If I Had You [Workshop Presentation] Actors Church

Written by Philip Theatre and Tonic

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Presented at the Actor’s Church in Covent Garden as a script in hand workshop performance, If I Had You is a brand new musical full of possibilities for a future life elsewhere. 

The story follows Doug and his quest for love in the ever romantic city of Rome. A story of love and loss and ultimately hope. He hasn’t seen his childhood crush, Sophia, since, well, childhood and after chancing across a photo of them together as children he decides to find her and see what life might be like with her. Sophia is certainly at a different place in her life but is Doug what she needs?

The book, by Kenny D’Aquila, is fun and charming. It is like a classic 90’s rom-com with added music. While it is sweet, it does have problems with pacing. You jerk from one scene to another very quickly adding a new character or two to every scene for a good chunk of the first half. When you combine this with each of these characters having a song, it takes a while to establish the protagonists. All the classic over the top rom-com characters make an appearance and you welcome them like old friends. 

If I Had You definitely has a catchy number or two. Joel Spineti’s music and D’Aquila’s lyrics are zingy and bright for the most part with a lovely ballad or two thrown in for good measure. However, the music does begin to sound repetitive after a while. Additionally, there just seems to be a little too much music for one musical. There wasn’t really time to add too much plot as the show has song after song. As with any good rom-com you don’t necessarily need much to the plot but it is usually over in 2 hours tops. If I Had You came in at a whooping 2 hours and 40 minutes with only a 15 minute interval. Don’t get me wrong I really enjoyed it, I just felt it was a little too long. 

The cast of this workshop production are all absolutely brilliant. It is a testament that so many amazing talents have been gathered in one room. Charlie McCullagh and Chelsey Halfpenny were perfectly cast as Doug and Sophia. They brought warmth and charm and awkwardness. The rest of the cast were equally well cast. Such an incredibly talented bunch. One real stand out was Emma Kingston, who is soon to be gracing the stage as Elphaba in London’s West End. Kingston was hilarious in the many roles she took on in this production, most notably as Doug and Sophia’s old friend from school. Her accent and mannerisms with were so humorous and very reminiscent of a certain 90’s legendary ‘friend’. Not to mention her pipes of pure gold. 

I really did enjoy myself but feel this show needs reworking and rewriting before it sets sail for the West End. However, I really do hope we see it soon as it is so lovely to have new musical theatre back in London.