Writer: Tobia Rossi and Oliver Lidert
Music: Simone Manfredini
Director: Ruthie Stephens
For more than two decades, reality talent shows have dominated television schedules as members of the public, celebrities and members-of-the-public-pretending-to-be-celebrities-who-then-become-celebrities compete to win the biggest prize of all, more fame. Tobia Rossi and Oliver Lidert attempt a feminist slant with their satirical musical Miss I-Doll first performed in 2023 and now arriving at The Other Palace. Staged as a one-woman show with lots of characters, Daisy Steere’s excellent central performance cannot disguise an unnecessarily convoluted and sometimes laboured plot.
Having made it through the heats, five women are now in the Miss I-Doll final – Mia, Veronica, Prudence, Ren and Sami, all certain they are the all-round talent the judges are looking for. But off-camera, Mia bumps her head and a transformed personality leads to an on-air rant and a ratings spike. With several tasks to complete and harassed producer Maria trying to keep the live show on track, who will seize the crown?
Although the public appetite for reality competitions shows no sign of abating, audiences know far more about how they are managed than we did 20 years ago. From spicy dramas like Unreal to news coverage of increasing support for contestants’ mental health and even an early Black Mirror episode on the unsavoury price of fame, writers Tobia Rossi and Oliver Lidert, along with composer Simone Manfedini, are entering a crowded marketplace. However, the feminist disruption and activism narrative offers a unique perspective for Miss I-Doll, exploring the integrated role of cast and crew, audiences, funders and producers in (mis)shaping the image of young women.
The story, however, struggles for purchase, weighed down by too many characters and unnecessary digressions that confuse the more directive concept of a contestant trying to disrupt the show. There are six rounds, two of which are staged here, backstage dramas as the five competitors and producer Maria prepare for the final, on-camera interviews – some set in “Big Sister’s” Dairy Room, others part of the pre-task hubris – and regular advert breaks with staged commercials as well as pre-recorded commentary from the viewers at home (all played by Steere). Miss I-Doll aims for completeness in creating the world and impact of reality television but doesn’t leave itself enough breathing space to explore any of these perspectives in depth.
Instead, the show feels a little scrappy, cutting between the five contestants but never really delving beneath their singular defining characteristics. Prudence is religious and prim, Veronica is posh and self-assured, as is the show’s sponsor who arrives in Act Two to perform a similar function. It’s huge credit to Steere’s charismatic performance that the actor is able to flip between a vast number of characters, but there are too many dead ends to fully justify some of the narrative choices; does Mia need to be on the phone to her mother at all when it contributes nothing to the overall plot; are five finalists really the best way to tell this story when we spend so little time with each of them and does a 95-minute show really need a distracting 20-minute interval before anything has really happened?
It is always a risk to write a multi-perspective monologue, creating a significant challenge for the actor who jumps around the stage to perform dialogue. Steel does it well but some of the best one-person shows take a single perspective as the audience entry point and let that character tell the story by re-enacting other voices and still showcasing the actor’s range. Miss I-Doll as a concept has traction but some streamlining of the plot and more consideration of whose story is being told and how might get this piece to the next stage.
Runs until 9 March 2025
