Why Am I So Single? at the Garrick Theatre : Review

From the multi-award-winning writers of SIX, Toby Marlow & Lucy Moss, comes their all-new, highly anticipated second musical, WHY AM I SO SINGLE?   This Big Fancy Musical follows two besties through the ups, and mostly downs, of their dating lives in the era of Tinder (and Bumbleand Grindr and Hinge and Feeld). This musical extravaganza about love, dating, friendship–and bees–explores the weird and wonderful hilariousness of being single.

A celebration of friendship and love,WHY AM I SO SINGLE? asks how two super interesting,super cool, super fun pals could possibly still be single?!?  This extraordinary and totally unexplainable situation faced by our fabulous duo is made even more complicated by the fact hat, on a completely unrelated note, they also need to find a really great topic for their next musical.

After taking an unofficial break from theatre reviewing it was always going to take something extra special to make me dust off my keyboard, so when the co-writers of Six came out with a new musical that was always going to be an occasion too big to turn down!  But can this duo capture the magic in a bottle twice?  The answer having seen Why Am I So Single? is a resounding yes!

However, if you come to this expecting a similar show to Six you will be in for a surprise.  Why Am I Still Single? uses the premise of two friends looking for love to highlight the importance of one of the greatest love stories hardly ever told, that of platonic friendship.  It’s a delightfully domestic yet extraordinary examination of this dynamic, highlighting the special bond between queer people and straight women that is so rarely seen outside of caricatures.

This tongue-in-cheek meta show reveals the writing process of the authors as they try to find inspiration for their ‘big fancy musical’ and instead fall into discussions of their love life.  It’s chock full of musical references for the fans in the audience without ever feeling exclusionary.

In theory, a writer directing a show about them writing a show where the characters are based on themselves should be a recipe for disaster, and instead this show is a joy!  It’s a real skill to write a musical on a topic like this that could be seen as ‘small’ and yet make it as dramatic and camp as it is while still being relatable and profoundly based in reality.  The characters are messy and far from perfect yet I challenge anyone to not warm to them both instantly.

The songs are upbeat, energetic, playful and frankly catchy as hell!  Why Am I So Single? and C U Never will be staying with you for a while with all their recognisable self-reflecting questions, yet powerful song Discoball had me in tears without using the traditional slow ballad methods to elicit such emotions.

The choreography is fast-paced and fun and a special shout out to the costuming of the chorus in the living room scenes where they are seen dressing as pieces of furniture.  The comic timing of the fridge is unmatched (a sentence I never thought I’d write)!

Not to get too carried away, this show isn’t perfect.  Not all the jokes land with the audience and at times the pacing dips a little but it’s an enjoyable show from start to finish.

This laugh-out-loud funny, painfully relatable show is sure to be a hit with anyone who has ever wondered why they enjoy spending time with their friends over dating!  Why Am I So Single? is on at the Garrick Theatre until February 13th 2025, tickets start from £25.

Tickets were gifted in exchange for a review, all words and opinions are my own