EDINBURGH 2023: Review: BED: THE MUSICAL, Gilded Balloon

Bed: The Musical is a sung-through show about one couple's life in connection to their bed.

Moving into their first home and taking on a 25-year mortgage, Alice and Ben have made the decision to forsake a honeymoon for a luxury divan bed that comes with a lifetime guarantee. Newly married, we see the pair blissfully in love to begin with.

There’s a particularly creepy song at the beginning where Ben sings adoringly about watching Alice sleep and unfortunately, the quality of the writing doesn’t get much better from here. Both performers have good singing voices but the material doesn’t give them much to work with and the songs are very samey. 

Little niggles start to appear in the relationship with arguments over who does what housework. They find out they are having their first child while sitting on the bed which is followed by a home birth in that same bed.

From parenting to affairs, trial separations and illness- everything takes place surrounding this bed. The entire span of their 20 year relationship is covered in sixty minutes which sounds like an impressive feat but it does feel a lot longer when you’re watching it. 

It’s an interesting idea but the writing doesn't hold up, resulting in a predictable and mundane new musical.

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