Tell Me on a Sunday (Hayes Theatre) ★★★½

Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Lyrics by Don Black. Hayes Theatre. 12 Apr – 5 May, 2024.

Erin Clare is remarkable in Lloyd Webber’s rather unremarkable musical. This “Neglected Musicals” presentation of Tell Me on a Sunday, turns the mid-tier story into a fun, one-woman cabaret worth every cent.

There’s not a lot to the plot. A young woman from England looking for love in America, falls for a number of prospects, gets her heart broken a few times and decides not to let life get her down. That’s about it. Oh and the songs are good, Lloyd Webber is on fine form here.

In lots of ways it’s nice to strip Lloyd Webber back from the grandiosity of his super-hits Phantom of the Opera, Starlight Express and Sunset Boulevard etc, and narrow the focus down to a single character. Lloyd Webber has always been more experimental than people give him credit for (think about it, a song-cycle about domestic pets isn’t anyone’s idea of standard MT fare), and his earlier credits have a boldness to them that he’s lost in later productions. Tell Me on a Sunday feels like an amuse bouche between the semi-historical Evita and the completely-histrionic Cats. This is his version of a sit-com with a quirky female lead.

But is it sexist? Two white, middle aged men writing a musical about a young woman’s romantic adventures… well, it’s not dripping in verisimilitude is it? The nameless “Girl” at the heart of the show is cypher for sure. There is an air of patriarchal condescension to the writing, “oh that silly girl”, as she stumbles into each new, doomed-from-the-start relationship. However I have to say, I know both men and women, who aren’t too far from this character. The problem with “The Girl” isn’t that she’s not realistic, it’s that she’s a caricature. Give the book to a good writer and you could really make something of her (just not Emerald Fennell… Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella/Bad CInderella was not good).

Presented as part of the Hayes Theatres “Neglected Musicals,” Tell Me on a Sunday actually has more staging than expected, usually these are black-box affairs with minimal props or costumes. I assume having a single performer has let them invest in more staging, lighting and props – all of which help a lot and make the brief 70 min show fly by.

But the focus is purely on Erin Clare. Clare looks and sounds like a million bucks, owning the stage and the audience for the whole running time. Her “girl” is vivacious, tenacious and great fun to be with. Head-strong and optimistic she is a British Gidgit (or a less world-weary Carrie Bradshaw, or a… I’m too old to have any more contemporary references). Clare is singing and acting her proverbials off. In the small space of the Hayes you can see the glimmers of uncertainty flash across Clare’s face as she leaps into the next rich suitor’s arms. And of course, Clare has a gift for comedy, milking each scene for its silliest moments. Dare I say she reminds me of a young Sutton Foster?

While still only a “semi-staged” presentation, this is the most staged I’ve seen from “Neglected Musicals” and it hits just right. This is the perfect way to stage a show like this, flawed but with some terrific tunes. Tell Me on a Sunday has charm and promise (you can hear a lot of echoes of Lloyd Webber and Black’s Sunset Boulevard in the score) but it feels like only half a story. “The Girl” has a whole journey to go on yet.