No Love Songs (Foundry) ★★★

Music by Kyle Falconer. Book by Laura Wilde & Johnny McKnight from an original idea by Kyle Falconer & Laura Wilde. Foundry Theatre. Mar 7 – Apr 5, 2025.

Everyone’s life has a playlist, and this is Lana and Jessie’s. But don’t come to No Love Songs thinking this is some fun, pop/rock-infused, rom-com gig-musical. This show is less (500) Days of Summer and more Next To Normal, if you know what I mean.

Lana (Lucy Maunder) is a university student, working in retail and keen for a night out, when she sees Jessie (Keegan Joyce) fronting a band in a pub. It doesn’t take long for them to stumble home together. From there, things move quickly as a pregnancy turns their budding romance into a fully-fledged family. But the young couple aren’t prepared for how much their lives are about to change, and when Jessie goes on an international tour to make enough cash to support the new family unit, the pressure of raising a newborn falls solely on Lana’s shoulders.

No Love Songs has a classic “indie musical” feel. Its budget-friendly construction (two performers and an exposition-heavy book reduce the need for sets or costume changes) puts the focus on the talented leads whose personal charm is paramount. Moving the action to Australia is seamless (you wouldn’t know the show was originally set in the UK if you weren’t told), and there is a welcome warmth to both Joyce and Maunder, which helps to fill the large “black box” of the new Foundry Theatre. 

Adapted from songwriter Kyle Falconer’s 2021 solo album No Love Songs for Laura—an upbeat slice of indie pop—the tunes are catchy, especially in the early moments. As the show progresses, it becomes clear that they weren’t written as narrative vehicles, like traditional musical theatre songs, and, despite some re-written lyrics, don’t always convey the plot or internal motivation effectively. 

This becomes an issue as the show pivots from the meet-cute into the rocky realities of parenthood, which, to the show’s credit, are taken very seriously. No Love Songs is a darker show than the sweet imagery and cute tagline might suggest, and the songs and script struggle to find the right balance. The result is a series of lengthy monologues in which both characters tell the audience what’s going on rather than dramatising it, or using the music tell the story.

Keegan Joyce makes a strong impression as the endearing but out-of-his-depth musician, Jessie. His voice is well suited to this material. Lucy Maunder has the tougher job of the two. Carrying the weight of a mental health storyline that literally saps Lana of her personality. It’s much harder to make her fully engaging and the middle of the show suffers from a lack of energy.

Musicals that really tackle mental health issues head on are few and far between, and No Love Songs admirably works hard to show us issues of postpartum depression with nuance and succeeds more often than not. The thing it’s most lacking is songs that get to the heart of the matter rather than being retrofitted to the moments.

Despite a strong start, fun tunes, and oodles of charm, the show can’t quite overcome these flaws in its construction. It has the guts of something unique and the ambition to tell a real story, but it needs to be set free from its pop-record origins to become truly satisfying.