member left standing idly on stage waiting for a sketch to start. This will hopefully be less of a problem in ongoing performances as opening night hiccups are ironed out.  Overall the show is a bit like going shopping for second-hand records – if you’re willing to look through the whole store you’ll find lots of real gems, but be prepared for a fair amount of middle-tier country-western.