The Ambassadors Theatre, til 14 September 2024

⭐⭐⭐

Whacky crime comedy is a helluva lot of fun, even if it feels a bit like a fringe show. 

If you like plays that involve decapitations, wheely chair choreography and strong Hull accents, Kathy & Stella Solve a Murder is definitely the show for you. This zany, zeitgeisty musical throws everything under the kitchen sink into its chaotic plot, but enough jokes land to make it an entertaining romp. 

Protagonists Kathy and Stella are twenty-something true crime fanatics who host a murder podcast out of Kathy’s mum’s garage. One a uni dropout and the other couchsurfing at her sister’s, the pair don’t have much else going on, but enjoy spending time together as inseparable besties. Their opportunity to catapult their podcast to stardom seemingly arrives with amateur sleuth and famous crime writer Felicia Taylor, in town to flog her book about how she solved the case of the Hull Decapitator. The first plot twist of many shortly follows as Taylor is mysteriously decapitated herself, on the same day newly-discovered DNA evidence exonerates the man she had accused of the crimes. (‘Spoilers!’ I hear you shout. Believe it or not, this is just the first ten minutes.) Kathy and Stella find themselves living the dream of the true crime podcaster: this is their chance to don their detective caps and find not just Felicia’s killer but the real Hull Decapitator.

If that sounds like a lot to pack into the opening scenes, it only gets more bonkers from there. As a murder mystery goes, it’s pretty ridiculous; Kathy and Stella’s ‘investigations’ consist mainly of previously unheard-of characters wandering onto the stage at just the right moment to hand them new information. But of course we’re not really here for the murder mystery (if that’s what you’re into, I can highly recommend the excellent stage adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution down at the London County Hall). We’re here for a light-hearted roast of the (often female) fanaticism of true crime podcasts, and a buddy comedy celebrating the friendship of nerdy women. 

The show leans pretty hard on the standard beats of a stereotypical musical – there’s the villain song, the big argument song, the slow introspective song, and so on. These numbers (music and lyrics courtesy of Matthew Floyd Jones and Jon Brittain, also a co-director) are enjoyable if not particularly outstanding or memorable (though I do have the single line ‘Kathy and Stella’s Murder Podcast’ currently stuck in my head on an irritating loop, so maybe I’m underselling their catchiness). That tendency towards the formulaic is fairly easily forgiven because humour is packed into every corner of the show, and no opportunity for a joke is missed. For example, Kathy and Stella’s lovey-dovey best-friend song doesn’t have a particularly unique sound, but it does have the wonderfully millennial lyrics  “If I didn’t have you, I would LITERALLY DIE.” The show sort of adopts and sends up cliches at the same time, so the unrelenting barrage of insane clues and whacky characters ends up being more funny than annoying. There are some properly good laughs throughout, and it’s clear the cast are having a ball. 

Bronté Barbé and Rebekah Hinds are perfectly cast as Kathy and Stella respectively – they’ve got decent comedic chops and are utterly believable as devoted lifelong friends. Their voices have a lovely harmony as well – though as an Australian I really couldn’t tell you if their exceptionally strong Hull accents are the real deal or not. The standout for me was actually the actor playing Felicia Taylor, who remarkably (as far as I can tell from a quick Google) was the understudy Sorelle Marsh. Perhaps it’s just the character of Felicia that will always steal the show, with her queen bee persona and accordingly glamorous outfits. What is probably the most wonderfully histrionic performance of the show comes with the eventual villain reveal, and though I’d love to give the actor their due, that really would be a spoiler!

While the cast are more than capable, I did feel the production was a little understated for a West End show. Though I enjoyed the copious use of wheely chairs to ferry characters around, overall the choreography is a bit underwhelming. The show is at a disadvantage with a cast of just seven, as it’s inevitably going to be harder to generate a really dynamic performance. But I feel choreographer (and co-director with Brittain) Fabian Aloise could have used a little more creativity to give the on-stage movement some added panache to match the outlandishness of the story. Another slightly amateurish feature seemed to be the sound mix; at the risk of straying into the realms of real nitpickery, I would’ve appreciated a slightly different mix to allow the lyrics to come through a bit more audibly.

These production elements, along with the slapdash plotting and the hammy humour, make Kathy & Stella Solve a Murder feel a bit like a fringe show – akin to something at the Edinburgh festival, or a theatre pub. It doesn’t have the spectacle or the polish of other shows you might see in the West End. But it is bloody entertaining, so I guess in the end, does the rest of it really matter?