Review of Cruel Intentions: The '90s Musical

Oh my gosh, this was a musical smash that I really thoroughly enjoyed! It was energetic, lively and engaging which had my eyes glued to the stage from the start to the end. It was very entertaining, and at times humorously witty with a little use of alcohol and drugs demonstrated on the set. There was a lot of swearing and some decent explicit raunchy scenes for these private school teens in Manhattan. But hey that's life in the big bad world, and learning about these things is always going to be part of their lives.

Touching, kisses, love, romance, sex, are physical needs we all want at some point in our lives, and that exploration and need usually starts at school.   

Kathrine and Sebastian both thought they had a reputation to uphold at their prestigious private school, so they were up there in the thick of it all, but when Kathrine is recently dumped by her boyfriend Court, she seeks revenge by involving her step-brother Sebastian. Getting a high from a regular cocaine hit that is hidden in a crucifix she wears around her neck as a sly distraction. Kathrine asks Sebastian to seduce Court's new girlfriend Cecile, promising him sex for his good deed. Sebastian thinks this challenge is too easy as he is a master at seducing and manipulating any girl he wants, keeping a log of his fanciful conquests in his journal. So he sets himself a bigger challenge by setting out to ravish the headmasters daughter, Annette, but still sets out to seduce Cecile anyway, because what he wants more then anything, is to sleep with the one person he has always craved for, and that's his step-sister Kathrine.

Kathrine on the other hand finds her own ways to manipulate the situation, scheming and plotting to suit her own needs and desires, hurting others in the process.

I thought the black and white school uniform was a great way to represent that they were school students. A construction was set up in the background to look like the Manhattan Bridge as a prop, and a french chase style lounge was also used throughout the scenes as a prop, but nothing more was needed for this musical.  

Credits to all the outstanding talented performers for keeping us all entertained, but I take my hat to the ones that played most leading rolls, Ashleigh Mitchell (Kathrine) Lachlan Dodd (Sebastian) Kennedy Foley (Cecile) and Madeleine Ford (Annette). And top job to the director Elodie Boal and crew for putting the whole thing together.

Every hit song from the 90's was perfectly delivered by a five piece band consisting of a Music director, Keys, Guitar, Bass, and Drums, playing in the background on the stage. The music that played was from NSYNC “Bye, Bye, Bye,” Jewel “These foolish games,” Boyz Ⅱ Men “I'll make love to you,” No Doubt “Just a Girl,” Ace of Base “The Sign,” TLC “No Scrubs.” These are just to name a few, but there was so many more that just kept us all bopping, and singing along to those fabulous tunes. 

This play, including the band was delivered mostly by a cast of mature teen actors, and is suited to the same age group or older. Although a lot of the scenes were funny and often made us laugh, we must always take life seriously when it comes to peoples feelings being involved, and we need to be considerate of more than just our own feelings, no matter how old we are. 

This show is very explicit and may not suit a lot of audiences, so please be warned! LOL!

Gingy Murphy