Scissorhandz – A Musical Reinvented ★★ Southwark Playhouse, Elephant | Jan 23 - Mar 29, 2025


Tim Burton's film Edward Scissorhands is the retelling of Mary Shelley's story of Frankenstein's monster who is rejected and persecuted by an intolerant society simply because he is different. The story is particularly poignant in today's challenging times, and in this version, the 'monster' becomes representative of the non-binary community. While the touching parable of its predecessors is still the basic plot of this musical version, the narrative is now told by incorporating a number of popular tunes – twenty-three in all. The resultant need to get through all these songs unfortunately leaves little room for real character development, and any empathy with the outsider's plight is overwhelmed by one unnecessarily loud musical number after another. Indeed, you know the volume has reached the truly excessive when your devices start to throb with the message "dangerous noise level." Among others in the golden oldies list being blasted out are tracks from the Scissor Sisters, David Bowie, Tom Cochrane and Chaka Khan. These are more or less successfully incorporated into the narrative, while also, on occasion, being yoked to a Christmas carol. The story is simple enough to begin with, but in this musical retelling everything is reduced to caricature, and the moral of the tale is hammered home in a manner which is probably counter productive to the creators' intent. In terms of character development, the performers really don't have much to work with so they confine themselves to belting out one old chestnut after another and to going through some familiar dance routines. For us, the high point was Ryan O'Connor's improv skills as the television hostess, Delia Deetz. A couple of his zingers were a nice relief to the predictable and rather vacuous humour of the rest of the show. Scissorhandz – A Musical Reinvented may have its heart in the right place, but the rest of it seems cobbled together from incongruous, leftover parts.

Rated: ★★

Reviewed by J.C.
Photo by Tristram Kenton

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