Review: Sea Witch - A New Musical (Theatre Royal Drury Lane)

Review by Daz Gale

⭐️

Theatre Royal Drury Lane has been the place to be on Sunday nights over the last month, with a series of exciting one-night-only concerts taking place. The short season has been bookended by world premieres of brand new musicals, kicking off with Jo - The Little Women Musical, and now coming to a close with Sea Witch. The intriguing premise serves as an original story set before the events of The Little Mermaid and boasts a star cast including Michelle Visage and The Wanted’s Jay McGuinness, but would I be glad I came to this premiere event, or would I sashay away believing I had just witnessed an all-time low?

I’m sure by now you will have seen the star rating that suggests what the answer to that question might just be, so let me start by saying how much I enjoy championing new musicals, especially new British musicals, which is where my excitement for Sea Witch soared. Sitting in their rehearsal room recently, the three creators spoke about the importance of new voices in the industry and made me believe a show like this would be refreshing. However, there is the worry of new musicals premiering with performances at Theatre Royal Drury Lane - one of the largest and most unforgiving spaces that will amplify any of your weaknesses. This is why not running before you walk is so important - closed industry presentations, public workshops, and tryout runs. Opening essentially cold at Theatre Royal Drury Lane is a ballsy move, but one that can do more harm than good, as unfortunately is the case this time around. But I’m getting ahead of myself - let’s go back to the very beginning.

Sea Witch is based on Sarah Henning’s book of the same name, reimagining the story of the sea witch from Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, most famously pictured as the purple villain from the Disney movie, who has become an icon in her own right. This story starts before Ariel meets the Sea Witch, telling the story of a girl named Evie who lives in a kingdom where magic has been extinguished. Concealing her true identity, she meets a girl who reminds her of a friend she lost many years ago, who has a secret of her own. There, the two attempt to win the hearts of Iker and King Nik, respectively, all while the King’s mother tries to prevent his friendship with Evie. With a storm gathering, what will happen when the skeletons from the past are revealed, and what will it take for love to win out this time?

I am incredibly grateful that the programme listed the synopsis of the show, because, quite honestly, I didn’t have a clue what was going on from watching it. The book in Sea Witch is one of the show’s biggest problems, never knowing what it wants to be in terms of tone and story. The result is a convoluted mess that introduces too many characters without ever revealing anything about them, leading to some of the most one-dimensional characters I have ever seen on a show of this scale. The story felt secondary to the song, seemingly only existing to segue into the next one - quite often there would be no more than 30 seconds of dialogue before the next song began, making the story hard to follow at best, near-impossible at worst.

I wondered if I was alone in struggling to work out what was going on, but conversations in the interval suggested this was sadly a common consensus, with some people opting not to return for the second Act. I found that where Act One had several strong moments going for it, these were quickly undone in the second Act, which felt much messier and unfinished. These one-off concerts can suffer from a short rehearsal time, with Michelle Visage announcing on stage before the show that the cast had been together for five days, so the audience should allow for any mistakes. While that is true for the entire cast, rehearsals for this had gone on for weeks before, giving them much more time to get the production as slick as it ought to be, but this proved irrelevant to the result, as the biggest problems were in the bones of the show.

An origin story about the Sea Witch from The Little Mermaid may seem familiar for two reasons - first, there is the other origin story, Unfortunate, currently playing in London, though this is a completely different tone to that camp comedy. You also may think of another origin story of a certain green-skinned Witch. Yes, the comparisons to Wicked are inevitable, but this production doesn’t help matters. Whether intentional or not, there are moments throughout the show that don’t so much pay homage to that other musical but feel lifted right from it. As Evie kneels down over her spell book, I half-imagined her to start chanting “Eleka nahmen nahmen” in staging that borrowed heavily from ‘No Good Deed’. Recognisable musical motifs from Wicked also appeared, with the character of Queen Charlotte becoming more and more like Madame Morrible with each passing hour of the time dragon clock. As she began each attack with “Citizens of…”, I was surprised she wasn’t addressing Oz. The creators must have picked up on these similarities. If they were intentional, it would completely undermine the standalone nature of this show. If they didn’t, this would have been the first thing anyone fed back in any workshop. The moment the two “witches” went off hand in hand was a step too far - had the budget stretched to it, I wouldn’t have been surprised to see one of them come and go by bubble.

Though this isn’t affiliated with Disney, its presence was still felt, with multiple aspects of the music and story feeling reminiscent of Frozen, with even a touch of Moana in some of the music. Sea Witch desperately needs to differentiate itself from not just the Disney story, but the Disney world in itself, as if it wants to be seen as something original; it is in dire need of some more originality.

The direction didn’t fare much better, with the production feeling under-directed at all times. This led to cast members walking on or off in complete silence, with awkward silences, some moments where an audience response should have been inserted, and others that clearly hoped for one, but were met with resounding silence instead. Though this is a concert, and you can forgive a lack of staging, unless you are going to have the cast stand in front of microphones statically throughout, there needs to be much more thought to the direction than has been given here. While there is no doubting the talents of the choreographer attached to Sea Witch (his track record speaks for itself), his movements were completely at odds with the production, veering from lacklustre to even laughable at times (one sequence genuinely drew giggles from those around me). It is the perfect reminder that getting the right creative team is crucial to the success of the show, and if your creatives all have differing ideas, it will show on stage as is the case with Sea Witch.

An impressive element in the production was that of the huge and impactful lighting, designed by Joshie Harriette. Blinding initially, it is used to great effect, almost making up for the inadequacies elsewhere as it filled the noticeably bare stage with some great effects. Had every aspect of the production been as striking as the lighting, this would be a very different review. These concerts have a tendency to be plagued with sound problems, but did a fine job for the most part, only noticeably falling apart during one number in Act Two. It was refreshing to see elements such as lighting and sound being deployed so effectively, though this only showed up the weaknesses elsewhere.

There is one aspect of Sea Witch that is stronger than the rest, and that is in the original songs created for the show. Segun Fawole is clearly talented with his music and lyrics filling the show with some fantastic numbers, with ‘Time Is Running Out’, ‘Tidal Wave’ and ‘Unstoppable’ some of the highlights. The problem is that not all of the songs make sense in the story, with some feeling randomly shoehorned in. ‘My World’ comes out of nowhere early in Act One, adding nothing to the plot and feeling as if it is from another show entirely - a feeling repeated when Act 2 opens from ‘Q.U.E.E.N’, borrowing heavily from Six and inexplicably introducing four women we have never seen before and will never see again. Not all the numbers fare as well - though ‘Your Home’ is addictive, it is reminiscent of ‘From Now On’ from The Greatest Showman. Then we come to the song ‘Wonder’, the worst number of the show by far and one that you would expect to be performed by a bunch of 6-year-olds in their school assembly, not on a West End stage. Given the quality of some of the other numbers, it was a shock to see something as painful and pedestrian as this, and it showcased why this show really needed a fresh pair of eyes to point them in the right direction and avoid such obvious mistakes like this.

Unfortunately, the songs lose a mark through the baffling and unforgivable decision to not have a band there at all. Not on stage, not in the orchestra pit, nowhere at all. Every bit of music in Sea Witch, from start to finish, was played through a backing track. In a smaller venue, perhaps I could overlook that, but when you have a stage as looming as Theatre Royal Drury Lane, you really want to make sure you are filling it, particularly when you are premiering something in a concert production. I’m not sure how others define a concert, but I certainly expect to see or hear some musicians in one, and the choice to not have this for Sea Witch was so ill-advised that it almost doomed the production to fail from the start. I genuinely can’t begin to understand why this decision was made, but it affected the impact of the musical numbers substantially. Though the live vocals were rich and wonderful, the tinny, artificial nature of the backing track was as jarring as it was frustrating, never matching the talents of the cast, and letting them down as much as it did the audience, longing to experience some live music and being met with a backing track instead. Though there are elements here that almost warrant a second star, this single decision pulls it under.

Though Sea Witch has many faults, that is not a reflection of its incredible cast. This was the real selling point of the show, seeing so many of these amazing talents sharing one stage, and they did the best they could with the material given to them. However, it would take a magic beyond any of their powers to manage to salvage what had become a show that disappointingly feels difficult to redeem in its present form.

Natalie May Paris leads the cast as Evie in a performance that was the perfect vehicle for her talents, blessing the audience with her wonderful vocals and magnetic stage presence as she brought the house down with some of the standout musical numbers, including ‘Unstoppable’, ‘Tidal Wave’ and 'Second Place’. There was a real sweetness and warmth to her portrayal that deserved far better material, and her notable absence for the first part of Act Two was hugely felt, such was her memorable impact in Act One. Amy Di Bartolomeo was a late arrival to Act One as Annamette, but more than made up for it with increased stage time in the second Act, getting a handful of numbers including standout ‘They Won’t Forget Me Now’ and reminding everyone what a force to be reckoned with she is a performer, even if certain elements of her character made no sense at all.

The problem is Sea Witch had too many characters, which led to them being underwritten and underutilised. Jay McGuiness gave a solid performance as Iker, but his character was the personification of “That could have been an email”, having pretty much nothing to do aside from a token musical number and a silly plot twist later in the show. Though it was a joy to see Michelle Visage on stage again, I can’t say with any confidence anything that was added through her drastically underdeveloped character of Tante Hansa, being wheeled out from time to time to further the plot along (of which I’ve been assured there was one). Similarly, Djavan Van De Fliert was fine as Nik, but was hardly given anything to do. Sea Witch essentially has seven main characters, with none given enough thought or attention. Already running too long in its present form, I would argue whether all seven are needed, and what would be lost if any of them were either merged or cut altogether.

Mazz Murray has proven herself one of the best in the business and deservedly received the biggest response of the night with her out-of-this-world vocals on ‘Greater Than Love’, a song she undoubtedly made better through her own interpretation of it. Other than that, though, she was largely sidelined, aside from a character who was increasingly becoming Madame Morrible and feeling like a panto villain. Similarly, I wasn’t sure how to perceive the wonderful Natalie Kassanga with the puzzling character of Malvina. Her motives seemingly came out of nowhere and descended into panto villain territory - a fate that was shared by Amy Di Bartolomeo and Mazz Murray at other times, with the audience beginning to boo as if they were watching Julian Clary making some crude jokes at the Palladium panto. As the evening progressed and Act Two deteriorated, I got the sense the audience had given up, becoming restless with the nonsensical nature of the plot that seemed to plod on in ridiculous ways as it neared the unsatisfying climax.

Though I understand the appeal to stage a brand new musical in such a big way as a one-night only concert at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, it is a huge risk and one that could sink your show, never to be seen again. The damage of having people leaving in the interval (or even throughout the show, as I saw) and muttering in the interval and post-show about how poor the show is cannot be underestimated, and this was a position the creators of Sea Witch didn’t need to put themselves in. I would urge anyone looking to stage a brand new musical at a venue like Theatre Royal Drury Lane to be confident it is at the right level, as a stage as grand as this should never be used for workshopping and feedback. Had Sea Witch gone through more workshopping before it reached this stage, it would have met much of the feedback I have put in this review and would have certainly been in a stronger position to put on a show worthy of a paying audience.

I will always love supporting original musicals. However, it pains me to say there is nothing original about this production. Borrowing heavily from other shows, it struggles to know or understand its own identity and is marred by jarring creative aspects that create a frustratingly subpar production. There is certainly potential in Sea Witch, with some of the songs a good starting block, but it needs a lot of restructuring and trimming to get it in a position where it can stand alongside the counterparts it so clearly longs to be part of that world with. In its current form, Sea Witch feels like a good concept album, but it has a long way to go if it wants to become a fully fledged musical. Just like Ariel in The Little Mermaid, Sea Witch may have struggled to find its voice this time around, but with the right care and magic, there is nothing to stop it from having legs in the future.

Sea Witch played at Theatre Royal Drury Lane for two performances on March 1st 2026.

Keep an eye on @seawitchmusical on Instagram to find out what’s next for the show.

Listen to my podcast with Natalie May Paris and Amy Di Bartolomeo on Apple Podcasts and Spotify now.

Photos by Danny Kaan