Why Am I So Single? Reviews Round-up [Updated]

"A heartfelt, meta-theatrical marvel"

"Such a meta-theatrical conceit could have backfired. Yet Why Am I So Single? is warm, bold and overflowing with ideas. Not all of them land, but its fizzing generosity makes it one of the most enticing new musicals since, well, Six. It may not have the same broad appeal as that show, but it boasts sensational performances from Jo Foster and Leesa Tulley. It feels like a hit."

"Its energy and bravery spring from its wild inventiveness. Moss’s production (with co-director Ellen Kane also providing lively, tight choreography) turns actors into bins, a fridge (magnet reading ‘Live, Love, Sob’) and curtains in the flat where our sadsack couple sit on a sofa and sip prosecco while trying to answer the question in the title."

"The performances match the quality of the writing. Tulley is clear-voiced and open as Nancy, listening intently and with impressive stillness as mayhem unfolds around her. Noah Thomas is enormous fun as the waspish Artie. “Why are you so single? Because you’re both so weird and intense.” The ensemble is terrific. But Foster, in a pink T-shirt covered with hearts and a short red skirt, holds the whole thing together with astonishing charisma."

"Its hymn to the pleasure of friendship is what tethers its exuberance to the ground and makes it so moving as well as so funny. There are moments when it could be pulled back, and it is marginally long, but once you give it your heart, it holds you."

"Crackerjack show proves Six creators are no one-hit wonders"

"This is a clever, larky, exuberant examination of Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’s friendship and disastrous dating history"

"This new musical from the creators of the pop-feminist, Tudor-history hit Six is just as quirky and surprising and almost as good."

"The score works its way sassily through genres from diva numbers to dance music and the lyrics are elegantly witty and laced with f***s."

"There’s little plot, just repeated explorations of the titular question across 19 songs. The fourth wall is regularly broken with eye-rolling asides and the whole thing is riddled with irony."

"Tulley and Foster’s voices initially lack body but mature and grow movingly throughout the evening. Noah Thomas exhibits easy charm and loose-limbed grace as their friend Art Fulldodger (groan). It’d be impossible to replicate the alchemy of Six and it’s wise of Marlow and Moss not to try. This zesty, in-jokey, crackerjack entertainment proves they’re certainly not one-hit wonders."

"A second hit from the Six the Musical geniuses"

"Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow's subversive pop show about the wives of Henry VIII became a global sensation. Its follow-up is a ball"

"Why Am I So Single? has all the conventional trappings of a classic musical: an earworm-stuffed soundtrack, pithy script, sharp choreography from Ellen Kane and dynamic central performances. But it’s also a show that constantly subverts expectations, sneaking in complex ideas about identity, nostalgia and grief alongside the tongue-in-cheek “men are trash” rants."

"There’s an obvious care and chemistry between Tulley and Foster, one felt in every casual touch and playful eye roll. Through these characters, Moss and Marlow can fire shots backwards, taking aim at their generation’s over-romanticisation of the 90s, and even their own queerness."

"If the production has a fault, it’s that it could be slightly shorter, but nobody could accuse Moss and Marlow of doing anything by halves with Why Am I So Single? You might think the subject matter is trivial, or you might see your plight told on stage in a way few art forms have authentically done. Either way, I promise you’ll have a (disco) ball."

"The makers of Six serve up a laugh-a-minute feast"

"This perky musical at the Garrick Theatre combines wonkish enthusiasm for the history of show tunes with an unabashed sense of humour"

"What a pleasure, then, to discover that their mischievous version of a “big fancy musical” more than lives up to expectations. It’s wickedly inventive — Jo Foster and Leesa Tulley are astonishingly nimble in the lead roles — and crammed with memorable tunes. Moreover, in terms of structure, it’s more ambitious than Six."

"But what’s so encouraging about this perky journey through the world of Gen Z dating is that it combines wonkish enthusiasm for the history of show tunes with an unabashed sense of humour. If Marlow and Moss have built their script around the very meta theme of the struggle to write a hit show, they blend the insider wit with the universal subject of the search for love in a world in which we can’t stop chasing perfection on our smartphones."

"If the evening has a flaw, it’s that the ingenious lyrics are sometimes so densely packed that it’s hard to unpack them all as the songs whizz past. Still, that hardly matters when there’s so much inventiveness on display. This show is a laugh-a-minute feast."

"Erupts like a shaken bottle of prosecco"

"Whip-smart musical comedy about modern dating culture from the duo behind Six"

"Through wittily self-deprecating, flamboyant songs, they analyse whether it’s the unrealistic Ross-and-Rachel role models they grew up with, the flawed algorithms of the dating apps or their own personal baggage that’s to blame."

"It’s a relatable premise, charting some of the most common complaints of a generation, but it’s a pedestrian one too, and the duo addresses this: the story is wrapped in a metatheatrical outer layer"

"The show’s deft brilliance is in the lyrics of its songs"

"The first half erupts like a shaken bottle of prosecco, fizzing and flowing with astute hit after hit. And while the show flattens in the second, it’s still, quite probably, the defining musical of the dating-app age."

"Dating disasters fuel a joyful new musical from the creators of Six"

"The song occurs in the first act of this sweet, silly, deceptively smart and surprisingly moving show about two late-millennial besties, both scarred by the modern dating experience."

"The writing is pin-sharp; stuffed with pop culture references, from Tracey Emin’s bed to LinkedIn, it pulls you up repeatedly with its intelligence and wit as Nancy (Leesa Tulley, exuding warmth) and Oliver (Jo Foster, hugely charismatic, with an astonishing voice), try to work out what’s wrong with them, fuelled by Sainsbury’s prosecco."

"The magpie musical knowhow that underpinned Six is on display again, with a 90s rock banger, a big 80s musical number, a slinky nod to Marilyn Monroe/Madonna (sung by Oliver, a queer person, about only dating closeted men who won’t acknowledge him/them in public) and an incendiary disco track that is still in my head."

"The message – that the love between friends is at least as nourishing as the romance we’ve been led to expect will come our way – infuses everything. A joy."

"Dazzling new musical from the creators of ‘Six’"

"There’s love and heartache amid the metatheatrical mischief"

"... success brings its own headaches — not least the challenge of the next project. One of the charms of Moss and Marlow’s Why Am I So Single? is that it confronts that issue head-on."

"It’s wickedly self-referential and completely daft — there’s a standout number about the trauma of getting a bee out of your flat, for goodness’ sake. It really shouldn’t work. But it does — dazzlingly so. Why? Because it’s frank, funny, wittily self-deprecating — “You don’t think it’s a bit lazy and forced?” asks one character — packed with dizzying musical parody, and, above all, because at its heart is a tender and sincere celebration of friendship."

"It’s a long joke, frantic in places, and the extra framing of the prologue and epilogue feels unnecessary. But the show has so much effervescent joy, and is delivered with such energy and heart by Foster, Tulley and the terrific ensemble, that it’s irresistible. And, in the end, under cover of obsession with romantic love, it smuggles in a refreshing musical paean to platonic love."

"Dating debacles from the duo behind Six"

"Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss have created powerhouse tunes about friendship, family and heartache but this story’s romantic woes are often routine"

"It is all amusing though rather familiar and fleeting, the scenes not quite joining up with each other."

"What elevates the production is the score: every song is a powerhouse, even a preposterous one about a bee in the flat (Interlude in B Minor)... It is possibly not as infectious as Six but the songs are better crafted, more heartfelt, the lyrics gleaming with wit, intelligence, bravura and, in the second half, emotional heft."

"The power of the drama hits in the second half as the characters become more vulnerable and intimate, with immensely moving numbers in Lost and Better Off Love Story. You see what the musical could have been, if these issues had been better integrated and extended."

"Moss and Marlow are without doubt the most talented musical songwriters out there. I look forward to a long and illustrious partnership now that this difficult second album is out of the way and they are released from the burden of having to write what they know. Long live their friendship."

"Can the creators of Six replicate their success? Not quite"

"The duo behind the hit about Henry VIII’s wives bring a defiant spirit to their new musical – but it doesn’t measure up to their debut"

"They’re under no small pressure to deliver the goods again and it gives me no great pleasure to report that Why Am I So Single? isn’t in the same league. Where Six was taut as a drum, and brought history and the perils of intimacy alive, this self-involved dispatch from the dating fray – in which two stay-at-home tipsy pals examine why their love lives are lacking – confirms their talent but only fitfully attains the same charge."

"I don’t mind a bit of meta theatre – and whatever your age, the subject-matter is likely to resonate. But dramatically, we’re a world away from the meat of “Divorced, beheaded, died/ divorced, beheaded, survived”."

"Even as the piece moves towards expressing artistic self-belief, just as Marlow and Moss’s theatrical correlatives, Oliver and Nancy – Jo Foster and Leesa Tulley, both superb – dare to face the hang-ups that are holding them back, it loses its driving momentum (Moss directs; an outsider might have been more usefully ruthless)."

"On the plus side, there’s an abundance of youthful energy and a combination of fluffiness and sharpness that’s appealing."

"Six follow-up is frothier than pink prosecco – but not as satisfying"

"The long-awaited follow-up to Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’s mega-hit ‘Six’ follows two millennial friends bemoaning their love lives – but it sometimes sags under the pressure of expectations"

"Jo Foster brings a wonderfully voiced flexibility and vulnerability to the role of Oliver, who’s left bruised by a queer dating scene that won’t quite make room for them. And Leesa Tulley imparts strident-but-sweet vocals and relatable wit to their bestie Nancy, who’s still obsessed with her boring ex."

"There are so many wittily staged highlights"

"Where Six’s 80-minute runtime meant it could get away without having much of a story, this two-and-a-half-hour show definitely sags – its endless callbacks and in-jokes are no substitute for a satisfying storyline."

"Foster’s showstopping number “Disco Ball” exposes why finding a partner feels impossible when they’re struggling with their gender identity and an agonising lifetime of institutionalised homophobia. It’s a powerful shot of reality that spills over the edges of this plastic champagne flute of a show, reminding us that Marlow and Moss are talents to be reckoned with, when they find a story that’s really worth telling."

"The new musical from the team behind ‘Six’ is a preposterously self-indulgent folly (that is also quite fun)"

"I am a sucker for a quixotic musical folly, and there are few musical theatre shows in London more quixotic or foolish than ‘Why Am I So Single?’"

"It does not need two-and-a-half hours to answer this question, which is why ‘Why Am I So Single?’ comes across as an endearingly quirky but preposterously self-indulgent parade of set-piece musical numbers with about three minutes of actual story in between. What is admirable in a slightly kamikaze way is the extent to which Moss and Marlow knowingly lean into the indulgence"

"Six’ exhibited similarly arch meta humour but it was also an aggressively tight 80-minutes – the follow up could really do with that sort of economy."

"The frustration is that meandering as the whole is, the songs are largely great. So many modern musicals are decent enough as stage plays but can’t muster a single memorable tune. ‘Why Am I So Single?’ is crammed with them"

"Good tunes, good cheer and good vibes from Moss’s larky, energetic direction – that makes extremely imaginative use of the ensemble – mean it all goes down quite agreeably. But ultimately Moss and Marlow’s rambling tribute to their own friendship seems unlikely to have the staying power of its predecessor: a curio, not a classic."

"Why Am I So Single? It’s a protracted dating game"

"Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’s follow-up to their smash hit Six is about misfiring love lives — and almost as long as Les Misérables"

"Since Six first appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017 it has played on four continents and become a West End and Broadway staple. They wrote it while they were still studying at Cambridge too. Where do you go from there? You go exploring your own navels, I’m afraid. Which is not to say this navel expedition lacks fun: there are good set pieces and jokes, spirited performances and intelligent, self-aware touches along the way."

"They may, like many in the maelstrom of success, have lost their perspective. After all, who will tell them that two and a half hours (including the interval) is an incredibly indulgent running time for a show that lacks the structural scaffolding to support such an indulgent premise? Not their director, because that’s Moss again. And you can see how they got carried away."

"A bit of satire about modern dating mores gets us so far but beyond that the duo are soon staring inwards and repeating themselves. With jokes, with intelligence, with tunes. All of which would be enough for a one-act trifle, but stretches patience over a show that’s almost as long as Les Misérables."

"Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’ Musical Follow-Up to ‘Six’ Disappoints in the West End"

"... when their debut was the Tony-winning, Tudors-Got-Talent sensation that is “Six,” expectations are sky high. Sadly, although their follow-up shares the same sassy Gen-Z tone, where “Six” brilliantly found the perfect form for its content, the heartfelt but disappointing “Why Am I So Single?” is fatally slack. What might have energized an intermission-free 90 minutes flounders long before its two-and-a-half hours are up."

"Part of the problem is that its creators, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, are so self-conscious.... In the end, that translates to an awful lot of sometimes-boisterous navel-gazing on the sofa with highly performative, queer, non-binary Oliver and more one-note, supportive Nancy"

"The writers aim for an examination of contemporary sexual politics and sex (or the lack thereof) in the age of apps and gender identity crises. At its best, they pull that off with zest. Although the songs are better at fitting smart-mouthed lyrics to catchy rhythms than achieving memorable melodies, the best ones have punch."

"What the show most seriously lacks is a strong dramaturgical eye, which is absent since direction is in the hands of Moss with co-direction by choreographer Kane. A more objective director might have cut not just repetition within songs and scenes but entire numbers in order to let the audience make connections rather than have every possibility spelt out and sung."

"After ‘Six,’ a Scrappy, Sappy Dating Musical"

"The duo behind the Broadway hit follow it up with a meta reflection on finding love online that is relatable and fun but lacking narrative drive."

"... this unabashedly crowd-pleasing — though ultimately somewhat vacuous — show goes all in on relatability and schmaltz, carrying a peppy message about friendship and self-care."

"The show, directed by Moss, has the chaotic, playful energy of a student revue, with lots of amusingly forced rhymes, tenuous puns and self-aware jokes about the metafictional conceit (“Twist my arm and call me expositional”; “before we rebuild the fourth wall …”). There is a heavy reliance on bathos that borders on the formulaic"

"The performers carry the show with their exuberant stage presence and strong vocals — Foster in particular is outstanding, and will surely grace West End stages for many years to come — but they are ill served by the script."

"The writers have tried to make a virtue of the show’s shortcomings, riffing on the musical’s conceptual flimsiness at various points. This might be cute in another context, but when you’re playing a hallowed venue like the Garrick, people expect a bit more polish."