Cruel Intentions created by Jordan Ross, Lindsey Rosin & Roger Kumble based on Kumble’s 199 film. The Other Palace, 12 Palace Street, London SW1E to 14 April 2024.

4****: William Russell.

“Great songs, a dazzling leading lady – a good night out of its kind.”

As Junk Box musicals go Cruel Intentions, this version of the 1999 film is smart, funny , doesn’t quite catch the film’s nastiness, been stuffed with a eclectic selection of songs of the time, and gets a blazingly good performance from Rhianne-Louise McCaulsky as the lead predator deflower ing innocents . It is, of course, based on the scandalous 1782 novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos about a the destruction of innocence by a heartless pair of aristocrats the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont who both end up getting a taste of their own medicine . It has been filmed several times notably by Roger Vadim in 1959 and Stephen Frears in . The 1999 film was one of a clutch made by Hollywood at the time aimed at a teenage audience and starred hearthrobs of the day some of whom have gone on to climb the Hollywood greasy pole with considerable success. It has become something of a cult and the added songs do egg a rather passé pudding very nicely indeed for this musical version already seen in America. Set in a select Upper Side Manhattan high school Katheryn Mertuil (MCaulsky a graduate of the College of Six) and her half brother Sebastian Valmont (Daniel Bravo looking rather bored with life and anything but decadent) embark on her getting revenge for her current boy falling for their new headmaster’s virgin daughter and his seeking to achieve his wish to bed his half sister by helping her destroy the affair by taking the girl’s virginity. Nobody sounds remotely American let alone posh and they are all a little old to still be at High School but maybe lessons were not what kept them there. The songs and how they are slotted in, the terrific band under Denise Crowley, slick direction by Jonathan O’Boyle and McCaulsky’s performance keep it all bubbling along although it does take rather longer than the film to tell the tale. As two of the innocents deflowered Abbie Budden and Rose Galbraith and introduces to the joys of sex oral or otherwise make impressive professional debuts, while Jack Barnett as the inevitable football Jock and Barney Wilkinson as the obligatory gay get together to add little spice on top as they camp merrily around. Their coupling is one of the evening’s better moments. Everyone works hard, perform the calisthenics which pass for choreography in shows like this rather well on the distinctly uninspiring but functional set and the result is a decent time passer, albeit a show hardly worth analysing for its relevance to anything social or sexual then or today. Oddly the references to oral and anal sex and the four letter words did appear to cause the press night audience to gasp ever so slightly – where have they been? If Heathers, another musical based on a long gone teenage movie, which Cruel Intentions follows in to the Other Palace, was your kind of show then this too should be your kind of show. If not, there are the consolations of the songs, all of which are show stoppers in their own right, and McCaulsky who is on fire throughout.

Cast

Daniel Bravo – Sebastian Valmont.

Kathryn Merteuil – Rhianne-Louise McCaulsky.

Abbie Budden -Annette Hargrove.

Rose Galbraith – Cecile Caldwell/Marci Greenbaum.

Josh Barnett – Blaine Tuttle.

Barney Wilkinson – Greg McConnel.

Nickcola King-N’Da – Ronald Clifford.

Jess Buckley – Bunny Caldwell/Dr Greenbaum.

Ensemble – Nathan Lorainey-Dineen, Charlotte O’Rourke, Verity Thompson, Craig Watson.

Creatives

Director – Jonathon O’Boyle.

Choreographer & Associate Director – Gary Lloyd.

Set & Costume Designer – Polly Sullivan.

Lighting Designer – Nick Richings.

Sound Designer – Chris Whybrow.

Musical Director – Denise Crowley.