“Fun and joyous […] with songs that are seriously catchy”
This is part of a series of shorter reviews from Edinburgh Fringe, August 2026.
Escape rooms have soared in popularity over the last few years, and now writers Tom Rolph and Michael Rincon give the code-cracking leisure activity a full musical makeover, as a group of uni friends are reunited to find their way out of a locked room in just 60 minutes. The ploy to get the gang back together is thought up by Max (an excellent turn from Lizzy Monds), in the guise of Professor Lock, although her friends are not too willing, old unresolved tensions resurfacing as they set about solving clues and unravelling convoluted puzzles.
The puzzles themselves take a backseat to the characters, with each character being given their own chance to shine with songs that are seriously catchy – particularly Naomi Park’s number as self-professed genius Ellie, which is sure to have your toes tapping. The pace slows down a little with a powerful ballad sung by Amy Smith as Olivia, as she comes to terms with an unrequited obsession. Elsewhere, romance is on the cards for James Taylor’s Johnny and Dennis Hughes’ “Johnny with a hat”, although the pair don’t quite share as much chemistry as one might hope.
It’s a shame that the plot doesn’t tie in to the puzzles in a slightly more natural way – the closest we get is Johnny rediscovering his self-confidence through the help of a tap dancing number. The rest of the puzzles seem to quickly fade into insignificance, and the escape room setting is never properly exploited. There are some moments that bring the audience into the action – Issie Roll is planted as an audience member that then gets involved in the action, but for seemingly no purpose, a confusing tangent to the main story. Other moments have the characters trying to solve riddles, which is seemingly crying out for audience participation but there isn’t any. It seems that the show begins to move towards fourth wall breaking, before quickly pulling away from full immersion.
This production has a lot of potential, with interesting characters that have just enough depth to fill the 60 minute run-time. Some of the humour is cringe-worthy, but will draw laughs from the audience regardless, whilst the musical accompaniment is superb – there is some serious talent in the composition. Fun and joyous, but lacking that extra spark that could turn this into something truly special.
“Escape Room: The Musical” plays at 19:30 at Just the Fancy Room, Just the Tonic at The Caves until 30th August.
This review was written whilst the show was still in previews.
Broken Legs Blog 