Review: EDINBURGH 2024: SOLVE IT SQUAD, Assembly George Square Studios - Studio Two

“I’m getting the gang back together”

Written by Joey Richter, Brian Rosenthal and Corey Lubowich, with music by Nick Gage, Solve It Squad is a loving parody of Scooby Doo, in which the titular Solve It Squad, a group of teenagers, go around solving mysteries in the town of Mayberry.

After the gruesome death of Scrags’s dog, Cluebert, the group break up and they each go their separate ways until Scrags (Joey Richter) brings them back together twenty years later to solve one final case, The Case of the Demonic Apostle, the very creature that killed Cluebert.

The Solve It Squad is made up of Scrags, who has become an FBI agent, Keith (Gabe Greenspan), the former “leader” of the group who is now living in a van on Venice Beach, Gwen (Ashley Clements), a struggling actress using her childhood fame for roles in shows like Officer Doctor Cop, MD and Esther (Lauren Lopez), the genius of the group who is now off the grid and taking drugs to keep her busy brain quiet. It is fun to see how each of the squad members started out like their Scooby Doo counterparts and end up wildly different, especially Esther - Lopez’s physical comedy, which was a highlight of the show as a whole. 

At the performance I saw, director and co-creator Corey Lubowich took on the role of “Everyone Else,” usually played by Brian Rosenthal. Lubowich did a great job with script in hand, desperately trying to do as many of the quick changes as possible to great applause from the audience, regardless of the level of success these changes were done to.

A surprisingly delightful aspect of the show for me was its set, particularly a lamp that appeared to actually be glowing, even though it was simply painted onto the wall. The set was also used well during a chase scene towards the end of the show, with the characters moving in between the four walls and running away from who they believe to be the Demonic Apostle, trying to escape the same fate of Cluebert.

Unfortunately, it was difficult to hear the performers many times as they did not have microphones and were overpowered by both background music and sound effects. There were also a few technical things that seemed off, including a smoke machine going off at random times with no explanation or obvious purpose. Quite a few scenes also went by a bit too quickly, which made me wish that the show could be extended into a two-act work with some more character development and time to explore scenes that fly by in the current iteration. 

Ultimately, Solve It Squad is a fun parody that lovingly pokes fun at the murder mystery genre while still being an interesting standalone work. Outside of the technical issues that had a negative impact on the show, the performers are great and are clearly enjoying what they are doing which makes for a fun watch as a whole.

Solve It Squad ran until 25 August at Assembly George Square Studios, Studio Two.

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