Review: YOU'RE A CATCH! WHY ARE YOU SINGLE? at Theatre Works

You're A Catch! Why Are You Single? Like me, you may have been asking yourself this question for quite some time. However, in this instance, I am not referring to my own disastrous love life, or even perhaps potential narcissistic personality traits. What I am referring to is a new 60-minute, one-act, song cycle written by Sarah Wynen, called You're A Catch! Why Are You Single? This laugh-out-loud show recently played at Theatre Works, as part of this year's Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Really what better way is there to explore the indulgent question of 'You're A Catch! Why Are You Single?' than through song, and certainly Wynen does this well. In this song cycle, her writing provides both a hilarious and honest look at the modern love life of the Australian homo sapien. You're A Catch! Why Are You Single? transverses subject matter that includes commenting on the plethora of colourful characters that one gets introduced to in online dating, through to the disastrous consequences that are caused by listening to the advice of a YouTube first date tutorial. Apart from one song that doesn't quite fit, all the rest explore the show's title question well and across a broad emotional spectrum. Wynen uses humour in her writing to successfully unpack both light-hearted and complex issues. This includes a farcical song about a character not understanding why he is single when he is 'well hung', to the more complex issue of only appearing desirable to the opposite gender than one is attracted to.

Apart from being the writer, Wynen also shows great leadership as the show's producer, music director, and co-director, alongside Simon McWilliam. Some of the show's choreography however didn't seem to quite gel and perhaps more movement-based choreography would work better than the current danced-based choreography. Regardless, like any show with 'good bones', further workshopping of You're A Catch! Why Are You Single? will iron out the minor crinkles.

The young cast of six fresh faced performers did a great job in bringing the many characters to life. This included Marcus Doherty, Courtney Holt, Emily Jacker-Lawrence, Alexis Longley, Blake Peiper, Bek Schilling and Brenton Shaw. The cast album for You're A Catch! Why Are You Single? is available on all major streaming platforms and sheet music can be purchased from www.sarahwynen.com.

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