Public the Musical

 Curve, Leicester

4^th June, 2026

“Now I’m the missing pieces”

In recent years, Curve has become a powerhouse of producing musicals – notably revivals, but also new work. Freya Catrin Smith and Jack Williams’ RIDE in 2023 was a neat chamber musical with a playfully expansive narrative. Last year, Scott Evan Davis’ and Kait Kerrigan’s Indigo was a formally innovative, refreshingly colourful musical about a fractured family. And this year, two new British musicals are enjoying overlapping runs in Leicester. Rob Madge and Pippa Cleary’s Bank of Dave: The Musical has just finished in the main house, and now, following an earlier version at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2023, Public the Musical is playing in the Studio. Written by Hannah Sands, Kyla Stroud, Natalie Stroud and Olivia Zacharia (and created by Stroud & Notes), Public the Musical is a promising, funny four-hander about (and probably most appealing to) Gen-Zs discovering their purpose and identities in life.

Trapped in a public bathroom with no phone signal or hope of getting out, four strangers confront each other and themselves. We have Zo (Grace Towning), a champagne-socialist on her way to a protest whilst being bankrolled by the bank of Mum and Dad; there’s Laura (Cole Dennis), who’s too-polite exterior is covering a bed of 11^th hour nerves about their wedding; Finley (Ivano Turco), whose anxiety makes him anti-social and seems to have made him stuck in a dead-end job; and Andrew (Matt Corner), an insensitive city banker with humble beginnings. Four very different people stuck in a confined setting makes for a perfect dramatic conceit, a crucible in which the writers can develop contrasting characters and bounce them off each other, work together and, ultimately, bond. The concept easily grabs an audience and, considering its simplicity, the characters are easy to spend 90 minutes with as an audience. A part of me didn’t believe they would ever walk into such a grotty public toilet in the first place but musicals are all about suspending your disbelief, right?

Being in a pressured environment (impressively realised by Amy Jane Cook), they’re initially prone to antagonism. Andrew’s ignorance over Laura’s pronouns (they’re non-binary) annoys Zo (more so than Laura) who has him marked as a chauvinist who only cares about his precious bike locked up outside. He has her outward displays of progressivism (she’s dressed as a bee) pegged as being shallow. He also judge’s Finley’s job at a pizza place and perhaps mistakes his anxiety for apathy. And Laura is so passive they haven’t mentioned they’re due to get married tomorrow. The title’s double meaning cleverly refers to the idea of a public persona we’re comfortable presenting. In a public setting, we’re all the more aware of this persona, giving us the opportunity to generate, curate or hide our ‘true’ selves. And for the most part Public articulates these interests successfully. It’s interested in the assumptions we make based on first impressions. For instance, Zo’s defensive over-protection of Laura leads her to berate Andrew but her efforts occasionally crack showing her own prejudices and naiveties underneath. These exchanges are telling windows into the musical’s interest into the complex world of navigating identity in the contemporary world. The book is often funny, and captures the phrases, rhythms and anxieties of young people today as refreshingly as Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.

What’s frustrating, then, is that, given the musical’s resistance for easy answers, Public is occasionally let down by characterisation which is too broadly drawn. Despite giving fine performances, we never really know much about Finley because he has a tendency to (literally and otherwise) lock himself away. The musical form gives an opportunity to dig deeper, and his song ‘Nervous Disposition’ is one of the stand outs of the show. It gives Turco an opportunity present Finley’s inner self and how he’s working through some issues, but that isn’t really advanced much further after that early song. Likewise, with Andrew, we get that he’s not as shallow as we first glimpse but his true depths remain murky. This is exacerbated by the start of his solo number ‘Missing Pieces’ starting in such a high register it (perhaps purposefully) doesn’t seem to fit his character. This is perhaps a tell-tale sign the writers are still developing their crafts. Similarly, a running joke about syphilis struck me as oddly unfaithful to some of the characters’ personalities.

The songs are solidly performed by a cast of four who have all racked up an impressive amount of experience in their careers so far. This experience shows and they make the songs sound as if they’re an established part of the canon.  The best songs advance character and Turco’s ‘Nervous Disposition’ and Towning’s ‘Harder to Chew’ are standouts for this reason. Others such as ‘Graffiti’ in which characters riff off the scrawling on the bathroom tiles (lucky Tom!) provide frothier moments. For me, Public is still at a stage of pop song cycle rather than providing narrative momentum. However, this new musical is a welcome addition to keep the form moving forward and showcasing future talents.

Public the Musical runs at Curve, Leicester until 13^th June.

(L-R) Matt Corner (Andrew), Grace Towning (Zo), Cole Dennis (Laura) and Ivano Turco (Finley) in Public the Musical. Credit: Mark Senior