Review: Who Killed Marilyn? (Emerald Theatre)

Review by Daz Gale

⭐️

The Emerald Theatre hasn't had the smoothest of times since it opened last year. There was a wave of excitement for the West End's newest theatre but it led to a wave of disappointment, with its inaugural production closing its doors not long after it began, and the theatre sitting empty for large periods of time. A new attempt to reinvent the space begins with the world premiere of Who Killed Marilyn?, an intriguing play that looks into the conspiracy over the death of the legendary Marilyn Monroe. Could this reverse the theatre's fortunes and prove to be a killer success, or would this production suffer a similar fate to its predecessor and end up dead in the water?

Who Killed Marilyn? attempts to unravel the mystery behind Marilyn Monroe’s death, aged just 36, in 1962. Drawing on decades of documented evidence, it is left to the audience to decide whether this is a work of fiction or could finally get to the bottom of years of conspiracy and cover-up. Told from the perspective of Marilyn herself, after death, she revisits the years and events leading up to her death to try and answer the question in the show’s title.

The first problem with Who Killed Marilyn? (and there are many) is that it does not match its description at all. The copy on the website clearly states that this play “restores Marilyn Monroe to her rightful place, not as a victim, but as a woman of extraordinary intelligence, wit and force”. Except it doesn’t.

What it does instead is reinforce the victim narrative, defining Marilyn only by the men who influenced, abused and took advantage of her. There is no sense of power, justice or a wrong being righted here - just digging up the past to diminish Monroe’s own achievements. The fact that the supposed intention of the play and the reality of what has been presented are so wildly different explains the fundamental flaw at the heart of the show - this play has no idea what it is. More than that, it doesn’t know what story it wants to tell, or how to tell the story. The result is one of the most frustratingly disjointed pieces of theatre I have ever sat through.

Much of that is down to Sharleen Cooper Cohen, whose writing is baffling at best, woeful at worst. This is clearly a passion project for her of a subject she feels deeply about, as her notes in the programme and her years of research testify. However, along the way she seems to have forgotten the very basic necessity of how to write a play. The story itself meanders through a tricky narrative, trying to find meaning through the most inconsequential of situations, and filling the lack of quality in the writing with another conspiracy theory that even the flat-Earthers would deem unlikely. Large chunks of exposition are referred to through clunky, clumsy dialogue as characters rattle off what has happened in a way so unnatural that it sounds nothing like any conversation ever would. Lines such as “The dog ate my clothes off”, “I love you so much I’d like to crawl inside and live under your skin” and “Five baths and five bedrooms. So many choices to do business” are presented with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, while “your book, The Enemy Within, about the mafia” is a great example of the heavy-handed way characters and events are described.

The writing when it comes to the characters is particularly poor, though I must say it is impressive how characters who were real, living people with a wealth of material about their lives available have been reduced to one-dimensional caricatures. This is most apparent with the presentation of a mobster, taking every stereotype you have ever seen from a bad mob movie and ramping it up to the level it is played like a particularly bad pantomime villain. There is also the matter of how a character who has suffered a stroke is presented in a way that comes across as completely insensitive and unnecessary, to the extent that it borders on being wildly offensive. Adding absolutely nothing to the play, it is a further example of the writer’s inability to understand how best to tell this story, and how to string together a sentence in a way that doesn’t leave audience members with their heads in their hands. Rather than attempt to opt for any new angle when it comes to a subject that has been explored in great detail (the show begins with the information that 600 books have been written about Marilyn in a particularly clumsy introduction), Who Killed Marilyn? instead opts for an abundance of clichés, removing any attempt at substance for the woman behind the icon and over-sexualising her and reducing her to a disappointing stereotype in a way that acts as a disservice to both the character and the actress.

Sadly, Who Killed Marilyn? doesn’t fare much better when it comes to the direction. Not only does director Philip Wm. McKinley struggle to find any way to bring this story to the stage, he also appears rather clueless as to how to do it in this particular space. There is the argument that this is completely the wrong space for this play, which I will expand on momentarily, with many seats visibly restricted in their view of the stage. The fact McKinley hasn’t taken into consideration how to present the story in a way that audiences can actually see is shocking and, quite frankly, insulting to anyone who buys a ticket. His problematic direction is felt throughout the play, leaving the cast an impossible challenge to try and make any sense out of the combination with the writing and direction - something that even the strongest of actors would struggle to achieve. One poor choice is the presentation of Marilyn’s corpse, or lack thereof. Pixie Lott stands behind as the cast comment on the absent body in a laughably poor choice. Could another actor not have put a wig on and acted as a double, or couldn’t they have at least shoved a mannequin there? Absolutely baffling, making scenes that should have been taken seriously all the more ridiculous.

The show also boasts the worst depiction of sex you will ever see on stage, with two actors miming removing their clothes and then proceeding to make the most awkward and laughable noises that has all the romance and energy more akin to stepping on a nail. On two random occasions during the play, a piano underscoring a seemingly emotional speech can be heard, though these are isolated to these two moments and are never to be heard again. Had McKinley had a prop piano on stage and got his Marilyn to play it, this could have been effective. Instead, its impact feels strange and underdeveloped - a problem that can be felt repeatedly throughout the course of the play.

I admire the ambition and resilience of the Emerald Theatre in its continued bid to reinvent and establish its presence in the West End. However, this is not the way to do it.

The space does not lend itself well to a production such as this with poor sightlines making the vast majority of seats a restricted view. More thought really needs to be given to putting the right show in the right space rather than suddenly and simply shoving anything in to fill a gap as seems to be the case here. Essentially, this space is great for cabaret and I could see it being used for drag shows and brunches as well as burlesque, as previous shows have attempted. However, this further attempt to reinvent themselves has set them on the wrong path entirely, as this is not a place you would go to for a play such as this, and the poor fit sets Who Killed Marilyn? up to fail before the show has even begun.

Design elements found in this production vary in their success, with Justin Williams delivering the essentials on a sparse set full of challenges. The same cannot be said for the costume design, with Pixie Lott wearing an outfit that seemingly resembled Olivia Newton-John in Grease more than it did Marilyn Monroe. The fact she wears the same outfit from start to finish feels poor, as is the disappointingly cheap and distinctly un-Marilyn look. The rest of the cast find their poor costumes splattered with stains for some bizarre reason that led some of the audience theorising that it looked like some sort of bodily fluid. What the purpose of it is, I’ll never know, but what I can say is it didn’t work and looked decidedly awful. While Jack Weir’s blinding lighting is initially used to good effect transitioning from flashback to present day, it is seriously overused, becoming repetitive and tiresome, while there was a repeated issue at this performance where the lighting struggled to find the cast, plunging them in darkness for periods of time.

Unfortunately, these irredeemable issues reflect badly on the cast, though they shouldn’t be blamed for the shortcomings found elsewhere. Ultimately, they have been given poor tools and told to create a miracle out of essentially nothing. They do their best, and that is clear to see, but nobody comes out of Who Killed Marilyn? looking good, unfortunately. That is especially frustrating for Pixie Lott in the lead role as Marilyn Monroe who is clearly taking the role seriously and has put the work in to do the best she can, but she can only do so much. She conveys a powerful and emotional speech in Act Two incredibly well, with tears falling down as she delivers what should be a rousing monologue, but is let down by the content of what she is saying, with incohesive and generally poorly written lines hampering what could and should have been a much stronger performance. It is a testament to both Lott and the show’s writing that she is at her best when she doesn’t have a line to say, serving an expressive face that says more than any of the lines could even dream of. The single musical moment, where Lott gets to recreate Marilyn’s iconic rendition of “Happy Birthday” is a refreshing, albeit unsurprising addition, and left me wondering if this would have worked better as a musical.

The rest of the cast suffer from poor writing and irredeemable direction, leaving them to feel lost and essentially up to their own devices on stage. This makes for some particularly painful moments, with an aggressive argument between Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio shockingly wooden and inauthentic. The wooden nature of the performances is sadly a common issue, with dialogue that regularly sounds stilted and lacking any sort of humanity, nuance or emotion whatsoever. It left me questioning what was actually worse when it came to the writing and performances in the play - the dialogue or the delivery. Both, regrettably, are far from where they needed to be.

This review might seem harsh, especially when it comes to the tone usually found on All That Dazzles, but presenting productions as sloppy as this is an insult to a paying audience, especially given the prices of tickets they have been charging. Creatives have a responsibility when it comes to bringing a show such as this to the stage, otherwise they can be accused of fleecing an audience and end up with another Willy’s Chocolate Spectacular situation - though at least you got a single jelly bean with a visit there. The fact that the programme lists the vast majority of creatives in completely different roles than they have actually done shows how haphazard the production has been - if nobody involved can take several minutes to proofread a programme and double-check the essentials, what hope is there of actually workshopping, rehearsing and amending a play to present a version worthy of a paying audience? Poor and shoddy in every sense, it may seem a petty thing to mention but it is another example of how unbothered everybody seems to have been in the creation and presentation of this play.

Reviews such as this are never a joy to write, but they can be a necessary evil in this world. I will always strive to be as fair as possible, but then I must also be honest, and Who Killed Marilyn? is just not good enough, by any stretch. Completely under-developed and presented by a creative team who either couldn’t agree on how to tell this story or didn’t know themselves, this is a play that was nowhere near ready to be seen by a paying audience and is in desperate need of a lot more workshopping in an attempt to salvage anything they can. They will have their work cut out for them, however, as this play needs a new book and a different director if it wants any attempt at a future life.

There is a famous quote that has been attributed to Marilyn Monroe and is predictably shoehorned in the play, “If you can’t handle me at my worst, you don’t deserve me at my best”. There have been some great adaptations and interpretations of Marilyn’s story in the decades since her best, but this may well be the worst depiction to be seen on stage or screen. With that in mind, can somebody please let me see the best now? Rather than add to Monroe’s legacy or reclaim her status as something other than a victim, this ill-conceived production has done the opposite. When it comes to the question in the show’s title, Who Killed Marilyn?, the answer is sadly the writer and director.

Who Killed Marilyn? is at Emerald Theatre until 29th October. Tickets from https://www.whokilledmarilyn.uk/

Photos by Pamela Raith