Hot Mess: A New Musical Tickets

In 2019 producer Vicky Graham was sitting on the pitching panel for BEAM, the annual showcase for new musicals in development. Two writers unknown to her pitched the idea of reimagining the climate crisis as a rom com between Earth and humanity. 

'They had this incredible energy and two really accomplished songs, and I found myself leaning forward and thinking, "I want to be part of this."So, I broke all my rules about needing to know people really well if I’m going to work with them and be familiar with their back catalogue before commissioning them. I just rushed to give them a seed commission.”

Those writers were Jack Godfrey and Ellie Coote, and the show is Hot Mess, which is getting its second London run at The Other Palace following a stint at Southwark Playhouse and a run at the Edinburgh fringe last year where the audience was notably young and responsive. In Edinburgh critics were lining up to throw the bouquets, with several suggesting that the show had the potential to be another Six. The latter, of course, first caught the eye at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017 before going on to be a global phenomenon.

The new version of Hot Mess comes without festival constraints and runs at 85 minutes-- necessary, says Graham, “because we are packing in over 200,000 years of human history” --- as it tells the story of Earth and Hu (short for humanity) who embark on what turns out to be a tricky relationship. She’s already been around for 750 million years and has a chequered dating history, including a relationship with T-Rex which ended badly. He’s new on the scene, but his many enthusiasms can be wearing to her in more ways than one, and he is not averse to a bit of gaslighting. Is it true love or a toxic relationship? Can she ever begin to forgive his affair with the moon? 

The show has been developed with support from Birmingham Hippodrome’s increasingly influential New Musical Theatre department, and Graham says that was invaluable and kept the project on track. "Deirdre O'Halloran has been the dramaturg, and she kept reminding us to lean into the rom-com element and that permission to be funny freed up Ellie and Jack.”

A good decision, and one which ensures this show is not a hot mess but a relatable, hugely enjoyable show about dating and relationships but also a clever and informative romp through human history and our relationship with the planet. What might have been preachy is instead pithy, witty and delivered with catchy songs and considerable nuance. 

“At that first pitch my thought was that nobody in theatre at the time was making work that talked eloquently and interestingly about climate change in a way that audiences could respond to, and Hot Mess had the potential to do that.”

Hot Mess at the Other Palace transferred straight from Edinburgh last year to Southwark Playhouse. Now it returns, and it’s no surprise because Jack Godfrey and Ellie Coote, the team behind the much-acclaimed 42 Balloons, have created a musical two-hander which is both ingenious and witty. The premise is this: when Earth, on the rebound from her relationship with Tyrannosaurus Rex, which ended badly, and Hu (short for humanity) get together, they are a real power couple. But as Hu starts to exploit the natural resources which Earth shows him, the relationship looks increasingly doomed. It’s a clever device to explore climate change, and it’s done with a light touch. Lots of fun.

Stephen Mangan, Ardal O’Hanlon, Sarah Hadland and Janie Dee star in The Truth (Apollo), a play which asks how much truth-telling any marriage can really bear. It’s witty and sophisticated stuff and stylishly written by French playwright Florian Zeller, best known for The Father, which was turned into a movie with Anthony Hopkins. It is a deviously plotted comedy telling of two couples, one of whom from each pair is cheating with the other’s spouse. If director Lindsay Posner does it justice, it’s an evening which doesn’t stint on the self-deceptions and sleights of mind that we all employ in our relationships when it suits us.