Emojiland in Concert - Garrick Theatre

Judging by how many unsold seats there were at the concert, I'm surprised.

Also, this isn't a musical where you really care about anybody, as the moment you start to care, it just moves on to another character.

Because the storytelling is so weak, but also because so many of the songs are entertaining and catchy, it mostly plays like a variety show.

Which is why I ultimately didn't mind that there was no effort to stage this show (unlike recent "concert" performances, such as "The Witches of Eastwick," which promised a concert, but delivered a fully staged show in a week lol).

What I did mind, at the beginning, was that the lecterns with the scripts obscured the T shirts, that the cast were wearing, which revealed which emojis they were playing. Luckily, cast members lowered the lecterns lol.

Starting off fairly grumpy, as a consequence, and surprised at the "La Ronde" set-up of the show, which just seems to move from one character to the next, squandering audience identification, I soon found myself massively taken with the concert, in which an initially somewhat sheepish cast got more and more rowdy and bolshy as the show went on, as if competing with each other to showcase what they could do with limited songs each lol.

It seemed to me that there were three types of performance approach: (1) Look at me; (2) Deep feelings; & (3) Comedy performance:-

(1) Of the Look-at-me performances, Inez Budd absolutely dominated as Pile of Poo. Unlike other more static restrained readings, she came on ferociously dancing like Britney, but unlike Britney, who either sings or dances but never both, she came out with a Beyonce level storm of a diva vocal that just kept topping itself, showing zero embarrassment for the fact she had to keep on singing the "Pile of poo" lyric lol. She fired up the audience so much with her one song that I'm betting half the audience wished Pile of Poo carried the whole plot.

If this show ever does get properly staged, hiring Budd as Poo would be a smart move cos people might book tickets just to see that lol.

(2) Of the Deep Feelings type performances, Blake Patrick Anderson, as Nerd Face, was an absolute whiz! Just like he did with his Michael in "Be More Chill," he had you believing utterly in his sensitivity, depth and decency. I was practically crying over his "Zeroes and Ones," which revealed the inner machine in human beings, but I did in fact spill a tear or two, when he duetted with Laura Baldwin's Smize, in a song that may or may not be called "Anyway," though I don't know cos I couldn't see any programmes on sale. Anyway (lol), it was as if Michael from "Be more Chill" shared a tender song with Jenny from "Eugenius," and what more could you want than the two best characters from those musicals to duet lol?

(3) As far as comedy goes, it was a tie between Louise Dearman, doing a pouty baby voice and bitching out everyone around her, as Princess, and Tim Mahendran, who appeared to have little to no role at all, but somehow was eliciting laughs just by exuberantly roaring randomly and enthusiastially pumping his fist lol. When he did have lines to sing, he was so scabrous and nonchalant in his delivery that I was laughing up a storm. Dearman and Mahendran delivered the laughs.

But actually, my favourite performances of the night were the duo of Policewoman and Construction Worker! Because this duo delivered on ALL the aspects and approaches to entertainment.

Although their characters appeared out of nowhere, halfway through the show, this competitive yet loving Lesbian couple absolutely dominated! If Lamb inflected her songs with melisma and frills to diva her songs up to the max, Paris would up the ante and go even further. The pair were funny, expressed a genuine connection, and the audience approval was evident in whooping ovations.

All in all, the cast performed so well that the lack of audience identification and good storytelling was trumped by some major major entertainment.

3 stars for the show, which has some catchy songs making up for a weak story;
4 stars for the cast, who put on a terrific variety show;
3 and a half stars overall.