Waiting For Lenny
Bride is stood up at altar. Bride’s parents wrestle with conflicting desires to comfort their daughter and strangle the missing groom. Waiting For Lenny is not particularly original, but the performances are engaging. Unfortunately, as happened throughout the evening, the vocals were often drowned out by the music.

The Morning After
Man wakes up in strange woman’s bedroom. Woman and man attempt to work out what happened the night before through a haze of cheap chardonnay and regret. Like Waiting for Lenny, this is an all-too familiar scenario wrapped up in a couple of Broadway-style numbers.

The Short Prince
This retelling of a popular children’s story is a little heavy on the sugary sweetness, but otherwise suitable for adult consumption. More fine performances, but what really stood out for me was the imaginative use of paper and cardboard in the sets and costumes. This really helped The Short Prince stand out from the pack.

The Pretty Girl
The eponymous Pretty Girl is on a date with a Nice Guy. The twist: you don’t realise she’s a pretty girl until she’s alone; she’s cunningly disguised as a Plain Yet Interesting And Witty Girl! This deception is necessary because men aren’t interested in really getting to know Pretty Girls for their minds or their fine voices. By the end of the big solo, you can’t help but wonder if this is because Pretty Girls are morbidly self-obsessed.

Henry And Hyde
Here is a piece with real energy and humour. Henry is the classic virgin-accountant; Hyde is his repressed, naughty side. Francis is the saucy minx who could be the one to let Hyde off the leash…or at least give him a bit of a lash. Well-written, fantastic singing and choreography, and Hyde wins the award for best costume of the evening.

The Road To Bethlehem
This retelling of the birth of Christ is confusing, and not just because of the odd conflation of King Herod and the Roman Emperor. It simply isn’t clear whether or not the humour in this piece is intentional. It’s not a story usually played for laughs. The focus is on the travails of a donkey. The audience took this to be humorous in intent and laughed accordingly. By the final number, in which a swelling chorus relates that “when a donkey kisses a child, that child is blessed”, I had a sneaking suspicion that the whole thing was in deadly earnest.

In My Arms
A duet about two conditions, that of being a mother, and that of wanting to be a mother. Both have their pains, but there’s never any question that childlessness wins the trophy for most excruciating situation that can befall a woman. The performances are admirable; unfortunately the set-up is on the trite side.

Short Sighted
This tale of two stargazing lovers is entertaining enough, the performances well done, the explanation for meteor showers…different.

Rats
Lab rats discover that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Great costumes and sets, but the best aspects are the performers, who really get in touch with their inner ratiness.

The Alleged Adventures Of Blenderman
The musical of the evening! Like Henry and Hyde, Blenderman has a lot of fun at Broadway’s expense, as an asylum inmate attempts to convince the doctors that he is a superhero dedicated to good nutrition. Great songs, marvellously over-the-top performances, and stylish Busby Berkeley moves incorporating medical records.