The Little Big Things review: New musical’s approach to disability is cloying, simplistic and a little old-fashioned

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ringing endorsement of this new British musical proves to be an omen rather than an asset

Ed Larkin and Jonny Amies in ‘The Little Big Things’ (Pamela Raith Photography)

If you’re allergic to musical theatre earnestness, new British musical The Little Big Things will have you reaching for the epi pen. It comes with a ringing endorsement from Andrew Lloyd Webber (“a total triumph...it will be an international smash”) that its best, most full-throated moments live up to. But the seriousness with which its creators treat this true story of disability and determination means that the bits in between have the cloying, relentless uplifting quality of a school assembly or a church youth service.

It’s based on a 2017 Sunday Times bestseller of the same name by Henry Fraser, a talented 17-year-old rugby star who dives into the sea on holiday and finds himself paralysed from the shoulders down. Adapted by Joe White (who’s behind infinitely more nuanced hit plays Mayfly and Blackout Songs), it becomes a straightforward parable about overcoming adversity.

The most interesting choice here is to have two Henrys. The fine-voiced Jonny Amies plays Henry before the accident, while wheelchair-using actor Ed Larkin plays Henry after it: the two actors tell their story together, with Henry haunted by the presence of his carefree past self. It’s a device that offers a chink of psychological realism but the window doesn’t open much further.