Escape Room: The Musical continues at Just The Fancy Room at Just the Tonic at The Caves until 24 August 2025.
Star rating: two stars ★ ★ ✩ ✩ ✩
There’s a smashing premise to Escape Room. Two years out of university, six erstwhile friends, escape room aficionados, are invited to meet in an escape room in Just the Tonic. They have grown apart in the intervening period.
The big question is: who invited them? And why? To escape, they must find and interpret various clues hidden in the room. They set to it with resolve, each in their own idiosyncratic way, before realising that each clue they find seems to lead them to examine their past, and why they grew apart in the first place.
Into this, without warning, comes a member of the audience, Pierre (Félix Marceau). Who is he? Why is he there? Is he the voice of reason as our six characters resolve their problems? We never find out.
There is much laughter elicited from breaking the fourth wall by references to Edinburgh, and being part of the Fringe, but this, although great fun, tends to muddy the concept. Is the audience in the escape room too?
The songs, by Tom Rolph (who is also director), Michael Rincon and Joe Sartin are showstopping, catchy, often excitingly intricate. The singing is exemplary.
When the resolution comes, it feels quite perfunctory, and in any case some of the lines are delivered at such a speed that it is difficult to hear what is being said. This isn’t helped by the amplification; certain radio mics kept cutting out. And at places, the direction feels somewhat idiosyncratic, sloppy.
In one scene, the spotlight on Max (beautifully sung by Lizzy Monds) was ignored and for much of the number the whole cast performed out of the light (was this just a glitch or is there some symbolism in an unused spotlight?).
The two-star rating is perhaps a little harsh. Indeed, given the response from the audience (it was an enjoyable night), it should merit three stars, but it needs to be crisped up before that can happen.
The company, Grownup Playhouse is currently running another three shows on at the Fringe.
James Bryce
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