How to Make a Mess, Book, lyrics and score by Emily Rose Simons, Upstairs at the Gatehouse, Highgate Village, London N6 | until 28 June 2026 ⭐⭐ Review by William Russell

Photo credit: Danny Kaan

How to Make a Mess

Book, lyrics and score by Emily Rose Simons

Upstairs at the Gatehouse, Highgate Village, London N6 | until 28 June 2026

⭐⭐ Review by William Russell

“Well sung and ambitious.”

Sometimes titles are unfortunate, and this is certainly one such as How to Make a Mess is indeed something of a mess although the ingredients are rather good. Anna (Natasha Karp) has lost he mother. Her father, who has remarried, wants to contact her but she is refusing his calls. Then faced with the Nigella Lawson book How to Eat this young woman, who resolutely refuses to cook, conjures up out of her fridge the lady herself, or at least her doppelganger (Tanya Truman). It is a neat idea, and their encounter has some splendid moments as Anna is taught how to make mayonnaise, dress a salad and, among other things, roast a chicken and ultimately to answer Daddy. The songs certainly rest the singers, and they perform them well, but there is nothing that lingers in the mind and, of nothing else. the show does need a ten o'clock song, but they well sung by Karp and Truman and the trio led by David Merriman play with style. But when you tell a story largely in song the problem is the words – not all one needs to know comes across. Surtitles solve that for operas but in musicals, even when the cast is miked it is not always the case. Stars, as I keep saying, are a problem in that it is never clear just what they mean. Here two means and that while the cast have done their job well the show itself, ambitious though it is and certainly not a waste of your time, needs to be seen as a recipe in progress. That roast chicken when it finally comes out of the oven should be overwhelming as part of Anna's journey to reconciliation with her father but it looks like a large lump of suntanned plastic. The direction by Grace Taylor is impeccable, the set by Christianna Mason is handsome and contains a most impressive fridge come Tardis for Nigella to emerge from, and this unauthorised love letter to Nigella. written and composed by Rose Simons, certainly does not lack ambition.

Cast

Natasha Karp – Anna

Tanya Truman – Nigella

Creatives

Director – Grave Taylor

Musical Director – David Merriman

Set & Costume designer – Christianna Mason

Lighting Designer – Chris McDonnell

Sound Designer – Richard Carter