He Did WHAT?!! Acceptable in the 90s
New Show Hugh The Musical Takes a Sharp and Funny Look at RomComs.
What happens when two very talented, creative and hilarious women find themselves performing as wedding singers? Clearly they get a bit bored and start to piss about! But being mature and responsible grown ups they realise that there’s nothing big and clever about trying to be funny when the wedding planner just wants a bit of background music while the parties take their seats’.
So Susan Grant and Joni de Winter (who are brilliant Wedding and Events singers who perform under the name “Belle Street Duo”) decided to turn this creative boredom into creative energy and wrote a hilarious show called Hugh The Musical. Hugh is essentially a journey into 90s movie romcoms and it questions the assumptions, cliches and sexism of the era and the genre.
Between 1990 and 2010 there was a surge of RomCom movies. The stories were pretty much retold fairy tales about women being somehow rescued from their singleness by, often more powerful, men. The template for them all was, of course, Pretty Woman in which a female sex worker, played by the fresh faced Julia Roberts, moves from the gig economy into a full time permanent contract with ultra high net worth individual and corporate raider Richard Gere. The power imbalance, creepy behaviour and general ickiness did not stop Pretty Woman becoming a global smash and spawning 20 years’ worth of dodgy but profitable movies.
Back in 2017 writer Bethany Crystal took a look at the most successful romcoms released between 1990 and 2010. In 21 of the 39 movies the male character had a ‘more powerful’ job than the female and in only four films was the woman’s role ‘more powerful’ - bizarrely one of these was Notting Hill in which Julia Roberts atoned for Pretty Woman by playing the richer and more powerful Hollywood actor who falls in love with the book store owner played by..Hugh Grant who does not (yet) feature in Hugh The Musical.
The show follows two women, Lizzie and Penny, who find themselves cast in the stage version of a 90s RomCom called Hugh. The problem is they have turned up to give a Cats dance workshop and discover from their Producers - Our Soul Theatre (oh yes!) - that the audience is expecting Hugh The Musical. To add to their discomfort it turns out that they are the only cast member who have showed up and they have never rehearsed the show. So because they are also worried about not getting paid they pick up a script each and work their way through the props, costume and music to deliver the show.
The show within the show set up is classic. Our protagonists are uber successful and very busy business woman Lizzie and slightly bohemian writer Penny who share an apartment in a big city. But what are both women looking for? Love of course - or should that be Love Actually?! (Boom-tish!) Anyway, out of nowhere a handwritten romantic letter arrives at their flat addressed to ‘My Darling’ and signed by Hugh. In the best romcom tradition both women assume the letter is meant for them as it answers their romantic life dreams so they start to prepare for a date with the obviously romantic, handsome and wealthy Hugh.
We now have our classic ‘we know something that they don’t’ which develops into the other movie trope; a woman vs woman conflict. To develop this theme further Penny and Lizzie also take a moment to moan about the woman across the corridor - ‘The Bitch at 69’ who is skinnier, prettier, does yoga and has all the qualities that stir up female on female jealousy!
As the show develops the actresses start to question the script’s premise. They realise that Hugh might be a bit odd - how come he knows where they live if they have never met him? Has he been stalking them? Why would they go on a date with someone they have never met and who weirdly drops off a handwritten note? Why are they bitching about the woman across the street and commenting on her looks?
The show subtly dismantles the stereotypes, tropes and biases of 20 years of romcoms as it blossoms into a very funny buddy story.
The original songs, gags and a good amount of audience participation help our two cast members, Lizzie and Penny, get through the show. We see hairdryers during a power ballad to give us the Beyonce’ hair flying, there are confetti throwers and a stand in groom for a wedding scene and there was even a couple who helped with cue cards and dance breaks!
Susan and Joni were totally in control of their audience at the wonderful Black Cherry fringe theatre venue in Boscombe. They know their subject and how they want to interrogate it. This is important and clever because, although we often treat romcoms as a bit of frothy fun, the genre has been a huge cultural influence over the last 30 years.
The RomCom was the first movie movement to put women and female roles front and centre. These are female led stories and this representation appears to have blinded us to the other inherent challenges such as power imbalance, lack of agency and as in Hugh The Musical some quite creepy and dominating male behaviour that today might be viewed as coercive and bullying.
There are definitely further questions to be asked and this show could mine even more sharp comedy from its subject. While we acknowledge that Hugh The Musical is a work in progress (it actually says that on the poster too!) we should also celebrate the fact that two women with full time careers have found the space, time and creative energy to write, produce and perform an original, funny and clever new musical.
Susan and Joni have received no funding or input from the Arts Council or anyone else so we all have the opportunity to support them, support this wonderful new show and support the fact that they are asking questions about a huge cultural influence that we might have all taken for granted.
Hugh The Musical is playing various dates around the South West of England in 2023
Check out the link for more info and to support the show:
https://www.belle-street.com/hugh-the-musical
Great show!!! Very creative performers and beautiful voices! Thank you!