This show, developed and produced by musicals laboratory Perfect Pitch, shows great promise. For me, it’s more of a song cycle than a fully formed show though, so there’s still work to do I think.
Our eight characters have one thing in common – Covent Garden tube station, and its lift in particular. They include a secretary and her boss, a French teacher, a lap dancer and a ballet dancer and it sort of revolves around a busker. There’s a maybe relationship between boss & secretary, a friendship between the dancers, a professional relationship between the teacher and lap dancer and a lot of chatroom stuff.
Some characters are developed more than others, some hardly at all, in the short 75 minutes we’re with them – and that’s why it feels like work-in-progress. It’s a clever idea, about communication in the modern world, but it isn’t fully formed yet. Modern musicals are all beginning to sound the same to me, and this is no more original than any other – but it’s a good score nonetheless, even if it is a touch formulaic, feeling like it belongs in the genre of ‘modern American chamber musical’ – slick, snappy, soundbites (though it’s not American, obviously!).
The staging is clever though occasionally too frenetic, and the sound sometimes too loud, sweeping away any subtlety. They’ve assembled a very talented cast, though someone of the calibre of Julie Atherton is rather wasted in her under-developed role. I was particularly impressed by Cynthia Erivo and Jonny Fines as the dancers.
The young audience lapped it all up and overall I’m less negative than I may seem. I do hope composer Craig Adams stays with it a while longer and / or continues to develop other musicals as he’s clearly talented.
Gareth's Culture and Travel Blog 
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