The View Upstairs-Soho theatre

I was also there last night (Do we need a collective noun for when two or more board members are present? A cloud of... A judgement of.... perhaps?)

There is a fascinating and powerful story to be told about The Upstairs Lounge and it's denizens which probably needs a mini-series or long movie to do it justice, paging Ryan Murphy? There is also a sparkling comedy to be made about the culture clash between LGBT people from the 70's and now. By trying to force both these narratives into this fairly short musical the author does both sides a disservice and actually produces a piece which fails to fully satisfy on most levels.

There is a lot that is good, as mentioned by most the set is excellent and many of the performances are very good. I think any flaws from the actors are probably more attributable to the writing than anything else. Cedric Neal and Carly Mercedes Dyer could have done with a lot more to work with but are fabulous when they are given a chance. Declan Bennett was also very good but I have a bit of a soft spot for him so may be biased. Tyrone Huntley and Garry Lee do what they can but they don't really have characters, more a set of stereotypes, to play.

The music is, well I've sat here for five minutes trying to think of a word, it's repetitive, and indistinguishable and like a Sainsburys' Basics version of a Jim Steinman song; there's nothing wrong with it but you know there's something missing. The staging of the drag queen number is also dire. And bizarrely for a musical there were too many songs! This was possibly due to their samey-ness or maybe because it was very much, brief set up, song, set up, song without allowing much room for characters to establish. Having said all that I found the last twenty minutes very effecting and moving, it was the best part of the show and worth the admission.

A quick word about Andy Mientus and wondering what the others thought from last night, nothing wrong with his acting or singing but he seemed very very uncomfortable, almost awkward when he sang his solo numbers. Not having seen him before, is that his style? Was it just me? Are his numbers in the wrong key or something? (musically ignorant here)

Couple of housekeeping points, there are a number of shows on at this theatre it seems with staggered starts. This is quite poorly organised and seemingly left to one rather surly (hardly surprising) soul to deal with. The 7:30 show was called in before ours at 7:15 and it was as mentioned a late start. The show is advertised online as 1hr 45 min, in the programme as 1hr 35 and the usher said two hours, as we entered. Just be aware if you are going for transport, it was somewhere between the two longer times last night. The front row is dining room chairs which gave me a horrifying flashback to Found 111, and there are also some seats on stage. People don't get overly involved but if you hate that type of thing be aware. The other seats are fold down two-fers a la Almeida.

The downstairs areas are uncomfortably hot but I found the theatre itself okay. However it did smell like a gym changing room that had been used for a porn shoot at the end. I was near the front and was hit by the stench as I climbed the stairs. Vile

I absolutely LOVED this, a time-traveling love affair between the seventies and the now, that sheds light on both past and present, while allowing a hugely talented ensemble to live their best lives, acting and singing their hearts out, carving out distinctive and interesting characters.

Spoilers follow. . .

I do think that two things will massively enhance the enjoyment of this show:-

(1) Knowing in advance that this is essentially a true story, concerning events leading up to the deadly 1973 attack on a New Orleans gay bar, allows lighthearted events of the show to be seen and appreciated through an essentially tragic prism, like the jubilant playing of the band in "Titanic" or Judas' love for Jesus in "Jesus Christ Superstar," or like every interaction in the war play, "Journey's End." This is a musical building to something, and knowing where it's going makes every scene feel alive;

(2) Knowing the songs helps alot! This is not "The Lion King" or "Mary Poppins," where the songs instantly grab you. While it's essentially a Rock score, with a few ballads, the songs are not as catchy as "JCS" or "Tommy," and like in shows such as "Light in the Piazza" or "Caroline, or Change" one's experience of the piece is massively enhanced if you have heard the songs beforehand, and can appreciate the astonishing vivacity and talent and bravura performances of these amazing actors and singers bringing the story alive.

So with those two caveats, which I myself admit to falling on the right side of, I must say I felt this show truly exceptional!

For aficionados of Regent's Park's Open Air original version of "Jesus Christ Superstar," you will be delighted by the fact that both Jesus (Declan Bennett) and Judas (Tyrone Huntley) are back, and fascinatingly appear to have swapped roles. This time, it is Huntley who is a kind of Jesus of the Social Media Age, Wes, a man preaching freedom and love through hashtags and followers and instagram videos. And it is Bennett who is the Judas, jealous, marginalised, side-lined, angst-ridden, twisted Dale.

And the potential saviour of both is the holy spirit of Andy Mientus' gentle, ordinary, laid-back soul of seventies loucheness, Patrick.

It's a beautiful symmetrical set-up, that is echoed not only in the well-defined characters, but also in the initially absurd plot, which humorously and dreamily envisions our Social Media Jesus buying a burned out derelict old building, then time-traveling back to the seventies to meet it's exuberant denizens, destined to become holy ghosts. . .

For me, characters and plot fuse brilliantly to create a show of revelatory effect.

And the acting and singing of this particular show carried me away completely!

From the fiery opening burst of John Partridge's strange and edgy closeted Elton John, "Some Kind of Paradise," to Tyrone Huntley's now-defining social media paean, "Hashtag Householdname," to Andy Mientus' contrasting soulful seventies scene-setting in "What I did today," to Declan Bennett's morose and foreboding, angry and loathing, forthright and and haunting "Better than Silence," to Tyrone Huntley's defining love song, uniting generations, "Crazy Notion," this is wall to wall living theatre, that breaks down walls between past and present, and performer and audience. I was deeply affected.

And the central characters are backed up by an ensemble equally as good as they are. In fact, there is simply nothing so exciting as experiencing Carly Mercedes Dyer's Beverley-Knight-electric vocal tear up the song "World outside these Walls," in which she spells out the dangers of being different in the not-so-halcyon recent past; there is nothing so funny as Victoria Hamilton-Barritt slyly smiling and singing about how her drag queen son "looks better in make-up than me;" and there is nothing so comprehensively accomplished as the tour-de-force acting and singing of Cedric Neal's part of "Theme Song," in which the doomed bar is revealed to be not much different from the bar in the TV show "Cheers, where everyone knows your name, except this bar is on the deck of a seventies Titanic the night it sinks!

So for me, I loved this show pretty much unconditionally, with the one exception of an explaining speech at the end which is just a bit too expository for my taste.

Anyway, incidentally, I don't know how you get them, but there are a couple of onstage seats at either end of the set, and the people sitting in them looked pretty happy, though I think you'd have to be a bit extroverted to sit there, as the audience will be looking you over, every time a character circles your orbit.

For me, 5 stars.

I first read about the Upstairs Lounge in a LGBT history called "Stand by Me: The Forgotten History of Gay Liberation". To be honest, it was a very upsetting chapter and I couldn't finish the rest of the book having read some of the stories of the victims (it has also put me off seeing this musical as I suspect it might reopen some of those memories). There are a couple of dedicated books as well.

Well Steve I had one of the onstage seats. Was told I'd been chosen. Enjoyed the show.

I saw this last night and really enjoyed it. I had a £15 standing ticket but they directed us to some free seats in the 4th row. If you buy a standing ticket for a night with a good amount of free seats I think you've got a decent chance of being upgraded

I really tried to enjoy this and it all started so promisingly. You walk in and see an impressive set. Not quite age authentic but expertly crafted. The lights go down and the first song you hear is sung by the great John Partridge and it is terrific. Alas from then on it’s all down hill. So many, many, many songs. A long, long, long finger wagging script that meanders nowhere except through a role call of cliches. (Musicals that include pretentious dismissive material about social media are now just boring). A real shame.

Maybe the original story material is so dark that it could never be translated into a musical. Certainly it deserves better eulogies that continuous torch songs. And it didn’t help with silly things like mic-ing all the performers for an auditorium no bigger than your average Tesco metro. Hearing them sing and speak live may have given it a more authentic reality. Finally a strange coincidence for me. The show is set at exactly the same time - 1973 - that Rocky Horror was first tearing up the musical sexuality rule book down the King Road here in London. The historical picture of black and white morals that are portrayed in The Room Upstairs might be taken as being seriously remiss.

Apologies. The show is, of course, called ‘The View Upstairs’ and not ‘The Room Upstairs’.  No offence intended.

I agree with many of the comments here because when it started I really didn't think I was going to enjoy it. But I ended up being moved by some of the later less-powered ballads and, ultimately, by the contrasts between what gay life was like in 1973 and 2019 (not as further forward as we'd sometimes like to think) as well as the final explanation of what happened to the victims of the fire (which was very uncomfortable). What was also uncomfortable was the way the people in the bar treat Dale - as if he doesn't exist, isn't worthwhile befriending, doesn't have problems worth helping him sort out. His tirade against them at the end is also disturbing: according to the writer, Max Verdon, it's meant to be.

So, in the end, I was won over.

Saw it tonight on a last minute ticket following recommendation from a friend and I’m so glad I went. Great cast, and I thought the music serviced the characters and piece very well.
Welled up a bit at the end, one of the lines Andy Mientus’ character had broke me.
Very much worth a watch. I was thinking how great it would be if this could have a further life at Trafalgar Studios. It’s certainly selling pretty well!