It was a real privilege to be in the first audience for this new one man musical, 'The Greatest Musical the World Has Ever Seen by Randy Thatcher'. It may indeed be a long title for a short show, but it's a show that packs a punch way above its weight grade. Neurotic New Yorker Randy Thatcher is a lonely undergraduate riddled with anxiety and stalled in life by his inability to make friends. His mother helps him nurture his passion for musical theatre until he's inspired to write a musical about intergalactic warfare on the planet Cawdor. His writing finally helps him find a voice to express his tumultuous inner world through childish metaphor. So it is that Randy's problems become wish-fulfilled in the alien character of Gazandy, and Randy's sense of purpose in life gets dangerously wrapped up in the success of his first ever attempt at writing a musical show.
The strength of this show is the protagonist, performed with sympathy and compassion by New Jerseyite Matt Haughey, who, now living in New York, also wrote the show and has amassed over 10 million streams of his music across various platforms. Haughey's Randy is awkward and adorable in equal measure, faltering and funny in perfect balance. The songs largely all fall within the pop ballad/ musical theatre fusion associated with Pasek and Paul from their mega-hit Dear Evan Hansen, but references to Randy's obsession with that show are peppered throughout the script and beautifully detailed set. An Evan Hansen mug stuffed with pens, a collector's pin badge hidden among dozens on a pin board; these details helped us into Randy's world before a note was sung. The sound was also excellent, in particular the expertly timed dialogue between Randy and his mother.
The show heads up to Edinburgh in August. If you've missed it in Watford, I heartily recommend you catch it north of the border!
