REVIEW | Cruel Intentions: The ‘90s Musical, The Other Palace
Written by Becky
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review.
Please note, this musical contains strong sex and drug references.
Cruel Intentions The Musical is a pure 90s flashback that brings all the cheese, all the drama and the raunchiness. This is something truly made for fans of the original 1999 film of the same name.
For those that are unaware of the 90s cult classic, Cruel Intentions follows two cruel and twisted siblings that relish a life of luxury, sex and seduction. We have Sebastian (Daniel Bravo), a rich boy with a bad reputation for seducing and ruining women who’s given the challenge of bedding virginal good girl Annette (Abbie Budden) by his cruel and manipulative sister Kathryn (Rhiannon-Louise Mcaulsky). We follow both siblings as they battle to win over the cruel scheme to also take down the innocent Cecile (Rose Galbraith) who’s gotten on the wrong side of Kathryn. This is a story of betrayal, love and an awkward step sibling relationship full of lust, Cruel Intentions doesn’t take itself too seriously but manages to keep the entertainment level high.
Mcaulsky brings exceptional vocals to the table with well-deserved long lasting cheers between each song. She plays a convincing villain with a promiscuous attitude, I almost find myself rooting for her at times. A stand out character for me was Cecile, exceptionally portrayed by Rose Galbraith in her professional debut. She brought all the hilarious, quirky qualities to the character and I found myself cry laughing at her rendition of “I’ll make love to you”.
This is a jukebox style musical, so cheesy transitions into songs are to be expected. Whilst some moments bursting into songs were abrupt, it only added to the comedic value of the show. One moment we have a serious moment between two characters and the next they've started belting out “Lovefool” by The Cardigans. “Colourblind” was my favourite rendition by the ensemble, with exceptional choreography from Gary Lloyd. To some I can admit the jukebox theme can be off-putting, but to others I think this would bring a really fun aspect to visiting the theatre.
There are some trivial and slightly controversial subject matters throughout the story, mainly involving race and gender equality. I can say, however, from seeing the film how they have adapted the dialogue in the musical adaption from the original film to cater it more to modern audiences, but this is something to bear in mind before seeing the show. We get to see the character in the firing line played very well by Nickcolia King-N’Da stand up for himself and explain to the audience through song why this is such an important issue to raise in a dialogue that is behind the times, granted it was through singing “No Scrubs” by TLC but nonetheless I think they covered the subject well.
The other palace seems like a perfect venue for a show such as this. After saying goodbye to a prior teen musical, Cruel Intentions fits in extremely well to the turn-table stage and high school-esque background. The costume design (Polly Sullivan) was absolutely on point to the original film, another thing to please fans of the film.
Cruel Intentions is an absolutely camp, cheesy 90s night out and fans of the film and those that love a great night at the theatre with a show that isn’t too serious will love it! It’s exaggerated, over the top but is completely aware of this, so uses this to its full advantage. This is definitely more for the fans as oppose to the critics.
At The Other Palace until 14 April 2024
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
