'Clueless' review — Amy Heckerling and KT Tunstall's 90s musical will delight fans

Clueless the Musical, based on the 1995 film, with book by Amy Heckerling, music by KT Tunstall, and lyrics by Glenn Slater, is now in performances at the Trafalgar Theatre.

The West End’s current infatuation with screen-to-stage romcoms continues at the Trafalgar Theatre with Amy Heckerling, KT Tunstall, and Glenn Slater’s new musical Clueless, based on the beloved 90s film of the same name. The musical — like the movie — borrows from Jane Austen’s Emma to tell the coming-of-age story of brattish yet way adorable Beverley Hills teenager Cher, who discovers through her manipulative matchmaking that the one person she truly loves has been standing in front of her the whole time.

Rachel Kavanaugh’s show is an incredibly faithful reproduction of the movie on stage, which is in no small part aided by the fact the film’s creator Heckerling was brought on as book writer. At least 90% of those zinger lines from the film will be found in the musical — including repeat mentions of Cher’s now iconic “as if!”. The characters are carbon copies of their screen versions, both in physical appearance and direction.

Emma Flynn is the breakthrough star of this production. In the same way that the 1995 film put Alicia Silverstone on the Hollywood map, Clueless should help to make a star of picture-perfect New Yorker Flynn, whose bouncing blonde tresses and screeching Beverley Hills twang are quintessential Cher. Some moves have been made to add depth to her character, with soul-searching solos, but an opportunity has been missed to dig in more to her backstory, with a few, fleeting references to the passing of her mother who “died when I was two in a freak liposuction accident”.

Keelan McAuley, who plays Cher’s nerdy step-brother Josh (Paul Rudd in the film), is deliberately low-key in the first act, but surprises everyone in the second with a boyband performance in “Reasonable Doubts” worthy of NSYNC (the ensemble support as brilliant backing dancers). Other standouts include Romona Lewis-Malley as grungy makeover project Tai in her professional stage debut and Imelda Warren-Green, who adeptly multi-roles a number of characters, putting her hilarious, elastic facial expressions last seen on Erica in Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder! to good use as Miss Geist.

Most of Tunstall and Slater’s songs, while catchy in the moment, are pretty forgettable and are more vehicles for exposition than cast-recording hits. Despite this, the accomplished and committed cast help to lift them, with the choreography in “I’m Keeping an Eye on You” pulling out all the stops and “Tonight is the Night” turning into a hilarious two-hander, as Cher staggers around in six-inch heels in an attempt to woo Christian. It’s safe to say act two is when the show comes alive.

Costume designer Paloma Young has studiously saved many of Cher’s eye-popping outfits from the film, with her iconic, lurid yellow plaid skirt and blazer headlining the show and a variety of mini skirts, above-the-knee socks, and block heels (as well as that incredible red Alaïa dress) following in quick succession. Mikiko Suzuzki Macadams’s simple set subtly shows off the Beverley Hills skyline in a watercolour sweep of blues, reds, and yellows, but the mechanical wings, which slide open as characters enter and exit, feel clunky and cheap.

Arguably, this production would have been better suited to an Off-West End venue such as The Other Palace, where Heathers made its London premiere, but the design team have made a virtue of the Trafalgar’s comparatively small West End stage, turning a bed, sofa, and water cooler into cars. The fold-out walk-in wardrobe isn’t far off the one you’ll find on the Dominion stage in The Devil Wears Prada, but it was disappointing to see there is no video design element to incorporate Cher’s wardrobe selector from the film.

The musical suffers from the question of how much to reinvent beloved romcoms on stage — something productions such as Mean Girls and The Devil Wears Prada have also grappled with in recent months. There is far more inventive work going on in the West End right now, but this is an adaptation that will delight fans and makes for a fun and pacy two hours of theatre. We might not be totally buggin’, but there’s a lot to enjoy here.

Book Clueless tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: Emma Flynn in Clueless. (Photo by Pamela Raith)