Review: SAY YES TO TESS - A NEW MUSICAL, Camden People's Theatre

So a musical about an outsider with a thirst to shake up the political status quo, a complicated love life and a group of radical friends? Well, Tess Seddon may not find her face on the $10 bill any time soon, but she's created (with songs by Harry Blake) an entertaining and diverting show, with just enough bite so send you home thinking as well as smiling.

Playing herself, Tess is at a loose end in London with a boyfriend who isn't really a boyfriend (Jamie Noar, also on keys) and a career in theatre that isn't a career in theatre. Having been amused by a bowdlerised version of Henry V's rallying cry (a splendid turn by Kofi Dennis), she thinks she might be able to write a play about The Yorkshire Party's General Election campaign of 2017. As it turns out (and it really did turn out like that - check Wikipedia), our Tess stands for a Leeds constituency and - spoiler alert!! - doesn't win. But she has some fun and learns a lot along the way - and so do we.

The show has something of the madcap energy of early versions of The Play That Goes Wrong and there's a touch of Fings-era Lionel Bart in the music and lyrics and a hint of Alan Bennett in the laconic Yorkshire wit that infuses each scene. Okay, it's not at those levels - at least not yet - but the "Twitter Storm" song is as good as any I've heard on the fringe this year and the message - that left-behind people need to be listened to in a political system that ruthlessly excludes them - is as on the nose as ever.

Tess herself is a warm guide (and she's dead right about not being able to sing - charmingly so) and she gets great support from Purvi Parmar as her bolshie flatmate who is slowly won over and Andrew Whitehead as the no-nonsense Wakefield taxi driver and part-time cage-fighting referee deeply committed to a Yorkshire parliament.

TheatreState's production was created in association with Leeds Playhouse, but it has an appeal well beyond the Broad Acres and I could see it playing very well in schools wanting to engage teens in the political process and also on BBC Three. For now, audiences in London have an opportunity to see a lovely little show that may not be our Hamilton, but is plenty good enough.

Say Yes To Tess - A New Musical is at Camden People's Theatre until 16 April

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