I Should Be So Lucky

The newest jukebox musical to tour across the UK, I Should Be So Lucky features of the catalogue of the beloved music producing trio of the 80’s and 90’s, Stock Aitken Waterman. Directed and written by Debbie Isitt (Nativity! franchise). As someone born in the 90s, I have to admit I don’t have as much of a nostalgic love for their songs than my parents and I had certain doubts going into it, but there’s no such thing as a bad idea and who doesn’t love a bit of old-fashioned Kylie Minogue during her current reign over pop music?

With that in mind, did I Should Be So Lucky make me never want to give it up or tell it that I’m better off without it?

I was gifted a press ticket in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Cast

Ella: Lucie-Mae Sumner
Nathan: Billy Roberts
Nadeem: Matthew Croke
Bonnie: Kayla Carter
Ash: Giovanni Spano
Michael: Scott Paige
Shelley: Melissa Jacques
Ivy: Jemma Churchhill
Britney: Jessica Daley
Olivia: Anna Unwin
Revel Harrington III: Dominic Anderson
Kylie Minogue: Herself

Rating: ★★

What Is I Should Be So Lucky About?

After discovering a big family secret, Nathan suddenly jilts his fiancée Ella at the altar. Heartbroken and confused, Ella and her bridal party decide to take her planned honeymoon in Turkey to help her get over Nathan. Once he discovers the big secret wasn’t true, Nathan and best man Ash rush to Turkey to try and win her back. With Ella finding a new love with local tour guide Nadeem, many hijinks ensue from there.

What are my thoughts on I Should Be So Lucky?

I knew I wasn’t getting nor expecting high art in I Should Be So Lucky when Kylie Minogue entered in video form as the protagonist’s inner diva, but even by the standards of a cheesy, campy escapist jukebox musical, it still falls short. Taking elements from Mamma Mia, Shirley Valentine, Benidorm and Muriel’s Wedding to the point of near plagiarism, Debbie Isitt’s paper thin (lack of a) plot and unfocused direction makes the show feel randomly cobbled together and rushed to the point I wanted to rewind and replay scenes when the next plot point popped up out of nowhere. This leaves little time to get to know its many characters, making any attempts at honest emotion ring hollow.

Filled with the more sexist of rom com cliches from the last two decades which boil down to everyone needing a man to be happy, underdeveloped love triangles and frustrating misunderstandings that could’ve been resolved with a single conversation, I Should Be So Lucky almost revels in the lack of care for its story to the point of brushing off a character’s gambling addiction by saying verbatim “I’ll get help.” This is most egregious once we finally hear the big family secret, making me think the characters should’ve spent the wedding/honeymoon budget on some serious therapy instead of rushing into marriage.

Not helping I Should Be So Lucky is its low brow and dated humour to the point of condescending. Ranging from groan inducing jokes about vajazzles and ordering Indian head massages to borderline offensive depictions of Turkish and gay people that made me cringe in my seat, what frustrated me more than anything was the show leaning into it instead of adding self awareness. Considering the raucous laughter it elicited, it really makes me wonder what else it could’ve tried getting away with.

I will say that while the plot department needs serious re-examining, I Should Be So Lucky is still a good looking production. While its version of Turkey looks like any generic summer destination to the point you could rewrite it to be set anywhere else and nothing would change, I like Tom Rogers’ vibrant pink colour and the heart motif which add to the camp of the show and complements Andrzej Goulding’s video design. Jason Gilkison’s choreography adds the sugar rush energy boost needed to carry the zany story developments and musical numbers.

What are the songs like?

I can understand why Debbie Isitt would want to create a musical featuring Stock Aitken Waterman’s catalogue and how they’d fit a narrative. My issue comes from the lack of creativity put into them. Unlike & Juliet cleverly rearranging and recontextualising Max Martin’s bubblegum pop catalogue, Isitt seems more concerned with working the plot around the songs and playing them straight as if she thought the audience would get upset if they changed anything. There are some bright moments such as Ella’s bombastic version of Venus and the act one finale remix of You Spin Me Round, but more often that naught the show would stop cold to finish a song in its entirety or reprise it several times.

What’s the cast like?

My main praise in I Should Be So Lucky easily has to go to the cast, and I want to separate them from any of my critiques with the material they were given because they do their absolute best and are fantastic in their occasionally limited roles.

Lucie-Mae Sumner is a star as Ella. When I wasn’t facepalming at Ella’s questionable life decisions, Sumner added real charm and vulnerability as she learned to find her inner confidence with a little help from her personal fairy godmother Kylie (of course), making her a character worth rooting for. While I can’t say the same for her fiancé Nathan, Billy Roberts still brings enough charisma as he ends up in several hijinks including hanging from a hot air balloon in the middle of a storm (even in context, it’s weird). I wish Matthew Croke was given more to do as romantic rival Nadeem, but he clearly understood the assignment and pulls it off with bravado.

Kayla Carter is a standout as best friend Bonnie in her cover of Sonia’s You Will Never Stop Me Loving You to the point I wished I Should Be So Lucky was about her trying to express her unrequited love for Giovanni Spano’s utterly clueless Ash during all the chaos in Ella’s life. Scott Paige is always a joy to watch onstage, but his role as Michael is the most basic example of the gay best friend trope and is always played for laughs, even when he expresses his love for masseuse Hassan in a scene that felt inauthentic.

Melissa Jacques’ powerhouse acting and vocals are criminally underutilised as Ella’s mother Shelley while Gemma Churchill takes her one too many vajazzle jokes with stride. Anna Unwin brings masterful accent work as obnoxious influencer and former school bully Olivia while Jessica Daley does her best to make Britney’s subplot surrounding her relapse into gambling addiction and seemingly adulterous romance with Revel Harington III even when neither were handled with as much care as they should’ve been.

What are my overall thoughts?

I didn’t enjoy I Should Be So Lucky. In fact, it marks the closest I’ve come to walking out of a theatre. With a story filled with as much artificial sugar and empty calories as a pina colada, my main frustration is it had the potential to have a genuinely emotional story beneath the silliness. Instead, it leaned into the chaos to the point I felt the cynical corporate machinations underneath. If you like cheesy full-of-nothing jukebox musicals and want to see the chaos performed by actors who are too good for what the material gives them, more power to you. Just go into expecting less Mamma Mia, and more its shameless imitator Walking On Sunshine.

This is a case where I have to put my hands up and say I Should Be So Lucky wasn’t my drink of choice.

I know I’ve also documented the unpleasant audience behaviour I personally experienced at press night, and I don’t want to blame the show itself for causing it (I am very concerned though considering the show’s target demographic and Pete Waterman appearing to enable poor audience behaviour in a recent interview). It’s people who have no respect for others around them in the audience and onstage.