Hot Mess @ the Southwark Playhouse Elephant
⭐⭐⭐
Hot Mess, is a new exciting piece of musical theatre, currently in London for a limited run at the Southwark Playhouse Elephant between October 16th and November 8th, starring Danielle Steers and Tobias Turley.
From the creative duo behind 42 Balloons, Jack Godfrey and Ellie Coote offer us both the ultimate break up story and best date night at the theatre. Hot Mess made quite an impression at the stagey land of Edinburgh Fringe and was acknowledged by the following:
The List Festival Awards 2025 Winner
The Scotsman Fringe First Award Winner
Popcorn 2025 Writing Award Winner
Musical Theatre Review Best Musical Award Winner
This ‘gloriously quirky’ show had the audience fully engaged on this incredibly predictable, yet entertaining love story between the Earth and Humanity (aka Hu). The roles, respectively taken by Danielle Steers and Tobias Turley have a wonderful blend of quirkiness and charm, with an undeniable chemistry. Although the intimate nature of Southwark Playhouse gave a more direct sense of connection between the audience and the cast, the show’s material could certainly benefit from a bigger stage. Alexzandra Sarmiento’s brilliant choreography speaks volumes that would read more effortlessly had there been more space, stage levels and especially length (particularly thinking of Earth’s opening solo number in a runway-esque manner). Given the show’s early days that is completely understandable, but nevertheless something that could boost the material.
There is a clear resemblance of Steers’ performance as Katherine Parr in SIX (Marlow and Moss) and Earth in Hot Mess, which really elevates the portrayal of more strong, independent women (or planets). Interestingly, Hot Mess’s libretto (both book and lyrics) does not ever clearly distribute any gender restrictions or assumptions to any of the leading tracks. It should come to no surprise that the whole of humanity or any of the planets in our solar system would not be preoccupied by a specific gender norm and this show’s gender neutrality should be applauded; a rarely done and beautiful choice indeed.
On a personal note, I tend to not be a fan of fourth wall breaking. The intimate nature of the Playhouse doesn’t help but as the actors sing to each other within the audience and sometimes addressing the audience, it feels unclear where we stand. The very end of the show is a complete 4th-wall break of the characters confessing to the audience what happened to them after breaking up, as if narrating it in real time. The supernatural element of the entire show is something we establish will be ignored from the very beginning, as both the Earth and Humanity are not trying to convince us they are who they say they are in the way they dress or talk. The show works because it has been decided that this makes sense and the audience goes along with it. They go along with it due to the show’s witty and contagiously funny nature. But the second those rules are bent, it could risk disorientating the audience.
Turley’s incredibly smart and balanced performance lets him get away with material that could in the wrong hands be perceived as ‘creepy’ towards Earth. His versatility really shines through and even though we know Humanity will eventually manipulate, abuse and overstay its welcome towards Earth, we are strangely found rooting for them. The metaphor around Earth being ‘his world’ and ‘literally the centre of the universe’ is beautifully done, amongst many others. Turley as Humanity is nerdy and bossy, loving and passively aggressive, full of mystery and intention all at the same time.
Steers is everything we could ever ask for Earth’s alter ego to be. She is strong, confident and ridiculously self-sufficient (pun intended). She manages to take a line like ‘And I’ve got large amounts of wood’ and make it make sense, make it hers. We see her character’s complexity, especially towards the end of the show. We see her oversharing her gifts, sacrifice her needs for validation and almost giving in on Hu’s abuse, before she realises her true worth and become even stronger and certain of her potential. Particularly her line ‘I highly doubt you love yourself’ indicates a great deal and is an intelligent reality check for the audience.
This is a score full of catchy, heartfelt tunes in this billion year romance. ‘Better with time’ and ‘Tomorrow’ will particularly be stuck in your head in the best way possible with plenty of wonderful metaphors and easter eggs to watch out for. Although, perhaps the show hopefully having a further future will establish a better idea of the language and slang used, given that the story covers a billion years in 65 minutes.
Overall, I wish the show explored certain themes in bigger depth before rounding up into an ending. The narrative of Hu and the Moon and Siri and Earth felt rushed and quite irrelevant to all we uncovered throughout. The show’s many logistical questions don’t need to be answered because of the leads’ magnifying energy, but the ending feels quite abrupt and unjustified.
Lastly, the title of the show was only used a handful of times and dare I say, it could make a killer final number; leaving the future dating lives of Earth and Hu open to anything.
I sincerely hope there is a bright future for Hot Mess on stage and that it gets, even better with time.
