Come Dine With Me: The Musical review – a delicious offering

You wait a lifetime for a stage musical about a beloved TV culinary show and then two come along at once.

Piping hot on the heels of The Great British Bake Off Musical, the first course for the musical based on Come Dine with Me series has been served at the Edinburgh Fringe.

While perhaps not holding the same “national treasure” status as Bake Off, the TV series is responsible for all manner of excellent pass-agg dinner partying, low-stakes competitiveness and perhaps one of the greatest memes in UK history – as four competitors duke it out by treating each other to a three-course meal in their homes, only to then be scored privately out of ten. The stage show therefore has a juicy premise and an easy, four-part structure that keeps things tight and ticking along.

The show succeeds by deciding not to focus particularly on the competition or the competitors themselves, but instead on the camera crew, tasked with capturing the ridiculous pomposity of the four contestants while also battling their own demons and inadequacies. A healthy sprinkling of whodunnit adds a bit of enigmatic intrigue.

In a way, the musical is a love letter to those unsung hero creatives, unglamorously slogging it out across the nation to make beloved national TV shows – waking up at the crack of dawn and staying in ramshackle B&Bs in far-flung locations.

Sam Norman and Aaron King’s tunes (the musical is written with input from two of the show’s producers) are endearing yet largely unmemorable, though an excellent bi-lingual foray into the world of French cuisine stands out. Easy jokes about veganism and carnivores keep things amiably ticking over, while there is committed work from a largely ensemble cast of seven.

The show has already locked in a London transfer, so there’s surely a peachy future being cooked up for this excellent, esculent caper.