Notes From Row H

West End Theatre review – The Adelphi Theatre (PR/Gifted)

Coming off the back of its highly acclaimed 2024 studio cast album, Rosie: A New Musical came to the West End for a semi- staged one night only concert – and from the synopsis and the cast involved, it promised to be a spectacular evening. However, despite the strong vocal performances by the cast, and the beautiful score – I left the theatre feeling a bit underwhelmed. 

Based on a true story and written by Chris Broom, the musical centres around Rosie Boote (played by Lucy Thomas) – a girl from a convent in Ireland with a dream of becoming a West End star in Edwardian London. From the start, we are introduced to Rosie’s hard start in life – her father dies and her mother gives her up to a convent, where she grows up. The setting changes to London, and we see Rosie after she has had her bag stolen – and she is looked after by Lily Turner (played by Desmonda Cathabel). Rosie then auditions for the Gaiety Girls, and everything is looking up for her. The element of love is then introduced when Rosie meets Geoffrey Taylour – the Marquis of Headfort, and then the musical turns into a story of man and woman who are forbidden to love each other, and yet against all odds, defy social norms, and come out the scandal stronger than ever. 

That is not to say that this formula is nothing special, but the way the book goes about telling it – is the main problem. Throughout, whenever Rosie (and also Geoffrey) must overcome a hurdle, they do this seemingly without any problem, making the musical have no real stakes, and so there is not really any emotional connection to the plot for the audience. This could be remedied by a few of the songs being cut and more story exploration, thus allowing the characters to develop more depth and significance – because now, it just seems that the dialogue between the songs are just being said for exposition sake and not for any other reason. Sadly, the dialogue did not match the excellent and captivating quality of the music and lyrics, which made the transitions between them a bit jarring and sometimes clunky. 

The shining light of this musical though, were the actors on stage. Lucy Thomas as Rosie Boote had beautiful vocals, as did Will Callan as Geoffrey Taylour – and the two complimented each other very well. Desmonda Cathabel as Lily Turner had a powerful – yet underused – voice too. Sally Ann Triplett as the Dowager Marchioness of Headfort (Geoffrey’s mother) was superb in her opposition to the union of her son and Rosie – representing their society’s disdain with dry sarcasm and calculating fury. With it being such a stacked and talented cast, there were a few whose talents felt underutilised – namely Dylan Wood and Helen Woolf. 

This musical shows great promise and could be something very special in the future – but further tweaks and development in its writing are needed to make it reach its full potential. 

Written by Helena Featherstone