Supersonic Man is the latest new British Musical to hit Southwark Playhouse. It tells of Adam, a witty and rebellious young guy who wears bright pink hot pants to Pride and is running the London marathon who gets diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease. We follow him and his partner Darryl as he comes to terms with his diagnosis and then sets out to challenge medical science to help improve his quality of life rather than cure his MND and as he embarks on a starring in his own reality TV show which follows his journey.

The show is loosely based on the life of Peter Scott Morgan who was featured in the 2020 Channel 4 documentary ‘Peter: The Human Cyborg,’ and has also been produced in consultation with MND association through out its development the show had a lot of heart and treated Adam’s diagnosis brilliantly. Supersonic Man book by Chris Burgess didn’t shy away from showing the hard parts of living with MND from both Adam and Darry’s point of view but nor did take itself so seriously and well placed humour was injected throughout. Both Adam and Darryl were well drawn characters, both incredibly human with likeable moments and other moments that demonstrated how illness can bring out both the best and worst in people. It made the show feel incredibly relatable and as if it was a close friend who had been diagnosed with MND.

Whilst the book was strong the pacing did feel off and there were times where it often felt like there was a lot of padding and other moments where the emotion felt rushed and forced.

The music didn’t have quite the same success as the book with the majority of the numbers failing to leave a mark and others even going so far as to irritate me. There was a number which focused on ‘boffins’ who were helping develop the different technology for Adam, on the first hearing it just felt cheap but by the 3rd reprise the joke had more than run its course. On the whole the songs fail to either drive the narrative forward or give you an insight into a particular character and at times I was left thinking that the piece may be stronger as a play.

Performances were strong across the board. Adam was played by Dylan Aiello who was at home at the start of the show dancing across the stage in a keep fit class as he was by the end of the show struggling to speak because of the effects of the MND. Dominic Sullivan plays Darryl and also does so with huge success, coming across as utterly believable as a man in love, determined to stick by his partner. For this show to succeed their relationship had to be utterly believable and it was beautifully portrayed. James Lowrie as Ben, Jude St. James as Ruth and Mali Wen Davies as Shaz make up the rest of the cast and whilst they predominantly play Adam’s closest friends they also play a number of other roles including Doctors, TV presenters and members of the public with something to say about Adam’s show.

The staging was kept simple with a raised platform at the back which gave the story a nice setting to keep on returning back to, to their bench, whilst avoiding lengthy scene changes and leaving plenty of playing space in front. The lighting by Richard Lambert also did a lovely job of helping create atmosphere when needed.

Supersonic Man is a musical with a book that shows a lot of promise, with interesting characters that tackles a challenging topic and one that deserves to be highlighted in theatre, yet it is also a show that needs to work on the music if it is determined to remain a musical.

Supersonic Man is on at Southwark Playhouse until 3rd May. You can find out more and book tickets here.

If you like this review you might also like my review of The Little Big Things, Operation Mincemeat and the Curious Case of Benjamin Button.