An A to Z Guide to Dating, Underbelly George Square Review
In the 1980s, Grace O'Keefe's mother wrote a dating advice book. Four decades later, her daughter has hauled it onto a Fringe stage, put on a wig, and turned it into a one-woman musical. As premises go, it's a gift. As an hour of theatre, it's a gift that takes rather a long time to unwrap.
The opening is delightful. O'Keefe, in gloriously over-the-top drag as her own mother, takes a phone call: Grace, we're told, is running late. Mum will fill in. To pass the time, she'll simply walk us through her book, alphabetically.
The trouble is the alphabet. Twenty-six is a lot of letters, and the show knows it - there's even an onstage acknowledgement when we hit the halfway mark, which lands less as a joke and more as a mutual admission that we're all watching the clock. The structure that should be the show's spine becomes its ball and chain: each letter gets its moment, some sparkle, some don't, and the format flattens them all into the same rhythm. The original songs are pleasant enough but rarely earn their place, functioning more as breathers than as engines of the story. The audience participation, though well received, papers over rather than solves the pacing problems.
When the mask finally slips, the show briefly becomes the thing it always intended to be. The landing at 'Y is for Yourself' is honestly moving. O'Keefe is a hugely likeable performer: confident, warm, vocally capable, and clearly having the time of her life. The talent here is not in question.
There's a four-star show buried in here, probably one with about fifteen fewer letters. As it stands, An A to Z Guide to Dating is a charming hour with a lovely heart and a structural device it can't quite escape. Rather like the book that inspired it, the advice is patchy, but you'll leave feeling oddly fond of the woman dispensing it.
An A to Z Guide to Dating runs at Underbelly (Buttercup), George Square, until 31 August.
★★★
Written by Ellora for Theatre and Tonic, August 2026.
