Review Roundup: THE LITTLE BIG THINGS Opens @sohoplace! What Did the Critics Think?

Based on the Sunday Times best-selling autobiography by Henry Fraser, The Little Big Things is a new British musical that has now opened in London's @sohoplace theatre.

An avid sportsman and academy player with a premiership Rugby club, Henry Fraser’s life changed forever when in 2009 he had a diving accident. From that moment he had a new life to live as a tetraplegic and new circumstances to accept and adapt to. Henry’s defiance and determination to prosper against devastating odds led to him wheeling himself out of hospital a whole year earlier than predicted. Today he is a successful artist, inspirational speaker and best-selling author.

This uplifting new musical is a life-affirming reminder about the transformative power of family, and how sometimes it really is the little things which matter the most.

So what did the critics think?

Photo Credit: Pamela Raith 

BroadwayWorld, Debbie Gilpin: On paper, it really isn’t the most obvious book to turn into a musical, but somehow it just about works. Butcher and Ling’s songs are enjoyable, with some real toe-tappers like “Uma Vida” peppered throughout; though not a complete measure of a song’s quality, none are particularly memorable – “The Little Big Things” only sticks in your head on the way out of the theatre because it’s the last song you hear (and the chorus is repeated multiple times). Employing a pop-rock score is an interesting choice – and definitely grounds the action in the late noughties – but ultimately means many of the songs are rather samey.

Evening Standard: Nick Curtis: The creators’ experience in crafting three-minute hits and their relative ignorance of musical theatre convention prove liberating. Several numbers, particularly those involving the bros, sound like superior boyband ballads: I mean that as a compliment. There are party tunes as Henry goes out drinking both pre- and post-accident. OK, it’s a little obvious to give Parris, the only black woman in a lead role, a gospel-inflected tune: but the lyrics communicate both the stress and the passion of a doctor’s life.

The Stage: Sam Marlowe: But while the piece deals in powerful themes – courage, resilience, the strength and joy that spring from love and creativity – it paints in primary colours. White’s book has a by-numbers feel, and the poppy music is melodiously middle of the road, a less memorable close cousin of Dear Evan Hansen. It’s carried by the story’s emotional heft, and by winning performances.

WhatsOnStage: Alun Hood: One of the things that makes The Little Big Things, and indeed Luke Sheppard’s visionary, career-best production, so special is that it doesn’t just represent disability on stage, it actively celebrates it, which feels like a beautiful, uplifting thing. Nowhere is this better demonstrated than by the show-stealing performance of rising star Amy Trigg as Agnes, the physiotherapist instrumental in turning Henry’s life around. Agnes is in a wheelchair following a devastating car accident but has carved out a new life as a health professional, has a sexy husband, and a ferociously ‘can-do’ attitude matched only by her compassion. Trigg makes her witty, horny, bossy, completely inspiring and about as far removed from being a victim as it’s possible to imagine. She reinforces the point that when something life changing happens, a refocused set of expectations is essential for survival.

The Times, Clive Davis: You could sense the audience willing on the gutsy performers on press night. Yet it was just as hard to ignore the nagging impression that the project is several rewrites away from the finished article. The rock score by the debutant composer Nick Butcher aspires to be anthemic, but drifts into U2-lite territory. There’s not much cheer in the lyrics either: Butcher and his co-writer, Tim Ling, string together solemn platitudes as they piece together Fraser’s recovery after a beach accident which left him paralysed from the neck down when he was just 17.

The Little Big Things is @sohoplace until 25 November