Love Quirks a new musical

★★★★☆
this show is soooo much fun!

Four broken hearts must face the past and look to the future, as they march into the strange and often hilarious world of love.Love Quirks is an award-winning musical about a group of flatmates who explore the bizarre tribulations of love, friendship, and all the blurry lines in-between. What they find is never what they expect, and they must face up to their own Love Quirks to move forward.

Featuring 18 new songs and chapters of love stories that interweave this energetic cast, this is a fun musical. A venue that usually works best as a cabaret bar, the combination of Set by Bob Sterrett and Lighting by Oliver McNally have transformed the space into an interior apartment where the 4 cast come and go, bare their hearts and souls, and philosophize their friends, relationships and the World.

There are a couple of glitches in the production – the costumes are rather strange with nobody taking their shoes off in the apartment. Even one of the actors who’s supposedly been moping around for 3 days in his dressing gown, never going out, is still wearing shoes, just a robe thrown over his full day wear. And don’t get me started on putting their feet up on the sofas, couches and furniture with their shoes on! The book is a little thin leaving the characters with not a lot of drama to work with but they attack it with gusto.

The next problem is the sound. Oh my, it was sooooo loud! It was painful! From the second row, just feet away from the cast, I can’t hear them directly with the sound blasting to the point that I really wanted to move seats. It’s probably fine in other seats but when you choose your unallocated seating I will now always look to see where the speakers are and ensure I’m not in direct line of fire.

But, having said that, this show is soooo much fun! “Chris” (Tom Newland) has a puppy-dog cute look that really endearing. Ryan (Lewis Bear Brown) is extremely talented and just made out of funny bones!!! Stephanie (Clodagh Greene) and Lili (Ayesha Patel) completing the cast of all lead performances. When they all sing together it is in beautiful harmony (even if too loud)!

The lyrics are spot-on. Clever and incredibly funny!

The title “Love Quirks” is a good title. Act 1 finale song could have been titled “Love Kinks” – it was rather salacious with BDSM leanings. What fun!

Cast:
Lewis Bear Brown as Ryan
Clodagh Greene as Stephanie
Tom Newland as Chris
Ayesha Patel as Lili

Creatives
Executive Producer/Composer/Lyricist Seth Bisen-Hersh (he/him)
Associate Producer Brian Childers (he/him)
Bookwriter Mark Childers (he/him)
Director Cecilie Fray (she/her)
Set Designer Bob Sterrett (he/him)
Costume Designer Alice McNicholas (she/her)
Lighting Designer Oliver McNally (he/him)
Musical Director Tom Noyes (he/him)
General Management Becci Snape for JAS Theatricals (she/her)

Social Media @lovequirks
@theotherpalace
Website https://www.lovequirks.com/