Cruel Intentions

CRUEL INTENTIONS IS PLAYFUL, POWERFUL, PERSUASIVE, AND PASSIONATE.  IT WILL SEDUCE YOU TOO!

There was barely a teenager in the 90s who hadn’t watched Cruel Intentions, the teenage drama full of angst, comeuppance and a bit of raunchiness throw in for good measure, giving it a cult status and a firm following of fans. With the theatre world increasingly turning to these epic 80s and 90s films for inspiration, Cruel Intentions tale of twisted privilege, dark tension, and heated relationships perhaps seemed inevitable as a musical. With sell out seasons in both London and New York and a back catalogue of sensational tunes begging to be belted out in auditoriums across the UK, it was always my intention to catch this one.

Step siblings Sebastian and Kathryn have a very unorthodox, and unique relationship. Born into a world of absent parenting, wealth and entitlement, they play by their own rules, leaving a trail of destruction and disregard as they smash their way through life. So, when a bored Kathryn decides to tease and toy Sebastian courtesy of a savage bet, he is unable to say no. Sebastian must seduce Annette, their headteachers innocent, celibate, and virtuous daughter. Meanwhile, Kathryn is hellbent on revenge when she discovers Cecile is the girl she was dumped for, concocting a plan to ruin both girls’ reputations. As their selfish games grow a life force of their own, narcissism, manipulation and toxicity weave their poisonous thorns into the souls of anyone who gets in the way, leaving little room for Sebastian to try and change the rules of the game when he enters unchartered waters. The result is explosive, seductive, and has so many kinds of wrong along the way that it makes the twists perfectly right.

The groundbreaking 1999 film, itself a modern twist on the preexisting Les Liaisons Dangereuses, runs at around 1 hr 40, not dissimilar to the musical. In the film the songs play as incidental music rather than carving out time from the plot and character development, meaning there is naturally more time available for exploration, giving them a deeper-rooted exposition. However, in the musical, the songs are wonderfully used to not only take us on a journey through 90’s nostalgia, but to help tell the story, in an albeit very different manner from the film. The songs didn’t feel shoehorned in as such, some expertly extending the story and giving insight into the characters, but some did have a humorous flavour in the way they popped up, a choice which is thoroughly leaned into by the cast, so they are in on the joke and the ones telling it. Therefore, I personally appreciated and loved the balance of how the songs slotted into the show.

However, I know others around me disagreed and thought the sudden appearance of the songs made no sense whatsoever. Either way, the inclusion of so many songs (and there are a lot) meant that even though the basic plot of the film is clearly there, it is being retold in a very different way. It isn’t as dark and disturbing and has a lot more tongue and cheek humour in it. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing depending on what your expectations are, but Cruel Intentions has most definitely been given a frothy musical theatre make over. I am usually someone who feels frustrated if a story has been compromised or changed. I feel this a lot when I fall in love with a book, get excited for its TV debut, only to discover the characters are altered, plot threads have been removed, and the ending has been changed to make it more palatable. Yet for some reason, I simply do not feel the same frustration here. I understand why some other audience members did if they were avid lovers of the film, but I was not, so perhaps it allowed me to be more open to the fact that the story has clearly entered into a throuple with musical theatre and 90’s music! But I loved it! I found it entertaining, funny, engaging, and full of nostalgia, coaxing out memories from way back when.

The song choices covered an entire decade in both time and genre, taking us from Destiny’s Child’s No Scrubs, to Ricky Martin’s Livin’ La Vida Loca, to the Spice Girls’ girl power anthem Wannabe, to The Verve’s Bitter Sweet Symphony – and believe me – I’m only just scratching the surface here! With some of the biggest songs of the decade that played the soundtrack to an entire generation, and immediately took us right back there, an emotion could be evoked by playing into the things that dominated our world back then. A small verse was sung from Dawson’s Creek – “I don’t wanna wait for our lives to be over,” and I was flooded with memories of how gaga everyone went for that song at the time. The same reaction hit me for Iris by The Goo Goo Dolls, and as I was whisked along by this outstanding cast, I realised these memories took me from being a teenager into being an adult, meaning my memory bank was hopscotching from those early high school days into headbanging the clubs at university! Some of these songs have been given a musical theatre glow up, whilst some truly focus on the harmonies and sheer brilliance of the song, leaving us with a glorious finale of Bitter Sweet Symphony.

This cast are incredible. They are playful, powerful, persuasive and passionate! Each has created their own take on the infamous characters, owning them and giving us something recognisable yet new. Kathryn is given life by the sensational Nic Myers (White Christmas, Cabaret) who owns the stage and everything and everyone on it. We watch her expertly manipulate those around her, a brilliant showcase as Myers allows Kathryn to become a chameleon, changing her colours to work with each person individually, giving them what she knows they want, so she can get what she wants. She switches from the different song styles effortlessly, and with a charm that gives the audience the insight of “Ok, I know that was a cheesy segway into this song, but just roll with it and have fun,” so I did! Vocally she is a powerhouse too, proving early on with “I’m The Only One” why we were going to sit up and take notice. Her psychotic demise towards the end in Bitch is both sung and acted brilliantly, and quite deservedly roused endless applause from the audience.

Will Callan (Les Mis, Rosie: The Musical) is her equal as Sebastian, strutting around the stage exuding confidence, charisma, and power. This is another outstanding performance, and we watch on as we see the capability for change, but the challenges that brings him, beautifully captured in his rendition of Iris. Callan embodies seduction, continually holding eye contact, grazing arms, shoulders, hands with a trace of his finger, and dazzling the characters with a flash of his smile. There are so many subtle traits making up this character, meaning his impact catches them unawares, and allows his plan to be carried out to perfection. Together, Myers and Callan are incredible, the perfectly imperfect predators of danger and daring.

The two characters at the heart of Kathryn and Sebastian’s plans are Annette, played by Abbie Budden (Heidi, Jack & The Beanstalk) and Cecile played by Lucy Carter (Babies: A New Musical). Budden brings us a strong, decisive Annette, someone who knows exactly who she is, and more than that – likes who she is, so she doesn’t have to manipulate and play games to get people to like her. She is the antitheses of Kathryn and perhaps this is exactly why Sebastian falls in love with her. Budden immediately makes it clear that this is a strong character, owning the stage with her own brand of strength with her rendition of I’m Just A Girl. Carter is comedy gold as Cecile, simultaneously trying to battle raging hormones and be liked. Her innocence is born from naivety, not choice as Annettes is, and she has some cracking one liners and stand out moments, with I’ll Make Love To You being a comedic gift that you can’t unsee!

Luke Connor Hall (The Choir Of Man, Bat Out Of Hell) as Blaine and Joe Simmons as Greg work wonderfully together and as the show goes on, develop a believable relationship, despite the secrecy Greg feels he has to live within. Luke Connor Hall brings us a Blaine who is vibrant, alive, full of life and fun, an insatiable ball of energy that kick starts us with Livin’ La Vida Loca, and really keeps the pace of the show in check. Joe Simmons brings us the jock in denial, and we see him transform from using misogyny as a disguise to having so much fun with Blaine, a representation and reminder that there was still so much secrecy and shame as short a time ago as the 90’s! Completing the main cast are Gabriella Williams as Mrs. Bunny Caldwell and Dr. Greenbaum and Kevin Yates as Ronald. Both are integral to the story as individuals, but together they bring us one of the more uncomfortable, yet crucial moments, when Mrs. Caldwell declares Ronald is not good enough for her daughter because of his ethnicity and calls him a scrub. As she dances her way through the song, choreographed in such a clever way by Gary Lloyd, the moves show her to be a cliché rich white woman who is outdated and clueless. When Ronald joins in the song, he flips it on its head, calling her the scrub for her attitudes. It is a clever and powerful moment.

Directed by Jonathan O’ Boyle, Cruel Intentions – The 90’s Musical does not take itself anywhere near as seriously as the film did, taking the pretentious and indulgent notions of its main characters down a notch or ten. This will appease some (me) and perhaps deter others, but either way, there is no denying that for the right audience, this is a belter of a show that knows exactly what it is trying to achieve and does so in abundance. In its simplest form, it is an age-old tale of a certain brand of teenagers whose main aim in life is to laud it over their peers and make their lives a living hell. Along the way, there are love stories, angst, grit, sex, drugs, and retribution via a shock end. And it is set to a decade of music that was so varied on the musical spectrum, it took the entire decade to figure itself out! But it didn’t half produce some cracking tunes, and Cruel Intentions breathes new life into them, whisking the audience into a frenzy. Your enjoyment of this show may depend on your love and loyalty to the film, and how open you are to change, but if you view it as its own entity that just so happens to have a similar plot line to the film, you may just find that you love it as much as I did. It is not what I was expecting at all, and I love it when a show catches me out and demands my attention. Cruel Intentions definitely seduced me!

WE SCORE CRUEL INTENTIONS...