[title of show] is Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell’s Tony award nominated one act musical about writing a broadway musical. It is set in New York and follows the dreams of “two nobodies”: writer Hunter Bell (Joe Beighton) and composer Jeff Bowen (James Daly) who are trying to write a musical for the New York Musical Theatre Festival. It is pretty hilarious. The book is saturated with gags “gently nudging the satiric” with a stream of allusions to other musicals and pop culture. 

I guess the only thing better than clever self-reference, is clever self-reference you don’t understand but everyone else does. The truth is that some of the humour is pretty niche. My subsequent study of musical theatre trivia on Wikipedia tells me the references to "Censored Scenes From King Kong" and "Got Tu Go Disco" were in fact flops on broadway in the 80s. I suppose there was a real danger that the humour would date. But Gabriella Bird’s direction takes worthwhile liberties in bringing the book up to date with well received and coolly played observations referring to Ebola, killing Osama and Ronan Keating’s much anticipated debut on West End in Once. These cheeky additions reinvigorate the satire of much of the dialogue, and give an improvised energy to much of the performance which was thoroughly entertaining.  

But I get ahead of myself. The real stars of the show are undoubtedly Joe Beighton and James Daly. Beighton shows almost perfect control of his wide vocal range throughout the play and owns the stage in the comic number ‘I’m an original musical’. Daly is unfailingly endearing in his characterisation of a slightly awkward and pedantic composer. He also gives a consistent and pretty impressive vocal performance throughout the show.

Unfortunately Heidi (Lily Parham) and Susan (Constance Chapman), the self-professed secondary characters, are less consistent. It is obvious that Parham is a very gifted musician as she shows flashes of brilliance – particularly in the touching song ‘A way back to then’ – but her tired voice gives out towards the second half. Similarly Chapman was a little raspy with her top notes but showed infectious energy in her solo ‘Die Vampire Die’. As an ensemble they executed the first few songs, like ‘Untitled Opening Number’, with impeccable precision and energy. In addition the mesmeric physicality to the ‘change it don’t change it’ sequence was another example of the strong chemistry between the small cast. An honourable mention must go to Larry the pianist (Stephen Gage), who does a pretty sharp job as musical director and the one man band on the piano. He delivers his occasional zinger of a line with brio. 

In summary [title of show] is deliciously funny for the most part as it exploits the naturally raw vibe of a student production and its precocious cast to great effect. Yes, there were occasional fumbles and notes that were not quite reached. But these glitches are handled with mind bending self-reference by a supremely confident cast. It almost feels a part of the show.