ROMANTICS ANONYMOUS (Bristol Old Vic)***

 

By Emma

Link: https://bristololdvic.org.uk/whats-on/romantics-anonymous

Available until: Performances livestreamed on 23, 24, 25 and 26 September

Romantic Anonymous is a sweet musical about two people with social anxiety who meet at a chocolate factory and fall in love. It is based on a French film from 2010 with the same title. The musical is also set in France and the characters have French names, but it’s almost all in English. (There is a lot of French at the beginning and that worried me because I didn’t know what was going on, but some of the other people who write on this blog speak French and they said I didn’t miss anything important. Megan says they spoke slowly and clearly and it was very good practice for her.)

The story isn’t the most original, but that’s not necessarily something you want with a romantic comedy. It did everything you expected it to do and there were a couple of little surprises thrown in so even though the story is predictable everything didn’t always go like I was expecting.

Michael Kooman’s music was okay. It was nice and tuneful with lots of waltzes which I think is common in France but there weren’t any tunes that I wanted to go and download afterwards. The music is more original than a juke box musical but I think it could have been a little bit catchier and still been sweet and romantic. The music was pretty but it wasn’t beautiful.

Emma Rice is the director and she usually has lots of really clever ideas, some real wow moments but she kept things very simple in this production. There were some nice little moments like the sounds of the doors opening and closing and the toilet on display (though I was a bit worried when I first saw that!) but nothing really memorable. She also wrote the book and it was quite good, there were some clever bits and some romantic bits. The characters were good and the plot moved along quickly but I thought the social anxiety was maybe a bit too comic. It is not funny at all for the people who go through it and it could have been a bit more sensitive but I do understand it is a romcom story so they wouldn’t want to get into it too seriously.

Lez Brotherston kept the set really simple but that worked because there were lots of scene changes and the whole point is that the characters are short of money so it would have looked a bit weird if they’d had really nice chairs. Etta Murfit did the choreography and it wasn’t really amazing but it did suit the music.

The cast was good. Marc Antolin was really cute as geeky, awkward Jean-Rene but the character did work as a romantic hero too. Carly Bawden sang really nicely as Angelique and she was really sweet. It’s lovely how a lot of the characters supported them and wanted to help then. A lot of workplaces have the attitude of “Yes we’re happy to employ people with mental health problems or disabilities but if we give you the job we expect you to behave like a normal person.” I don’t think that is a helpful attitude and it is only going to make everything worse so it was nice that Jean-Rene and Angelique were in a mostly supportive environment.

The rest of the cast played two or three roles and they were all really good. Omari Douglas was in Emma Rice’s Wise Children and he is a brilliant dancer and you can tell he’s really thought about how his characters move. Sandra Marvin and Gareth Snook (who was also in Wise Children) were also really funny. It’s a really good cast.

It’s a fun, feelgood musical and a good way to spend an evening but it’s not the most original and I don’t know about anyone else but it really made me crave chocolate.