In Rehearsals With New Musical ‘Hot Mess’
Written by Wendy for Theatre and Tonic
There are many love stories between people, but what about a love story between Humanity and Earth? As soon as I came across this concept, I was immediately intrigued. The idea comes from the musical Hot Mess, written and directed by Ellie Coote, with lyrics and music by Jack Godfrey. After selling out at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, this two-actor show is set to arrive at Southwark Playhouse in mid-October. Before the show opens, I had the privilege of getting a sneak peek at some scenes from the production and listening to Ellie, Jack, and the two actors - Danielle Steers and Tobias Turley - share their creative process.
Jack: “We began collaborating in musical theatre on 42 Balloons. While we were working on that, initially we were talking about what we are passionate about - the climate crisis, and wanting to say something about our relationship to our planet, and how do you do that in the form of musical theatre. And then with this show, around 2018, 2019, I was going through a break up, I was writing loads of very tragic break up songs. Then one day, I was on the way to work – I was teaching English at the time, I was singing the songs in my head, and I was like, “wait, what if this was from the perspective of humanity but singing to the planet, and the song was like ‘why can’t we be the way we used to be’ ‘what’s gone wrong’” – it’s a song that’s no longer in the show. So then, we started talking about this. “What is this? Is this just like a funny little sketch? Could this be a show? Is this just an album?” And that began a six-year journey to where we are now, basically you have to try to figure out how do you then turn that into a musical and tell that story, essentially.”
Although the concept of the characters in this play may seem somewhat abstract, bringing them to life didn’t seem to be a challenge for them.
Ellie: “Having had a chance to work the show in Edinburgh, and then keep working on it with these two wonderful actors at Southwark Playhouse, at this point, there are so much of them in the show. I think it’s them that really humanize it for us. Even though it can feel quite abstract on the page, on their hands, it comes to life. It felt like a really natural immediate chemistry. I think that just they're just so perfect for these characters. It's kind of hard to put into words exactly why. But I think you need actors that are really emotionally generous, because it is a show that's really trying to reach across to audiences and connect audiences, and Danielle and Tobias are such generous actors.”
Tobias: “I feel like a lot more pressure on this role, but I think I know that it's been such a labour of love making this together, and I’m so passionate about this piece, I know I want to do it right. You can play humanity in a million different ways so it’s just finding the way that’s most realistic for me and how I'd do it.”
Interestingly, Jack mentioned that they intentionally used non-gendered language for both Humanity and Earth in their writing, meaning that these two characters hold countless possibilities.
Jack: “We've kind of intentionally written the show with non-gendered language. So I think that there's a kind of a hope that at some point in the future, you can have lots of kind of different combinations of genders playing these parts. I think that doing this version, when we discovered these two, it just kind of clicked. Seeing the two together doing it, they really make sense in terms of what we're trying to do at this point. And I think when you're trying to do the romcom thing, you're always kind of thinking about the clearest way to put that forward to an audience, which is always something to consider when you're presenting new work for the very first time. But I think that that's something that we definitely thought about a lot is kind of how do you leave it open enough that anyone can bring themselves to the role, but at the same time being specific enough. You know, we're making musical theatre at the end of the day, so the storytelling has to be clear. You have to give yourself an achievable objective to a certain extent, think about what can we add to the discussion, and how do you make that story that we're trying to tell the best that it can possibly be”
Although the message of the piece is serious, its tone remains lively and full of humor. Tobias said about how they don’t have to force any jokes or emotions because how natural the writing is, and Danielle also mentioned how they balanced the two emotional states.
Danielle: “It's quite a roller coaster to the show because it just happens so quickly and there are all these emotions to get in there. But we are so silly in the rehearsal room. So I feel like we get all of that out during the rehearsals so that when we are on stage we are more serious. It is so funny and there are some really dry lines, but then we have to lock it in so quickly to switch these emotions whenever it starts to go wrong.”
It’s rare for a production to secure a new run so soon after its Edinburgh performances. Ellie and Jack shared their surprise and excitement not only at how warmly Hot Mess was received, but also at how quickly the next stage of the production came together.
Ellie: “It was a bit wild, the response that we got at the fringe. It is a slightly bizarre concept, and the fringe felt like a great place to do that. Because there's such an eagerness to absorb new kind of different stories and more experimental shows. So it felt like a really great place to like start engaging with audiences. But yeah, it was definitely a lovely surprise.”
Jack: “It's so rare to do one version of the show and then have like a month off or six weeks off and then get to come back and do it again. Normally with these things, it might be for a year or six months. So it's actually so nice how we get to do what we did at the fringe and then take what we've learned from that. Because also at the fringe, you don't really get previews in the way that you might normally do with a show. Watching the show at the fringe, we were kind of like, “okay, well, we want to tweak this, we want to tweak that”, but we don't have any additional tech time to change any of those things, you kind of just stuck with what you've got once it's gone on stage. So I think it's really nice to be able to have that opportunity to finesse some of the things that we didn't get the opportunity to do in Edinburgh, and go back to certain moments and be like “can we be clear about how we're doing this? What's the best way of achieving that?” Wasn't it the classic Sondheim quote about “musicals are not written, but are rewritten”? I think that that really is so true with this show. Even the name of the show has gone through so many different versions and different ideas. Musicals take years to finish. Six years is quite a short time, really, I think. You know, as musicals go and there's still more to do. And bringing it to London is amazing, and Southwark Playhouse is a theatre that’s been on my bucket list for so long so it's amazing that we get to do it there.”
Finally, when speaking about future hopes and what makes the show unique, this is what Jack had to say.
Jack: “The dream is always - but I think especially with this show - is just that to have as many people as possible to see the show. It's a musical that I think has the possibilities of putting it on in many ways. You could do a kind of a big scale with lots of big special effects, and you could do a much smaller scale and kind of focus on the intimate element of it. So I think that we would just love as many people to see it as possible, and we really both feel especially passionate about the message of the show, and I think it's something which it's so important to get people thinking about and talking about. You know, we are approaching it from our kind of silly, fun, musical theatre angle of trying to entertain as well as getting people talking. But hopefully what we can contribute to the kind of climate conversation is, a way of inabling people to think about these issues in a way that isn't super overwhelming and scary and difficult to engage with, which I think sometimes can be the case when thinking about climate change and the planet. So, you know, if we can get as many people to talk about it and think about these big, scary issues as possible. I think that's what we would like.”
In just half an hour of performance and conversation, I could already feel the show’s unique perspective, captivating songs, and high-energy performances. Just as Ellie said, ‘you can't get a much more universal story than 200,000 years of human history’, I believe many will find themselves emotionally resonating with this production. At least, it has already become one of the musicals I'm most looking forward to this month.
Hot Mess runs at Southwark Playhouse from 16th October until 8th November 2025. Find out more and book tickets here.
