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REVIEW | Muriel's Wedding - The Musical, Leicester Curve Theatre
- Harry Brogan
- Apr 23
- 5 min read
AD | Tickets gifted in exchange of an honest review
TW/CW: contains theatrical smoke and haze, flashing lights, strong language, partial nudity, smoking on stage, adult themes, including: chronic illness, suicide & sexual references.
An Aussie musical comes to the East Midlands, after years of waiting the musical stage adaption of PJ Hogan's motion picture film with the same name finally makes it UK premiere at the Leicester Curve Theatre. Muriel's Wedding the Musical has had a journey with the show originally making its debut in 2017 in Sydney before returning in 2019 for a tour, and now in 2025 finally makes its way to the UK after 8 years.
Muriel's Wedding - The Musical follows Muriel who's stuck in Porpoise Spit, and her hopes of having the perfect wedding, but while there's the hope of her perfect day, Muriel doesn't have a groom. Muriel journeys to Sydney to live out her dreams and getting everything she's ever wanted, but while it's everything Muriel ever wanted, everything changes and things start to go wrong.
This down under musical has a book by PJ Hogan, music and lyrics by Kate Miller-Heidke and Keir Nuttall (with additional songs by Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Stig Anderson - originally written for ABBA), direction by Simon Phillips and choreography by Andrew Hallsworth.
Written and adapted by PJ Hogan from screen to stage, Hogan adapts the 1994 film into a funny, heart-warming and charming show. Hogan writes the adult themes well, these themes are written nicely and have a good level of visible ability in the dialogue and have the needed impact. Also Hogan writes the shows other themes such as friendship which shines through in the connection between characters Muriel and Rhonda ( Megan Ellis and Annabel Marlow) and social media/popularity pleasantly too. Hogan also writes witty laughable dialogue such as bringing jokes about vegans, friendly banter, and also the occasional adult humour joke one liners, which makes the audience burst out with laughter. The show is filled with plenty of comedy throughout. Not only Hogan writes plenty of laughs and well written themes, the book overall delivers in bringing some of its dialogue for a UK audience to understand and bringing the show into a modern 2025 day, while writing loveable characters such as Muriel and Rhonda, plus brilliantly writing ABBA into the show. Hogan's book has scenes that have a feel-good feeling to them with scenes in the bar on the cruise, plus scenes giving a heart-warming emotion, and again comedic ones too. The show is nicely paced getting into the story quickly, and all in all PJ Hogan produces an uplifting, touching comedy that fans of the film and newer members of the material will love.
Duo Kate Miller-Heidke and Keir Nuttall write the music and lyrics for the show. Ahead of the opening of the UK premiere the show released its original Australian cast recording, there's some new additions that aren't on the album, such as the second number in act 2 'Ride or Die' and 'Be Someone' in act 1 and 'The Gutter' near the end of act 1, and the additional ABBA songs. The score is a mixture of slight pop and contemporary musical theatre, giving out a feel-good mood that will make you at times want to dance in your seat, for example such as 'Sydney'. While the show opens nicely with a bright opening, delivering the feel of Oz in 'Sunshine State of Mind', just like Hogan's book, the music also gets into the story quickly. The duo deliver a varied tempo style, having a slow number "The Bouquet" and then swiftly moves through their numbers which introduces the other characters (The Heslop's). In the second act Miller-Heidke and Nuttall bring a moving number 'My Mother (Eulogy)' which holds the audience in complete silence. Overall songwriters Miller-Heidke and Nuttall create memorable lyrics with their fun upbeat score plus also slow numbers while having a great balance with the shows additional known ABBA songs, and delivering the narrative of the story through the songs.
Directed by Simon Phillips, Phillips' direction is pleasing, and uses Matt Kinley's turntable in the set design well creating easy transitions between location to location. Phillips' directional choice of having selected audience members to be apart of the show during act 2 is entertaining which helps the feel of the scale of the wedding scene. Phillips creates comedic direction during scenes with Muriel and Alexander Shkuratov (Stephen Madsen), while also showing a nice connection between Muriel and Rhonda, and also heartfelt emotion too. Phillips is excellent in directing the iconic band ABBA making them, personally for me, feel more in the same place as Muriel rather than in her head or feeling like a day dream, which really helped the tone during the scene in act 1 when Muriel's mother Betty Heslop (Laura Medforth) passes. Phillips direction is simple, effective and creates the right mood from scene to scene.
Megan Ellis plays the title character Muriel Heslop. Originally the role made famous by Toni Collette, Ellis is bubbly in the role of Muriel displaying charm and love throughout, while delivering on the comedy. Ellis' vocals are beautiful and delivers a good stage presence, Ellis is a delight, delivering on what is great characterisation and having a nice interaction with Ethan Pascal Peters, playing Brice Nobes, and Ellis delivers a brilliant performance throughout.
Annabel Marlow plays Muriel's best Friend Rhonda Epinstall, Marlow is funny,
while also showing a caring nature towards Ellis. The pairs friendship shows well throughout various moments during the course of the show, starting from the first time we see them both together and is a joy to watch. Marlow's vocals are superb and are a delight to hear. Annabel Marlow is terrific.
Bronte Alice-Tadman, Aaron Tsindos, Jamie Doncaster and Jasmine Hackett brilliantly come together to bring their own interpretations of the members of ABBA with the four carrying a good Swedish accent throughout. Stephen Madsen is excellent as Alexander Shkuratov, while also Darren Day shows a pleasing performance as Bill Heslop.
Andrew Hallsworth's choreography brings an extra life to the production feeling fun, energetic and yet also being simple but strong.
Matt Kinley's set design is clever and appealing to the audience, while Andrezej Goulding creates some nice video design, while though at times some of design to me felt slightly odd and personally didn't feel they matched some of the designs throughout the show, but that being said, it didn't effect the overall feel of the show.
It has been a fair amount of time waiting for UK audiences to see this Aussie musical, and finally we get to see it. Muriel's Wedding is a feel-good joy of a musical, it has balance of emotion and comedy with a pop musical score. It's Joyous, It's Humorous, and also touching. Muriel's Wedding is entertaining from start to finish, and overall audiences will be in for a treat with this long awaited musical.
★★★★★
Muriel's Wedding - The Musical plays at the Leicester Curve Theatre until the 10th of May.
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