Multi award-winning Manic Street Creature returns to the stage in a new production at Kiln Theatre.

The Story

A soaring musical of first loves and fresh starts.

We meet Ria who is saying goodbye Lancashire and hello to London’s Camden Town. With a rusty Toyota Yaris and rent she can barely afford, she is moving to London, ready to put her past behind her and take the music scene by storm.

But as she’s swept up in the whirlwind of life in a new city and an all-consuming relationship, she starts to question whether it’s possible to hold everything together and keep herself from falling apart.

At the end of the day, it is a story about mental health, growing up and realising that sometimes, if you really love someone, you have to let them go.

The Cast

MANIC STREET CREATURE 
is clearly a labour of love and catharsis for Maimuna Memon
(who plays Ria), who wrote the Music, Book & Lyrics and also leads the story on stage.

Maimuna won the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Musical in the London premiere of Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 at Donmar Warehouse and was also nominated for her performance in Standing at the Sky’s Edge.

Rachel Barnes mostly plays the cello throughout but dabbles in some of the dialogue in the show. Sam Beveridge as Finn and Harley Johnston as Raz are mostly just part of the band and not really involved in the story but they are all phenomenal musicians.

What I Liked

I loved the staging of this show. It was a warm, cosy recording studio filled with instruments, rugs and sofas that really gave the sense of life in a recording studio.

It was really cool to see real musicians on stage – each of them taking turns to play multiple instruments from guitar, drums, piano, cello and even some kind of accordion. This kept things really interesting as you never knew who was going to play what next and also allowed for them to move around the stage, whereas it might have become a little boring if they were all in the same position for the whole show.

What I Didn’t Like

The first sixty minutes of this ninety-minute show were amazing, smashing out song after song in some beautiful storytelling that really drew me in. But the last thirty minutes felt like it had been attached onto the end of the show, swapping songs for long monologues about mental health. If this were all more evenly distributed throughout the show, it may have been easier to sit through but the importance of the message just started to feel boring.

Final Thoughts

Manic Street Creature is a hugely important show, written by someone who is clearly very talented and has given everything they have to this piece of work. The songs are wonderful and tell the story so clearly; it just felt like a few more songs instead of the spoken word towards the end could have really rocked the piece.

★★★★

Reviewed by West End Wilma

Manic Street Creature is playing at Kiln Theatre until 28 March 2026