Hot Mess musical at The Other Palace – review

Earth storms onto the stage like she’s just stepped out of a self-help retreat and onto the runway of RuPaul’s Drag Race. She is glamorous, fierce and entirely in control of her destiny. Naturally, she falls in love with Humanity. And therein lies the tragedy of Hot Mess.

Jack Godfrey and Ellie Coote’s pop musical stages the oldest break-up in history, the one between Earth and the species that swears it adores her. Coote’s book and direction present a love story that is doomed from the very beginning, yet somehow convince the audience to hope for a different ending. You become deeply invested in these two, desperate for them to triumph against all odds. But as the show progresses, and Humanity consumes, exploits and takes advantage of everything around him, it becomes increasingly clear that there is only one way this can resolve.

Danielle Steers is magnificent as Earth, bringing warmth, wit and aching vulnerability to the role. She begins as an unstoppable force, all confidence and charisma, which makes her gradual unravelling all the more heartbreaking. Opposite her, Morgan Gregory‘s Humanity first appears with the gentle, curious air of a young David Attenborough, full of wonder and charm. It is a clever piece of characterisation, because beneath that earnest exterior lies something far more destructive: an inability to stop taking, even from the thing he claims to love.

Together, the pair are sensational. The chemistry is immediate and utterly believable, and the casting feels pitch-perfect. There are several moments that genuinely send chills through the auditorium.

Visually, the production is wonderfully inventive. Shankho Chaudhuri’s set grows messier and messier as the evening progresses, the stage literally collapsing into chaos. It is a beautifully realised metaphor for both the deteriorating relationship and the state of the planet itself. Alexzandra Sarmiento’s choreography is playful and inventive, while Ryan Joseph Stafford’s lighting and Paul Gatehouse’s sound design create a world that is camp, sexy and surprisingly moving.

If there is one frustration, it is that Earth is perhaps too forgiving for too long. The relationship is framed unmistakably as an abusive one and, while there are moments of resistance towards the end, one wishes there had been more glimpses of the formidable woman who first strode onto the stage. Her eventual reclamation is satisfying, but it would have hit harder had fragments of that earlier fire continued to break through as Humanity slowly destroyed her home.

There are a few other rough edges. Some of the vocals occasionally feel shaky, and the show loses momentum in places, lingering a little longer than necessary.

Still, Hot Mess is an unexpected triumph: funny, heartfelt, gloriously flamboyant and far more emotionally devastating than anyone could have anticipated. By the end, the stage lies in ruins, but the auditorium is alive with applause, celebrating a show that has somehow turned devastation into exhilaration.

A hot, sexy and unexpectedly poignant musical that feels both entertaining and urgently relevant.