Before there was Barbie: The Movie, before there was Legally Blonde, there was Clueless, the Valley Girl movie that measured out life in designer handbags at the same time as signalling the grit behind the glitter. A pert and pampered response to Jane Austen’s Emma, the 1995 film defiantly whooshed to the top of film charts and launched the sale of millions of tartan miniskirts, breathing new life into the teen movie as it did so.
So it’s not hard to see why, 250 years after Jane Austen’s birth, producers have decided to pep up the West End with this musical version of Clueless, complete with a snappy new score by KT Tunstall. The film’s original scriptwriter, Amy Heckerling, has freshened up the dialogue and added subtle tweakments, so that it can strut into the twenty-first century with all the glitz and carefully-manicured chutzpah that made it such a hit in the first place.
The politics of flirtation has changed considerably since 1995, so it’s a delight to be able to say that Clueless: The Musical can still stand up proudly in its overpriced stilettos. As Cher, New York actor Emma Flynn – who has also, not entirely surprisingly, played Elle Woods in Legally Blonde in the US – is firmly in charge as she greets the audience from her handbag-bedecked boudoir with a zippy rendition of the show’s first song, Perfect.
It’s a deft demonstration of how well this show fuses music with the structure of the original movie. In the course of just one song we have a tour of the designer delights of Cher’s bedroom, meet her lawyer father and her best friend Dionne downstairs, and end up surveying the pupils at her high school. In the lines between lyrics Cher offers such synthetic perceptions as “The Greek columns [in our house] date all the way back to 1974”, or that the three-piece suit (in her case with miniskirt) is the “ultimate symbol of seriousness”. The songs themselves have the zap and fizz of an alcopop, fuelling the upbeat vibe even as we realise how after Cher’s mother died in a “freak liposuction mistake”, her princess act is helping her hold her world together.
No more psychological analysis is needed than that – as with the movie this is all about happily splashing around in the shallows. Rachel Kavanaugh’s pacy, tightly choreographed production whirls us through the minor dramas of Cher’s manipulations, whether it’s setting up two of her teachers so one of them will give her better marks or restyling and reorganising her new friend’s life. The relationship to the plot of Austen’s original is thinner than a layer of lipgloss, but the barbed wit and fascination with “love” and materialism are very close to its spirit. Hyper-confident daddy’s boy, Elton, (played with appropriate swagger by Max Mirza) is seen as an ideal partner for Cher’s friend Tai in part because of his car and his clothes, while for Cher it seems there’s little that can’t be sorted out with a wave of her American Express card.
Even though – like Much Ado About Nothing over on Drury Lane – Clueless: The Musical will have been planned long before Trump came to power, both productions provide a spirit of escapism that’s more than welcome in these turbulent times. Here that’s helped in no small part by the slickly choreographed hyper-energetic cast. As Dionne, Cher’s best friend, Chyna-Rose Frederick delivers charisma-with-attitude, while as Josh, Cher’s step-brother-turned romantic interest, Keelan McAuley (pictured above) combines impressive dancing moves with emotional heft. Isaac J Lewis deserves a shout out too for his performance as Christian (pictured below, centre left), her camp Spartacus-obsessed “date” who ends up as her style-confidante and shopping companion.
Mikiko Suzuki’s witty set design neatly conjures up Cher’s world – whether it’s through random pieces of furniture that suddenly turn into cars, or the glass display cabinet that contains a skyscraper of handbags. Lizzi Gee’s brisk choreography contains some impressive acrobatics, while as Music Supervisor Simon Hale brings both spark and momentum. As clearly signalled, this isn’t the place to come for depth, but it’s certainly pleasing that the one political reference – Cher’s deliberately vapid debate speech – is pro-immigration to the US. Lovers of the film will certainly love this, and if you’re undecided, maybe you should get yourself a tartan mini-skirt and go and strut your stuff along with the exuberant cast.
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