Review: Kathy & Stella Solve a Murder!

Bristol contingent, you must go and see this new musical when it comes to you,' someone pipes up in a WhatsApp chat earlier this year. ‘Gaaaaahhh, I'm so jealous – I wish it was coming to London!’, someone else shares on Instagram a few months later. It's rare that a musical comedy – or any piece of fringe theatre for that matter – will light up my DMs in such an extreme way. When most of us think of musicals, we think of the decades-old classics that are still selling out theatres on dusty West End stages every weekend. Sometimes, if we're lucky, a hit like Hamilton will cut through and becomes the new, cool thing. Until it outstays its welcome and becomes as tired as the rest.

While the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is a good place to find new musical theatre, a lot of it is very rough around the edges and the best you could say is that it ‘has potential’. For those who saw the first performances of Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder at the 2022 Fringe, potential was certainly there – but it was there in spades. It's no surprise, therefore, that it's been snapped up by Bristol Old Vic and HOME Manchester after its sell-out return visit to the Fringe this summer.

Created by the creative team behind Fleabag, Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder is a musical comedy about the hosts of an unsuccessful true crime podcast based in Hull. The eponymous leads become true crime celebrities and their podcast goes viral when their favourite author is killed and they are thrust into solving the murder.

The process of scaling out a tiny fringe theatre show into a performance on the stages of leading theatres for extended runs is one that can be riddled with problems. Smoothing off the edges of a fringe show can compromise the integrity of the story. Not here, however. The offbeat humour remains, with fast-paced action and excellent comic timing within the musical numbers. The production and staging has stepped up a notch, but the small cast (made possible by clever, often witty, multiroling) and zany elements of the plot and direction make for a warm-hearted theatrical experience.

Nancy Medina's first season as artistic director of Bristol Old Vic has been hotly anticipated. Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder is a brilliantly dynamic kick-off to what promises to be a hugely exciting season.