Cruel Intentions: The ’90s Musical is an unashamed nostalgia-fest, combining the 1999 teenage romantic drama with 90s pop hits for a night of pure pleasure.
The 1999 film (written and directed by Roger Kumble, who was also involved in the creation of the musical) was itself an adaptation of the French novel Les Liaisons Dangereuse. There’s something very camp about American teenagers prowling around mansions with horny, cold calculation like amoral aristocrats, and Cruel Intentions: The 90s musical leans into the camp for all it’s worth, mining the source material for laughs and delightful ridiculousness. The script follows the original film closely, often word-for-word, delighting in savage insults and profanities, softening some darker storylines where there were previously implications of sexual coercion, and adding a couple of 90s themed jokes. Add entertaining performances from a young cast with incredible vocal talent, and lashings of 90s hits, and you have a recipe for a deliciously fun musical. All served up with an enormous knowing wink.
The songs are all 90s classics, guaranteed to hit the nostalgia nerve in anyone who was a child or teenager in the 90s – including Torn by Natalie Imbruglia, TLC’s No Scrubs and Bye Bye Bye by N’Sync. As I scanned the list of songs in the programme I found myself looking forward to my favourites, and sometimes had to restrain myself from singing along. Songs in a jukebox musical often feel weirdly shoehorned in, with sections of lyric that inevitably have nothing to do with the story. By and large, Cruel Intentions took advantage of the obvious seam between story and song, making some transitions into song so delightfully silly that the audience almost invariably responded with gleeful laughter. The lines “You had an orgasm!” “I did?” were so suddenly followed by “I saw the sign” by Ace of Base that the audience, as one, lost it.
The cast were excellent, with truly impressive vocal chops. Will Callan smouldered authoritatively as cynical lothario Sebastian Valmont and brought the audience to hushed stillness with his moving performance of REM’s Iris. Nic Myers as his scheming stepsister Kathryn wowed us with her defiant 11 o’clock medley. Lucy Carter was consistently hilarious playing the ditzy and naive Cecile Caldwell. And some of the most enjoyment came from the blossoming gay relationship between Blaine and Greg, played by Luke Conner Hall and Joe Simmons.
The cast had us all on our feet at the end for a finale medley, and I left with a dance in my step to go and sing 90s songs loudly along to my headphones. Cruel Intentions seems like perfect hen party material – a bit of filth, a bit of romance, exuberant energy and lots of good tunes. Like a glass of Long Island Iced Tea, it’s an indulgent, tasty treat and a heck of a lot of fun.
Cruel Intentions: The ’90s Musical is at Theatre Royal Brighton until June 28.
Address: New Rd, Brighton and Hove, Brighton BN1 1SD
Website: Theatre Royal
