Review: Beautiful Little Fool, Southwark Playhouse

It’s a brave choice to tell the story of twenties’ archetype F. Scott Fitzgerald and, more specifically, the tragic tale of his wife Zelda, without referencing jazz. Not for a second. Not one syncopated beat. No brass section. Not even a soft shoe shuffle. 

Culturally, Beautiful Little Fool places us resolutely in the mid-2010s. Specifically, Dear Evan Hansen territory. Do I spy the strong influence of acclaimed Tony-winning director, Michael Greif, at work?  Despite the occasional Country Music twang, we’re squarely in his wheelhouse; big pop-rock vocals and profound life lessons are the order of the day.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with messing with music and time, of course. Otherwise, theatre would never change, but in this case, there’s such an aching chasm between form and subject matter that the couple at the heart of the story, the famous couple, who wrote about and nigh on invented our view of the 1920s, become unforgivably generic. Feelings, lyrics and tunes, big as they are, aren’t grounded in their reality and, whisper it, quickly become bland and inconsequential.

A flat functional book by New Yorker Mona Mansour doesn’t help. The central device sees the Fitzgerald’s daughter (an underused Lauren Ward) arrive at the Fitzgerald family archive on her birthday because… well, it’s never clear. Before we have time to worry, she gets busy introducing biographical chapters of her parents’ history. None of this is surprising or insightful if you know a little of the Fitzgerald’s story. Frankly, they’re only moderately interesting if you don’t. Mental illness is shouting. Alcoholism is stumbling up stairs. Having a heart attack is simply stepping off stage, so your death can be mentioned in passing.  It’s all resolutely one note, albeit often a beautifully harmonised one.  

This is musical theatre by numbers. It’s ridiculously even-handed, too. Mother, initially carefree artist Zelda, and dad, some say, genius novelist, loved each other, and they loved their daughter, so everything is fine. This is quite a bold, happy ending when it’s clear Mr Fitzgerald treated Mrs Fitzgerald appallingly. They were both dead by 48, too. I can’t be the only person in the audience, during the outro number Call It Love, thinking, whatever you call it, I might give it a miss, thank you. 

Beautiful Little Fool looks great as a show. A mammoth multi-level set from Shankho Chaudhuri is lit exquisitely by Ben Stanton. There’s a killer band under the direction of Jerome van den Berghe. The cast sings gloriously, and, despite my misgivings, its creator and star, Hannah Corneau, deserves a huge amount of credit. Musical theatre used to be about triple threats. Singing, dancing and acting. I now suspect we’re in an era of quintuple artists who add writing music and lyrics to the mix. It’s probably six, actually. There’s the sheer hustle needed to get your show produced in the first place. 

So, I’ll be in the queue to see what Corneau does next, but I hope it’s something more heartfelt that cuts a little deeper. Beautiful Little Fool, for all the effort put into it, and for all the emoting in song that goes on, ultimately feels uninspired and shallow.

Music & Lyrics: Hannah Corneau
Book by Mona Mansour
Directed by Michael Greif
Musical Director: Jerome van den Berghe
Orchestration by Adam Rothenberg
Set Design by Shankho Chaudhuri
Costume Design by Laura Hopkins
Lighting Design by Ben Stanton
Sound Design by Dominic Bilkey

Beautiful Little Fool  plays at Southwark Playhouse Borough until Saturday 28 February.