GIRLZ returns to the Edinburgh Fringe for 2026 but despite aspirations, the next SIX it is not.
A brand-new girl band, a hotshot manager and a struggling songwriter boyfriend. GIRLZ unfolds over one year in the life of a group chasing pop superstardom – exploring the personal struggles and agonising choices that come with it and ultimately telling a story of friendship and love in a cut-throat industry.
After just one audition, the band seems to have been formed. Within what feels like a week, the girls have released their debut single. A month later, they are selling out arenas and are the biggest band in the world. The music industry can move fast but not quite this fast. The compressed timeline makes it difficult to feel the weight of their journey when the journey itself seems to be over before it’s properly begun.
Director Katy Weir keeps things moving and there is a nice use of projections and silhouettes cast across the stage that gives the show some visual identity.
One bugbear of mine is when things don’t look realistic and in the scene where the girls are in the recording studio, recording their first single, they seem to be more focused on their dancing and performance than they are on laying down the best vocal possible.
The story focuses mainly around two characters, Nicky and Alex. Nicky is navigating the next phase of her life with long term partner Adam, with some tough decisions along the way to make. Alex, is struggling with a lifetime of abuse and a feeling she is not good enough – a pattern that is still following her.
Meggie Hughes, as Nicky and Tamara Tare, as Alex, give all of themselves to these roles and are rarely off-stage but it feels like the story could have just picked one topic to focus on for this hour-long show.
Lee Docherty does well as the group’s big-shot manager who assembles the band swiftly and has the girls signing contracts that leave them overworked and underpaid. Constantly taking phone calls from modern-day pop stars, he is a character not intended to be liked and some of his dialogue felt outdated for the time.
Tomas Baines really is the stand out in this performing, bringing warmth as Adam, the guitarist boyfriend, with some genuinely enjoyable musicianship. Zoe Antoniou (Jaz), Daniella Mirels (Kim) and Abigail Wiltshire (Charlie) all try to have a storyline of their own but to no fault of theirs, they mostly blend into the background.
Simone Mistry-Palmer (associate choreographer on the West End’s Tina) delivers movement that, rather than feeling slick and contemporary, reads more like an energetic 90’s exercise class. With all the modern references the show is making, the dance sequences feel oddly dated – beginners’ moves – where we need showstopping ones. There are also too many of them: dance breaks that pad the running time rather than create energy.
We learn the key things we need to know about the girls but we don’t really get to know the girls. And in a show asking us to invest in their friendships and sacrifices, that feels like a mistake.
GIRLZ is clearly hoping to be the next Six (the 2017 Fringe breakout that became a global sensation). But Six succeeded because its songs were extraordinary: witty, sharp and emotionally devastating in equal measure. The original songs here don’t yet have that quality. The cast work hard with them and their commitment is never in question. But none of the numbers land with the impact the show needs them to.
Is GIRLZ worth seeing?
In a world where everyone is striving to create the next big musical, it is a saturated market, with new musicals every few steps at the fringe. GIRLZ has potential but it needs stronger songs, more time with its characters and choreography that matches its modern ambitions.
★★
Reviewed by West End Wilma
GIRLZ plays Doonstairs at Gilded Balloon Patter House until 30 August 2026, 14.25-15.30
Read other reviews I have written of Edinburgh Fringe shows over the years
