Creators: Jordan Ross, Lindsey Rosin and Roger Kumble, based on the screenplay by Roger Kumble
Director: Jonathan O’Boyle
The 1999 film Cruel Intentions became a cult classic for many reasons. Part of it was the casting, which included Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Sarah Michelle Gellar, Dawson’s Creek’s Joshua Jackson, Christine Baranski, and future husband and wife Ryan Phillippe and Reese Witherspoon. It was also the breakout film for Selma Blair, who would go on to star with Witherspoon again in Legally Blonde.
But mostly, it was down to the screenplay, which crafted tales of sexual machinations among New York’s elite teens years before Gossip Girl and its ilk made such a setting seem commonplace. Roger Kumble’s script was a modern-day adaptation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses and, indeed, much of the labyrinthine scheming can be directly traced back to Laclos’ original.
This also means that the musical adaptation has one of the strongest books one could hope for. Staying highly true to the film, it chronicles the machinations of two sexually charged step-siblings as Daniel Bravo’s Sebastian Valmont tries to bed the virtuous Annette (Abbie Burden) while Kathryn Merteuil (Rhianne-Louise McCaulsky) wreaks revenge on the naïve goody-two-shoes (Rose Galbraith’s Cecile) for whom she was dumped by her boyfriend.
And if Cruel Intentions stuck to an onstage replay of the movie script, it would be compulsively watchable, even if director Jonathan O’Boyle ensures each line is delivered with so much comic archness it makes Dynasty look like Ibsen. But this stage production is also a jukebox musical, taking some of the tracks that peppered the film’s soundtrack (Placebo’s Every You Every Me, Bitter Sweet Symphony by The Verve or the Cardigans’ Lovefool) and stuffing in several more for good measure.
Mostly, the songs make thematic, if not lyrical sense: for instance, reframing Lovefool as a duet between Sebastian and Annette or using The Spice Girls’ Wannabe as a flirtatious scene between Sebastian’s gay friend Blaine (Josh Barnett) and his closeted football jock boyfriend (Barney Wilkinson). Most often, one must disregard the actual lyrics being sung and focus on either the mood or the one line that the musical’s creators are relying upon to justify the song’s inclusion.
While the familiarity of the songs brings its own pleasures, their frequency and the points at which they are included tend to distract from the story when one would hope that they instead enhanced it. The vocal performances are tremendous – especially from McCaulsky – but one is left to imagine how much greater a musical Cruel Intentions would be with original compositions that elevated, rather than sidestepped, its characters’ emotions and motivations.
Things do tend to gel better in the second act, but then it’s easier to fuse random ballads about heartbreak and betrayal to any story than it is a Christina Aguilera song about genies in a bottle. Generally, though, Cruel Intentions never quite manages to combine songs and story with the level of other jukebox successes, such as &Juliet (with which it shares several numbers).
Still, it is a whole load of fun, even when the direction and Gary Lloyd’s choreography tend to go for broad laughs rather than the whip-smart dryness of the script. Cruel Intentions may not be the best example of a jukebox musical, but its 1990s nostalgia does at least guarantee a good time for the whole audience, and you can never complain about that.
Continues until 14 April 2024
