Juke box musical Cruel Intentions’ success down to talented, hot and sexy young leads

Cruel Intentions at the New Theatre Oxford

From Tuesday, April 15 – Saturday 19

Review by JON LEWIS

The Hottest Rakes

Roger Kumble, Jordan Ross and Lindsey Rosin’s 2015 American juke box musical Cruel Intentions, revived recently by Jonathan O’Boyle for Bill Kenwright Productions, is inspired by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ 1782 epistolary novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses and Kumble’s own movie Cruel Intentions (1999). The setting has been transferred from Pre-Revolutionary France to 90s Manhattan, but there’s a nod to the original period with an ornamental chaise long centre stage.

The show is faithful to the movie. The hit songs have been designed to further the plot and reveal greater character development, and the team behind the song choices have done well with their mix. The songs are a familiar collection of nineties hits from The Spice Girls’ Wannabe to TLC’s No Scrubs. Natalie Imbruglia’s Torn, Meredith Brooks’ Bitch and R.E.M.’s Losing My Religion stand out for their poignancy and acidic nuances. The band plays live above the set at the rear of the stage, whilst the relatively few dance routines are effectively choreographed by Gary Lloyd.

The key to the success of the musical is in its casting. The youthful leads are talented, hot and sexy. The actors align their performances with the film stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Philippe, Reese Witherspoon and Selma Blair from Kumble’s movie which helps make the show more relatable to audiences who know the film.

Will Callan leads as the rakish, handsome stud Sebastian Valmont, trying to win a dare with his equally sex-obsessed half sister Kathryn (Nic Myers) to deflower a couple of fellow school students at their posh private school in New York. If he wins, he gets to bed Kathryn and if he loses, she wins his sports car.

The girls in question are a geeky cellist, Cecile (Lucy Carter), the student Kathryn’s ex, Blaine (Luke Conner Hall) has recently dumped her for, and a religious, short-skirted Christian, Annette (Olivia Brookes, standing in for Abbie Budden).

There’s a gay subplot for additional entertainment. The focus of the drama is following Sebastian’s progress in the arts of seduction and watching Kathryn’s cruel manipulations as a puppet mistress.

An enjoyable couple of hours.