The Mad Ones – The Other Palace, London

Book, Music and Lyrics: Kait Kerrigan and Bree Lowdermilk

Director: Emily Susanne Lloyd

The musical theatre writing combo of Kait Kerrigan and Bree Lowdermilk, collectively known as Kerrigan-Lowdermilk, has created some musical theatre songs that have become staples of the audition and cabaret circuits. Their full-length musicals are less well known, with The Mad Ones receiving its UK premiere at Birmingham’s Old Joint Stock Theatre in 2024.

That well-received production now transfers to The Other Palace’s studio space. It’s been a long journey getting here. The musical, formerly known as The Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown, had its first workshop in 2005 and underwent several iterations before opening off-Broadway in 2017. Thematically, its seed precedes even that. Dropping out of Harvard during their freshman year, Lowdermilk moved to New York and reconnected with an old school friend, Kerrigan, for new adventures.

In the fictional world, Dora Gee’s Sam is a high school student being pulled in two directions. Her helicopter mom Beverly (Thea Jo Wolfe) is convinced that the academically bright Sam should go to Harvard; her best friend, Courtney Stepleton’s Kelly, wants a more adventurous future for the pair, either attending the same college or driving off into the sunset like a teenage Thelma and Louise. But when Kelly dies suddenly, Sam goes into a tailspin.

None of this is a spoiler; we open with Sam in full-on grief mode, squabbling with Kelly’s sassy ghost. From there, the story splinters outwards into a mesh of memories, recreations and what-ifs, all splintering out from the act of devastating loss. Reuben Speed’s set echoes this, its cut-off convertible car sitting in front of a large mirror, cracked and fragmented like the story, the edges of the shattered fragments picking up the light to give the effect of a shimmering spider’s web.

The non-linear storytelling enables us to witness the force of nature that is Kelly. Stapleton’s performance here matches the character’s description of a shining star, around which Sam is merely a dwarf planet in orbit. It’s an electrifying performance in places, and it’s also notable that Stapleton gives her best performance when working alongside Gee. The lead role is an altogether blander character. Sam’s reactive nature means she is less interesting than her best friend, mother, or sweetly naïve boyfriend (Gabriel Hinchcliffe’s endearingly presented Adam). However, Gee’s ability to act through song gives Sam a much deeper patina that Kerrigan-Lowdermilk’s writing affords her, allowing us to root for a character whose indecisive drifting could easily become annoying.

It is the duration of the piece that highlights The Mad Ones’ shortcomings. Coming in at two hours with an interval, it feels like there is insufficient incident to justify the running time. Act II feels stretched out, as if a 75-minute one-act musical has been padded out far more than is healthy.

That said, the second act includes the show’s best number, Run Away With Me. A staple for male soloists in recent years, hearing it in situ through Hinchcliffe’s performance solidifies some of its lyrics, with its similes about road trips and Jack Kerouac making far more sense in context.

And while it may be a little long for the subject matter, The Mad Ones nevertheless does a good job of expressing how grief is capable of paralysing anyone, especially someone who was already not great at making decisions for herself. Sam goes on an emotional, rather than a physical, journey throughout this musical, and it is a trip that welcomes us all to join.

Continues until 1 June 2025