I predict big things for joyous new musical Lovestuck

A wholly original new musical is a fiendishly tricky proposition to bring to the stage, so let’s start with a round of applause for the creators of this new British offering for managing to shepherd Lovestuck to its opening night.

This was despite the not inconsiderable disadvantage of its leading lady sustaining a leg injury and having to withdraw from the show just last week. Mercifully, understudy Ambra Caserotti did what all the best reserves do in such circumstances, and put in a performance so polished it was impossible to believe the role wasn’t hers all along.

Writer James Cooper and director Jamie Morton previously collaborated on the international hit podcast My Dad Wrote a Porno, and together with Bryn Christopher and Martin Batchelar on music, they offer a warmly witty and highly relatable look at the increasingly lonely lives of two 30-something singletons.

Lucy (Caserotti) and Peter (Shane O’Riordan) are weary of the hamster wheel of online dating, doomscrolling and being members of Generation Rent; Tom Rogers’s design offers an eloquent backdrop of anonymous windows and there’s a delightful moment when the irrepressibly perky Peter engages in a pas de deux with an estate agent who is showing him a grotty and wildly overpriced rental flat.

Lucy and Peter literally bump into each other in a pub on a boozy Friday night, when he vomits over her shoes. Talk about a meet un-cute.

Still, the dating apps throw the pair together once more and the perceptive number “More or Less” (“Should I be more? Should I be less?”) gives voice to their inner doubts.

Back at Peter’s flat after their evening in a Mexican restaurant, Lucy finds to her horror that the loo won’t flush. And this is where the fun really starts. One might say that the s**t hits the fan – if indeed said excrement hadn’t in fact got trapped between two windows…

After a benign but uncompelling opening, Lovestuck – based on a real-life viral news story – joyously finds its groove. Alison Steadman provides a gloriously deadpan pre-recorded narration and Caserotti and O’Riordan are sympathetic, tuneful lost souls – Lucy’s second half anthem of empowerment, “All Along”, will resonate richly with audiences. There’s peppy support from Bridgette Amofah as Miseraie, the embodiment of the voice of doom in Lucy’s head (“If you want to be hot/ Be someone you’re not”).

I confidently predict a big future for this warm-hearted piece and am delighted to upgrade that opening respectful applause to something far more vigorous.

To 12 July (stratfordeast.com)