Review: Kathy & Stella Solve a Murder! (Ambassadors Theatre)

Review by Sam Waite

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Podcasting, not too long ago a new and potentially ground-breaking outlet, has become a deeply saturated domain. While dads may have written pornos, fish been no such thing, and Johns be incredibly dirty long before the medium, its now inevitable that someone will find a way to turn these events into digestible, episodic content. With true crime a global phenomenon and a frighteningly popular podcast genre, it’s easy to feel like you already know the titular duo leading Kathy & Stella Solve a Murder!

Misfit nearly-30-year-olds Kathy and Stella have nothing in common, but have been best friends since year 5 thanks to a shared fascination with murder. When the volunteer librarian (Kathy) and part-time barmaid (Stella) shoot their shot with true crime icon Felicia Taylor (think Scream’s Gale Weathers, but British and blonde) she harshly tells them there’s no unique selling point, and that they’ll never be “true crime famous”. As luck (or lack thereof) would have it, Taylor is promptly murdered, and the girls’ USP becomes a live-as-it-unfolds investigation into the death of the genre’s reigning queen.

 With a book by Jon Brittain and compositions from Matthew Floyd Jones, with both providing the lyrics, Kathy & Stella is a whimsical, tongue-in-cheek affair that manages twists and turns without becoming too weighed down by them. Brittain’s script is proudly Northern, leaning into the rural “near Hull” locale and throwing in references overseas audiences would likely fail to grasp – “Lorraine! Kelly!” Stella excitedly shouts when their podcast becomes national news. Crucially, the story shares key elements with its neighbour, long-player The Mousetrap, in a dropping of hints throughout that make the eventual reveal not only plausible in-universe, but solvable for its audience. It’s also really, really funny, with the mismatched duo and the quirky horde of characters surrounding them tossing out quips and keeping things from getting too heavy – you know… from all the murder.

Bringing strengths from previous work to their roles, Bronté Barbé (as Kathy) and Rebekah Hinds (& Stella) brilliantly create these characters as they set out to complete their goal (Solve a Murder!). Barbé’s neurotic, anxious energy – abundantly obvious in Newsies’s Katherine (hey…) Plummer – works well here, both for the dramatic backstory of Kathy’s struggle to live away from home and for the sheer comedic joy Barbé milks from it. Meanwhile Hinds, a lusty, forward Gertie in Oklahoma! redirects that same sense of physicality and holding space to tell us from the first second she enters that Stella is bold, confident, and deliberately imposing in demeanour. Both work brilliantly as individuals, but their work in shared scenes is where both truly shine. Both, as you’d hope, are also fantastic singers, bringing the characterisation (and Hull accents!) to the score as well as consistently hitting the notes, both musical and emotional.

The songs are a delight, and it rarely feels like they come too fast while a scene is being set – perhaps once or twice in the first act a scene could be given more room to breathe, but contrary to my usual thought (that most things could lose 10 or so minutes) I wouldn’t mind at all if the scenes were a bit longer and the songs all remained. With sparkling, upbeat melodies and equally cheery orchestrations (courtesy of Charlie Ingles, also supporting with arrangements), songs like “F***! We Don’t Know What We’re Doing” and villain (or is he?) song “If I Did It” go from funny little ditties to broad, brilliant musical numbers that keep the crowd firmly in Kathy & Stella’s palms. A personal highlight, borrowing from the school of “just say the thing, it’s funny that they know this about themselves” employed by Rachel Bloom’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend or (stay with me, here) South Park’s scapegoating anthem “Blame Canada”, Stella’s soaring “The Approval Of Strangers” is so on-the-nose, so deliberately shallow in its meaning, that it becomes an absolute joy to listen to, as well as to watch.

The small ensemble bring enough energy to the stage that it may as well be flooded with people, everyone switching roles with ease and turning Fabian Aloise’s choreography into a series of show-stoppers. Particular standouts include Hannah-Jane Fox, brilliantly bitchy as both Felicia Taylor and her empire-building sister, and handling well a ludicrous twist that introduces her as a bonus third character nearer the finale. Also strikingly good at switching roles and bringing genuine heart to each was Imelda Warren-Green, genuinely moving as Stella’s put-upon, mother-substitute older sister, and jaw-droppingly hysterical as K&S superfan Erica Knott. While the two stood out as dynamic, hilarious performers, the work of Elliot Broadfoot, Ben Redfern and Elliotte Williams-N’Dure, the latter very strong as the hard-boiled cop with a dark past (we’re painting in broad strokes, if you hadn’t guessed yet), was all exemplary and the cast of Kathy & Stella are truly without fault.

Co-directors Brittain and Aloise keep a solid pace and a driving energy throughout, the show running past the two-hour mark (well, to it plus an interval) without feeling like it’s dragging or deliberately delaying that final reveal. Movement is constantly flurried and over-the-top, especially where choreography on rolling desk chairs leaves those up-front wondering whether a leading lady will land in their laps, and there’s a general goofiness, a charming touch of dumbness, that unites the performances and ensures that even the heavier scenes aren’t bogged down by tragedy. Again… like all of the murders. With moving platforms and walls shifted around by the cast, Isobel Pellow’s set proves to be a charming character of its own – built around a basement room, shelves of junk and washing machine included, it helps to keep in focus just how ordinary, how familiar the protagonists really are.

Perfectly imperfect, just like the pair of would-be investigators at its heart, Kathy & Stella Solve a Murder! is a riot from start to finish, and its titular duo a joy to spend an evening with. When act two begins, with a young Kathy asking Stella to “Read About A Murder” with her (a messed-up homage, in my mind, to Frozen’s “Build a Snowman”), it’s easy to find yourself saying that, Yes! You would love to read about a murder with Kathy & Stella, and maybe even come back to help them solve this one again.

Kathy & Stella Solve a Murder! Plays at the Ambassadors Theatre until September 14th

For tickets and information visit (affiliate link):

https://prf.hn/click/camref:1100lpV2v/destination:https://www.atgtickets.com/shows/kathy-and-stella-solve-a-murder/ambassadors-theatre/

Photos by Pamela Raith