One Day: The Musical at The Royal Lyceum Edinburgh Review
Jamie Muscato and Sharon Rose in One Day: The Musical. Photo by Mihaela Bodlovic
Written by Jacqueline for Theatre and Tonic.
Disclaimer: Tickets were gifted in return for an honest review. All views are my own
Last night,One Day: The Musical opened to a full house at Edinburgh’s Lyceum Theatre. The show is based on the bestselling novel by David Nicholls and was followed by a successful film adaptation and a Netflix series. This production was created in collaboration between the Royal Lyceum and Melting Pot Productions, as part of the Lyceum’s 60th anniversary. For this production, the entire theatre has been transformed to create a space in the round- a stylistic choice to weave the audience into the narrative.
One Dayfollows the lives of two university graduates, Emma (Sharon Rose) and Dexter (Jamie Muscato), who meet on their graduation day from the University of Edinburgh. The story is told through a series of annual vignettes, each of which takes place on St Swithins day; a day said to foretell the next forty days of weather- rain or shine. As Dexter, Jamie Muscato takes on the role as the charming, privileged and slightly sleazy “lad” for whom the world often seems to bend over backwards to help him succeed. Muscato gives an incredibly nuanced portrayal, meaning that even during Dexter’s worst moments, the audience understands that the persona he has created for himself is not reflective of who he truly is. However, due to the narrative structure, a lot of Dexter’s development happens offstage- an unavoidable drawback of developing such a lengthy novel.
While Dexter is shown to be multi-dimensional and allowed to make mistakes, the same cannot be said for Emma. Though Sharon Rose delivers a stellar and passionate performance, her characterisation of Emma felt stagnant at times. The show repeatedly has characters telling the audience how intelligent and otherworldly Emma is due to her intelligence and moral compass, to the point that it felt slightly nauseating. Even her most questionable behaviour (having an affair with a married man) emphasised that “at least there’s no kids involved”. Even when she’s doing something that puts her in the wrong, she’s still shown to be morally superior. Had the show portrayed more of Emma’s flaws that were so apparent in the book, Sharon Rose would have had the same level of depth and complexity to work with that Jamie Muscato had within Dexter.
The supporting cast were incredibly strong and complemented the leads impeccably. In particular, David Birrell and Josefina Gabrielle as Dexter’s parents delivered stunning performances as they supported their son, often giving him the tough love that he so badly needed to hear. Gabrielle’s rendition of ‘Make A Life Worth Living’ was a highlight of the show- a seemingly optimistic song that was hiding something deeper. The score by Abner & Amanda Ramirez (music and lyrics) and Jeremy Same (additional lyrics) is well structured and flows well throughout the story, with each song serving a clear purpose.
For a show so focused on dates and timelines, I was puzzled by the dates of various events within the show. In 1988 the characters make reference to being 20, and the idea of turning 40 in 2008. Given the fact that Edinburgh University degrees are four years long, this implies that the characters started all university at the age of 16 before sitting the relevant high school level qualifications. This was not the only moment where the dates didn’t seem to add up, but a few changes to the script would’ve solved these issues immediately.
One Day: The Musical is a stunning retelling of an iconic novel. The creative team have beautifully captured the heart of the story, and I have no doubt that this production will have a life long beyond its Edinburgh run.
One Day: The Musical runs at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh until April 19th.
★ ★ ★
