Committed, Content, Confused | Grace Whitney, Gabriella Boumford, Jahla Black & Thomas Currie

Committed, Content, Confused is an uplifting, inspiring, utterly-entertaining celebration of love, heartbreak, and the gal pals that keep you grounded through it all. After their Girls’ Night Out comes to an unexpectedly early end, the three young characters Ella (Gabrielle Boumford), Natalie (Grace Whitney), and Riley (Jahla Black) welcome us into their loungeroom where through song, dance and hilarity they muse over the trials and tribulations of dating in your early twenties. With a youthful exuberance, these outstanding musical theatre performers had me laughing, nodding knowingly, and shedding the odd tear.

We can all sympathise with the heartbroken Ella who’s just looking for contentment with her situation, while Natalie who is happily committed to her boyfriend is the picture of what many aspire to, or feel they ought to, but the character that stood out to me in particular was the commitment-phobe Riley who was trying to forget her ex-girlfriend via a series of Tinder escapades. As a woman-loving woman myself, she made me feel seen and I could really relate to being surrounded by well-meaning straight friends who sometimes get it very wrong about queer relationships. It was also refreshing to see that her queerness was not her defining characteristic, nor was it depicted as unusual, but instead was treated casually as the normal thing that it is.

I love seeing portrayals of such healthy, loving female friendships in which they support each other through failures and successes, even when they don’t always see eye-to-eye. On the dynamics of this tight-knit trio, all I can say is #squadgoals.

There was just one thing that rubbed me the wrong way, and that was one line in Ella’s song about wishing a variety of misfortunes on her ex-boyfriend. Whether through carelessness or ignorance, there was an unnecessary comment about blindness that felt out of step with the rest of the show. It’s such a shame that the discomfort of this comment was one of the parts of the show that stayed with me until well after its conclusion, because in every other sense it was a stellar piece of work. Here’s hoping that gets edited out before the second season.

Now, I have to highlight the songs. Skilfully accompanied by pianist Thomas Currie, they reached musical near-perfection, with some goosebump-inducing three-part harmonies through a range of original songs and pop covers that really got the dopamine going. Stand outs were their brilliant rendition of I Am Woman, and a few wonderfully soppy love songs sweet enough to melt the iciest of hearts.

Props were minimal but effective and there was good use of the whole stage, however, audience members in the back missed out on some of the movements lower to the ground. It would be great to see this production in a proper theatre with tiered seating because it’s the kind of show that’s so engaging you don’t want to miss one second.

The audience was rarely silent; throughout the performance, roars of raucous laughter drifted from all corners of the room. There were even times when the audience just wanted to keep clapping and the performers had to interrupt the applause to continue with the show. The end was met with a well-deserved standing ovation, an incredible win for a brand new production, so well done to the team!