”Eugenius!” at the Turbine Theatre – review

This revival of Ben Adams and Chris Wilkins’ 2016 musical provides a welcome reminder of the show’s many charms, which saw it win a legion of fans. But at the same time it cannot completely overcome its flaws, which include a flimsy central plot and some badly dated gender politics.

It’s 1988, and Eugene (Elliott Evans) is a high school geek with a talent for writing comics featuring his superhero Tough Guy, who can handle anything but love. Keen to avoid the normality of his single father’s path, and encouraged by his friends and fellow geeks Janey (Jaina Brock-Patel) and Feris (James Hameed), he suddenly finds himself attracting Hollywood interest when a hotshot producer’s assistant visits the school.

The story may be thuddingly predictable, but there are plenty of laughs and catchy tunes along the way. Director Hannah Chissick and designer Andrew Exeter have found innovative ways to mount the production in the intimate Turbine, notably through the use of a video wall (co-designed by Andy Walton), which provides a neat scrolling series of backdrops. It ensures the minimalist approach feels expansive, and there is fun to be had with it too, including a moment of all-audience participation (don’t worry, it’s nothing scary).

It also features some fine performances, not least from leads Evans and Brock-Patel, whose impressive vocals are at their best in the climactic power ballad “Comic Book Kind of Love”. Many of the best lines meanwhile go to the outrageously camp assistant Theo Schlong (a glorious turn from Rhys Taylor), including a lovely gag about Patti LuPone. Dominic Andersen is another stand out, lending the school jock and beefcake actor Gerhard, who plays Tough Guy, a wildly over-the-top machismo.

Hameed does his best with Feris, but the character’s insistence of leering over any female in his orbit, which is pitched as being a lovable quirk, is anything but. This reaches its lowest point in abject number “The No Pants Dance”, crooned to actress Carrie (Maddison Firth), who plays Tough Guy’s love interest Super Hot Lady, which should have been quietly dropped. Sure, this may be the 80s, but rather than getting the girl in the end he should be slapped with a restraining order.

Elsewhere the fiction-busting villain, Evil Lord Hector, is given a suitably cartoonish interpretation by Joseph Beach, while ruthless producer Lex Logan is a wonderfully arch, and power-suited Lara Denning. The cast is completed by Naomi Alade and Sebastian Harwood, showing admirable dance and vocal chops in a range of supporting roles. Choreographer Aaron Renfree creates several enjoyably lo-fi routines, such as the rousing act one closer “Hollywood”, and shout out too to the two-strong band of Nick Pinchbeck (also MD) and Joel Mulley-Goodbarne, who have no issue filling the space augmented by plenty of era-appropriate synths.

The show sits alongside the likes of Loserville and Be More Chill as a fine example of the geek musical which seemed to be en vogue in the previous decade. Seeing it over five years on, there is a nostalgic enjoyment in its unashamedly energetic and fun-filled approach; the Turbine has even been plastered in Tough Guy posters to make it feel like a miniature Comic Con. But for all its likability, when all is said and done it’s more genial than genius.