Review: Public! at the Leicester Curve

So, this has been a hot minute. In fact, a hot decade.... Yeah.... The last time I was at this theatre in person, it has been a decade! Almost exactly 10 years later, with their Lucie Jones-led production of Legally Blonde. And as well as my first time being back at Curve in that long, it was also my very first time in their studio space.

So, what made me come down to Leicester for the first time in a decade for a day? A musical set in a toilet. 

Allow me to explain

Public The Musical is a brand new British musical set in a London gender neutral public loo. In said loo, we meet four strangers who end up trapped: no way out. 

These four strangers are very different: a people pleaser, a nervous wreck, an ultra-woke activist, and a city banker. All of whom  are different genders, come from different backgrounds, and harbour very different opinions and life experiences. Throughout the hours they are trapped, the audience acts as a fly on the wall, as the characters panic, clash, share and eventually, self-reflect. 

So, thanks to my mantra of trying to watch more new work, off I hopped on a train to Leicester for the day. Cannot say I am not dedicated - haha. 

Public is a 90 minute long musical, which has been written by the team of Stroud and Notes

Stroud and Notes is a making of Hannah Sands, Kyla Stroud, Natalie Stroud and Olivia Zacharia, an all female and non-binary writing team who formed during lockdown. The idea came to life, workshops followed, as did a run at the Edinburgh Fringe (where I first heard about it through the grapevine). 

The Leicester run is its first professional run through bar the fringe, and so I realise that it is definitely still in its early stages, and it feels weird, to an extent of me trying to do a review of it at this stage. 

However, it was very enjoyable, with a fun score (a mixture of 80s and 00s pop and rock), interestingly flawed characters. 

Not a single one of them is perfect (in fact, at least one of them is written to be very annoying), but you see them all come to recognise the not-so-great part of themselves, and choose to be better. 

Performance-wise, the stand out for me had to be Cole Dennis (Dreamgirls) as the people-pleasing Laura on the way to their wedding. They really come through at the end, and possibly have the biggest change in the show. Their presence is so strong, I could not take my eyes off them. I must also mention that I loved Ivano Turco as Finley too. 

This is less of a critique and more of a case to make that Public should have a further life. Smaller London houses such as Southwark Playhouse of The Other Palace would really work in this space, or bias aside, Salford's Quays or the Hope Mill could also be contenders. If you are able to see Public tomorrow in Leicester, then I definitely recommend it. You can get tickets for as cheap as £10! 

Let's help this new British work fly shall we, rather than flush it down the drain