NoseR The Startup Musical is a new musical written by Lily Smith. It tells of Melodie who has a fine nose, she can sniff out a huge variety of scents. She decides to use this talent and move from France to the UK and begins work for Noser, an app which attempts to bring a nose to every phone. Along the way she meets Blue and looses her ability to smell. Will her most prized ability return? Will Noser ever be brought out by Boogle? Will Melodie and Blue reunite?

The concept is an interesting one – that of an inventive start up company based on smells but this concept is wafer thin and not developed to fruition. There are so many jokes that could be made and so many points developed but they were left unsaid.

NoseR The Startup Musical appeared unsure as to what it was. It was unclear if it was taking itself seriously or a parody of tech startups. A parody of this world could have been brilliantly funny and very relevant however this would have required a cleverer angle to be adapted by the writer and for the cast to really commit to larger than life characters. The writing also shouldn’t require the pianist to tell us how long had passed between scenes and there could have been much more inventive ways of depicting this to the audience.

There were moments of simple choreography however these were often random and out of place and needed more connection to the song itself, for example the movements that the ensemble were performing during Melodie and Blue’s duet bore no relevance to the song.

Lara De Belder who played the CEO of NoseR was the only member of the cast that attempted to go big enough with the character to be funny. Members of the ensemble often looked embarrassed to be there, for example the number where they were welcoming Melodie to the workforce you would expect to see either huge plastered on smiles or the very opposite, a worn-down workforce. Instead we got neither, leaving the audience confused as to how the employees really felt.

Some of the songs were catchy, especially the title song ‘There’s a Nose on Every Phone’ but again the lyrics could be developed to really get the audience laughing along with the cast.

NoseR The Musical is a great original concept but it needs a lot of development of both the dialogue and the characterisation to cut it along with all of the other parody musicals out there.

NoseR: The Startup Musical is on at Jade Studio, Greenside @ Royal Terrace from 13:50 – 14:45.

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