Happily Ever Never at theSpace at Niddry Street Review
There is something inherently funny about watching Elsa have an existential crisis, and Happily Ever Never, written and directed by Lydia Baggaley, knows it. LS6 Theatre's sparkly peek behind the curtain of a princess party planning company is built on a genuinely clever conceit: each employee mirrors the character they're paid to play. Rapunzel feels behind in life and desperate to be perfect, Moana yearns for more than her little town can offer, Elsa is terrified of losing control, and Spiderman just wants to help everybody out.
The show is at its most charming when it leans into its own theatricality: fairytale-esque rhyming interludes punctuate the action, and the audience is happily recruited as party guests, sung at and performed to, as though we're all seven years old again.
But once the glitter settles, the writing unfortunately struggles to match the concept. The central tension between Moana and Rapunzel feels underdeveloped, as well as ‘told’ to the audience, rather than ‘shown’. The characters, never given names of their own and referred to only by their princess personas, remain stubbornly two-dimensional, which may be thematically apt but leaves us little to hold onto. Long, heartfelt two-handers advance the plot but drain the room of energy, and the show never fully recovers. And while there are some very funny lines, which are elevated further by a genuinely talented cast, the script is peppered with clichés that undercut its best moments.
Still, this is a fun production, its moments of liveliness and sparkle contrasted nicely with quieter, heartfelt ones. There's a big heart here, and a thoughtful engagement with the uncertainty of young adulthood. With a sharper script, this could be magic.
Happily Ever Never’s last show is August 19th, at theSpace at Niddry Street, at 17:05
★★★★
Written by Ellora for Theatre and Tonic, August 2026.
