The Musical of Musicals (The Musical) Review

May 21, 2025

The Musical of Musicals (The Musical) Review

20th & 21st May 2025

If you are unfamiliar with The Musical of Musicals (The Musical), the show premiered off-Broadway in 2003. Written by Joanne Bogart and Eric Rockwell, this 90-minute parody comprises five acts (Corn!, A Little Complex, Dear Abby, Aspects of Junita and Speakeasy), each paying homage to the style of an American or British musical theatre composer or composer/lyricist team (Rogers & Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Jerry Herman, Andrew Lloyd Webber and John Kander & Fred Ebb respectively), all dealing with roughly the same plot of an ingénue struggling to pay her rent.

“The lively and varied score is delivered with energy, pace and pizzazz”

Matty Hurst Productions (Dirty Panto, Jack & The Beanstalk, Now That’s West End) brings The Musical of Musicals to Phoenix Arts Club for two nights (20th & 21st May); the cast features Renan Teodoro (RENT, Anyone Can Whistle), Jennifer Harraghy (The Wizard of Oz, Parade), Caroline Featherstone (Dr Zhivago), and Joseph Dennington.

Faced with financial pressures and potential closure after 37 years of operation, watching this performance at this iconic cabaret venue feels joyous, but also somewhat melancholic, however, not putting an interval into the show felt like an odd decision, given they could have doubled their bar takings…anyway…

The cast sing and dance their way through the five acts of this jolly cabaret including songs such as ‘Oh, What Beautiful Corn!’ and a song guaranteed to be the best song Andrew Lloyd Webber has ever written…because he didn’t write it. All the cast members are likeable and funny. The simple backdrop projections are a good addition, and the lighting effective (apart from the last song where the flashing lights dazzled the audience).

Caroline Featherstone (June) stood out with strong vocals and stage presence, with brilliant comedic facial expressions. Joseph Dennington (Billy) provided the love interest with charisma and sparkle, and Jennifer Harraghy (Abby)’s solo in ‘Speakeasy’ was beautiful. Renan Teodoro played The Host and Jitter confidently and was not afraid to strip down to his lederhosen.

Featherstone and Dennington’s duet in ‘Aspects of Junita’ was very enjoyable, with beautiful harmonies. The lively and varied score is delivered with energy, pace and pizzazz, but falls flat at times with mics dropping out and slow audio cues for the recorded voice.

The show was a lovely, entertaining cabaret, carried off nicely by the actors. The laughs landed in all the right places and they received a standing ovation by many at the end.