As part of Tania Azevedo's MT Pride Lab Takeover at the King's Head Theatre, I had a really fun night watching 'Diary Of A Gay Disaster.' When Ellis moves in with Mia and Finlay - flatmates she found on the internet - she finds herself bonding with them a lot faster than she expected when they discover her teenage diary and insist on making a very long (and very gay) night out of reading it. This is an absolute joy of a show and one that has become viral on TikTok, which I can see why. Not only is the show a lot of fun with some fantastic and upbeat songs, but it also has a lot of strong messages and plenty of heartfelt moments.
As someone who is gay myself, I found a lot of the show very relatable and it made me think about the experiences that I've had that are similar to what happened to the characters in the show. Although there are a lot of relatable and heartfelt moments, most of the show doesn't take itself too seriously and there's a lot of comedy. This makes for a really fun night at the theatre, and looking around the audience, most people had a smile on their face for the entire hour, which shows just how much fun the script and songs are.
Due to both the staging and the intimacy of the theatre, I felt that I was there in the living room with these characters and that we were just having a chat, which helped immerse me in the stories they were telling - I actually forgot for most of the show that I was sat in a theatre. The show is performed with the audience on three sides, and the set had a lot of detail including a sofa, rug, bean bag, table and even a framed quote on the wall. The imersiveness started from the minute I entered the auditorium with Mia laying on the sofa watching TV, with the sound of the TV show playing in the background. The show then starts quite suddenly, starting as it means to go on, very fast-paced and fun.
The show is written by Rachel Mailer, and was really well written and made for a fantastic hour which went very quickly. Reading the biography in the programme, I was very surprised to read that this was Rachel's (and the whole teams) musical theatre professional debut - the show was very well done and the whole team must be commended for their successful debut. The final line of Rachel's bio in the programme perfectly describes the show and I personally agree and feel that she achieved her aim. She believes in the "power of positivity and satire to make change'" and her writing focuses on helping her community to feel seen and empowered with the ability to laugh through their experiences together.
The director of the show is Tara Noonan, and Cerys Mckenna is the musical director, and this show is also both of their professional debuts. Just like Rachel, they both did an extraordinary job and told these amazing queer stories in a really effective way. The way they used the space and interacted with the audience was done really well and led to some hilarious laugh out loud moments! The cast are incredibly talented and helped tell these stories really well. Ella Fenton played Ellis, Talya Soames played Mia and Olivia O'Connor played Finlay, and each member worked really hard. They barely left the stage during the whole hour and had some insane and beautiful vocals, fun choreography and a fast-paced script absolutely nailed! They all played their characters really well and gave really real and relatable performances.
This is a brand new queer musical which is really important and needed right now, and one that I know will have an amazing future life. The fact that all the remaining performances are sold out, and all the hype on TikTok shows this, and the show truly deserves all the praise. It is fun, relatable and tells stories that need to be heard by a mainstream audience.
Diary of a Gay Disaster runs at King's Head Theatre until the 23rd July. For more tickets and information, you can follow the link here.
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AD | gifted tickets in return for an honest review