The world’s most popular musicals have often been on the least likely of themes. Who would have thought TS Eliot’s poems or the founding fathers of the US would set the box office alight? The evidence suggests enterprising ideas can pay off.
It is possible one such idea is the Covid-19 pandemic – certainly a story with an uncommon number of lows and plenty of potential for tragedy. But 2020 the Musical (★★), put together by the writer-director Natasha Mould and the composer Richard Vanryne, is a backstage musical – minus the stage – that reduces the most significant upheaval of modern times to a dreary tale of narcissistic musical theatre performers.
