NOW That’s What I Call a Musical is a fun show featuring some of the most iconic songs from the 1980s. It’s a great night out, with a good story and soundtrack. Here’s my NOW That’s What I Call a Musical theatre review.
Overview and plot of NOW That’s What I Call a Musical
NOW That’s What I Call a Musical follows the story of two main characters: April and Gemma. The show jumps between the years 1989 and 2009. In 1989, April and Gemma are best friends and school. In 2009, there’s a school reunion and the two friends are reunited. The plot of NOW That’s What I Call a Musical is quite simple, so you can easily watch the show and understand the plot without knowing the plot in advance. I’ll give more details about the plot here – but be warned that my NOW That’s What I Call a Musical theatre review will give some plot spoilers.
NOW That’s What I Call a Musical starts by introducing the two time frames. Gemma turns up to the 2009 school reunion and starts to talk to some people there, but April hasn’t arrived yet. Back in 1989, April and Gemma are best friends and having fun as teenage girls.
Act 1 of NOW That’s What I Call a Musical
A lot of the first half of NOW That’s What I Call a Musical follows the story of Gemma and April when they’re younger, with a few flashes to the 2009 school reunion. And there are songs throughout the show. Back in 1989, we have the song ‘Girls just wanna have fun’, as April and Gemma enjoy their lively teenage years. There’s also the song ‘Man in Motion’, as the two girls talk about their hopes and dreams for the future. April dreams of moving to Hollywood and becoming a famous movie star. As one of her teachers says, she needs to do something ‘with all that personality’. Gemma dreams of becoming a nurse, getting married and having children.
In 1989, there’s a guy called Barney who likes April, but he’s a bit awkward and Gemma doesn’t notice him. Barney sings ‘Every breath you take’ for Gemma, but he sings it in a really creepy way which is really fun. But instead of noticing Barney, Gemma instead meets and falls in love with Tim. There’s the song ‘What a feeling’ when Gemma first meets Tim. Gemma’s brother is interested in April, but she doesn’t notice him and instead focuses on moving to LA to become a movie star.
April and Gemma after school
The show follows the story of Gemma as she becomes a nurse, and later on gets married to Tim. There’s an amusing scene where Gemma has a hen party, and Barney ends up being the pizza delivery guy/stripper who turns up. April moves to Los Angeles and at first struggles to find work. The two friends try to stay in touch, but April is unable to come to Gemma’s wedding because she gets her first part in a TV show. The two friends are losing touch. There’s the song ‘I’ll stand by you’ at Gemma and Tim’s wedding.
Act 1 ends with the 2009 school reunion, and April suddenly turns up. She greets Gemma, having not seen or spoken to her for years.
Act 2 of NOW That’s What I Call a Musical
Act 2 of NOW That’s What I Call a Musical focuses mostly on the 2009 versions of April and Gemma. The two friends are happy to be reunited. We see that Gemma’s relationship with her husband, Tim, isn’t good. But Gemma is happy to be with her old friend again. The two have a lot of drinks, until Gemma goes home drunk.
April goes back to the bar, and meets Tim. However, she doesn’t know it’s Tim – she’s never seen a picture of him, and he introduces himself a ‘Mickey’. Tim also doesn’t know who April is. So then there’s the song ‘Mickey’ which was good fun. Tim and April end up going back to Tim’s house to sleep together. But Gemma comes in and discovers them. She forgives April, but decides to leave Tim.
April and Gemma end up having a big argument. They say hurtful things to each other. Gemma accuses April of being too focussed on her glamorous LA life and not being there as a friend. April says even worse things – she reveals she has a daughter, while Gemma has been unable to get pregnant despite wanting to. April says ‘well at least I could get pregnant’. Gemma leaves, very hurt.
Special guest appearance – Sonia
When Gemma is upset, she’s crying in her childhood room at her parents house. There’s still a poster of Sonia on the wall – Gemma’s favourite icon when she was younger. And then the real Sonia appears and sings her famous songs.
The rest of Act 2
Of course, the two friends reconcile. April ends up in hospital with stress, and Gemma is her nurse. They talk calmly, and both reveal that their lives haven’t turned out as planned. Gemma always wanted to get married and have children, but instead she’s getting divorced and hasn’t been able to have children. April reveals that she’s a single mum to her daughter, Daisy, and also that she got fired from her TV job. She’s been working as a receptionist.
The show then jumps to another scene, where it suddenly appears that Gemma’s brother is about to jump off a bridge and commit suicide because his latest business went wrong. Gemma’s family and also April try to talk him down, and April reveals that her daughter is actually Gemma’s brother’s child, from when he went to LA a few years back. Gemma’s brother says he never planned to jump off the bridge, and is happy to now be a father.
The show ends with April and Gemma’s brother becoming a family. And Gemma meets Barney, the guy who was interested in her from school, and a new romance starts to develop there.
What I liked about NOW That’s What I Call a Musical
I enjoyed the show. It was a fun show, with good music and a good enough plot. It was an enjoyable evening, and a lot of the audience seemed to be really enjoying the show.
The plot – dreams and realities
There were quite a lot of elements of the plot that I liked. The main thing I really liked was the theme that ran throughout the show of childhood dreams, and the realities of being an adult. I liked how we saw the young April and Gemma, as they were so excited about their future and full of optimistic hopes and dreams. I remember being a teenager, just finishing school, and I remember that feeling of the whole world being open to you, and so many opportunities and possibilities. It was nice to be reminded of that feeling.
And I liked the realities of the 2009 scenes, when April and Gemma are adults. For both of them, their dreams haven’t worked out the way they thought they would. As April says in the second half, ‘we put so much focus on our dreams, but they never end up working out quite the way we imagined’.
I really liked that quote. It definitely resonated with me. I remember all my dreams as a teenager about what I thought my life would look like. And now, in my 30s, I often struggle with the feeling that my life doesn’t look the way I imagined. The realities of life, circumstances and bad luck change things. I enjoyed watching a show that explored these feelings and emotions.
Dreams and realities – the positive spin
And I also liked that the show put a positive spin on the theme of dreams and realities. It wasn’t a depressing show. It wasn’t meant to be a show where you feel sad that April and Gemma haven’t realised their dreams. The show is still really positive, and April and Gemma still have a lot of good things and a lot to be positive about. And the show is a reminder that it’s ok if your life doesn’t look like you imagined – you can still be proud of what you’ve achieved and it’s never too late to start re-building your life.
The songs, dancing and singing
A highlight of this show is the songs, and the singing and dancing. The soundtrack is good – everyone in the audience knows all the songs, so it’s nice to see these classic songs performed on stage. My favourite songs from the show were ‘Man in motion’ – there was an amazing moment where April and Gemma were singing it, and then they were joined by the rest of the cast. The song ‘I’ll stand by you’ at Gemma and Tim’s wedding was a lovely song as well. And the song ‘What a feeling’, when Gemma and Tim first meeting, was lovely with some really impressive dancing. It was my favourite dance of the show, and Gemma and Tim even did the famous ‘Dirty Dancing’ lift in that song. I loved the song ‘Mickey’ as well, it was a really fun song.
I thought the young Gemma was an amazing singer, dancer and actor. And the older April really stood out as well, especially when she sang the song ‘Sisters are doing it for themselves’ in the second half.
NOW That’s What I Call a Musical is choreographed by Craig Revel Horwood, from Strictly Come Dancing. In a lot of the scenes, you could really tell that this show has had the input from a professional choreographer. The dancing was great, and really added to the show.
What I wasn’t so sure about
I definitely enjoyed the show NOW That’s What I Call a Musical, and my NOW That’s What I Call a Musical theatre review is mostly positive. But there were still a few elements of the show that I wasn’t so sure about. I wouldn’t say I loved this show, even though it was still enjoyable.
The plot
I’ve written above about liking the plot theme of teenage hopes and dreams, and adult realities. But aside from this theme, I did find the plot a bit obvious. There wasn’t really anything unexpected or challenging in the plot of the show. The plot was very simple – two girls, and their lives. It was nice in a way, and it’s relaxing to watch a show that doesn’t have a complicated plot. But it still just felt quite predictable and ordinary.
The plot of NOW That’s What I Call a Musical reminded me a lot of the plot of Greatest Days The Musical, the show that’s based on the songs of Take That. The musical Greatest Days also follows the stories of school girls who were best friends, and then them reuniting as adults. I would have liked NOW That’s What I Call a Musical to have had a plot that was a bit different to the Greatest Days musical, and a plot that’s just a bit more engaging.
Weird moments in the show
The show was fun overall. But there were a few weird moments. There was the song ‘Video killed the radio star’ in the first half, when April was working at a video store. It was a fun show, but suddenly the extra came on dressed as robots with pink wigs. I’m guessing this was a reference to the music video of this song. But I’d never seen it, so to me it felt a bit weird.
I also felt like the scene in the second half when it seems like Gemma’s brother is about to kill himself was a bit weird. It was a sudden shift in the tone of the show. Most of the show was fun and a bit silly. So it felt a bit jarring to suddenly include such a serious theme. And it was just a short scene. And it was quickly turned into a sort-of joke, where Gemma’s brother says he was just stood on the bridge to think. I’m not sure it was the right decision to include the theme of suicide in a fun, silly show. Especially as it was such a short scene and dealt with as a joke. I’m sure the outcome of that scene could have been achieved in a different way.
Appearance of Sonia
The appearance of Sonia in the second half of the show was good, but it didn’t really add anything to the plot of the show. It felt like they just included that scene so Sonia could come on stage and sing her famous song. It was really good to see a famous singer, and I can imagine that for fans of Sonia in the 1980s, it would have been a highlight of the show. But for anyone who doesn’t have the history of being a fan, it did have the feeling of just being a random song that didn’t carry forward the plot.
Would I recommend NOW That’s What I Call a Musical
My NOW That’s What I Call a Musical theatre review is mostly positive, so I would recommend this show. It’s definitely a fun night out, with an easy to follow plot. And it has great songs and dancing. It’s not one of my favourite musicals of all time, but it was still enjoyable. And it’s a great show for a night out with the girls.
Hope you enjoyed my NOW That’s What I Call a Musical theatre review! Check out my other theatre reviews for more shows in the West End, across the UK and the world.
