Escape Room The Musical - Fringe Review

Thomas Levi
19 minutes ago
2 min read

★★★☆☆

Escape Room: The Musical combines musical theatre with escape-room puzzles in an inventive new concept. It doesn't solve every puzzle it sets itself, but there's enough charm and potential here to make the hour an enjoyable one.

Six former university friends reunite after more than two years apart, invited into an escape room by their old friend Max. As the countdown begins, riddles and locked doors gradually uncover the real mystery: why the group drifted apart in the first place. Every solved clue reveals another buried secret, forcing old friendships to be tested while the clock relentlessly ticks towards the final reveal.

The premise is compelling. An escape room naturally creates urgency, confines the characters in a single location and gives every scene an objective. That structure allows the musical to move at a brisk pace, while several songs inject energy into the evening. A handful of numbers are genuinely memorable, such as “Ellie Knows Best” and the “Kiss Confession Duet”, pairing catchy melodies with strong lyrics; this is a musical with songs I'd happily add to my playlist tomorrow.

Where the production begins to lose momentum is in its storytelling. The central concept, that one member of the friendship group has built an elaborate escape room simply to reunite everyone, asks the audience to accept a sizeable leap of logic before the drama has even begun. They could easily have come together for a planned reunion, giving us more of a will they/won’t they turn up, which establishes the jeopardy and allows the emotional revelations to emerge more naturally instead of asking the audience to accept the setup first and the relationships second.

The characters in the show acknowledge the audience during the show, yet do not invite them to actively participate in the puzzle-solving sequences. I found myself instinctively trying to solve the telephone riddles from my seat and wishing the production trusted the audience with even more responsibility. Imagine clues hidden beneath seats or visual puzzles scattered around the auditorium. Equally, if audience interaction isn't central to the experience, don’t acknowledge the audience. Isolating the characters entirely inside the escape room would heighten the tension. At present, it occupies a blurry middle ground which doesn’t fully exploit either approach.

This already feels like a show that will evolve throughout its Fringe run. The foundations are undeniably strong, and the creative team has built an exciting concept around catchy music and an appealing ensemble. Tightening the book and making the puzzle solving more interactive could unlock something genuinely special. For now, this is an escape room that's well worth entering, even if a few of its biggest puzzles still need solving.