The 20th century ended with a glorious crop of teen movies that crept under the skin of a whole generation. Still, strip away the nostalgia and these chronicles of high school life can look cynical, offensive, sex-obsessed and just plain mean. None more so than Cruel Intentionsthe story of a creepily enmeshed stepbrother and sister who shag and manipulate their way through high school in their quest to come out on top.
Subtitled “The ’90s Musical”, this stage version nails the original’s acid punchlines but not the tone, blunting its dark edge with a score of the decade’s bubbliest songs.
It’s an adaptation that first popped up in America a decade ago, with the movie’s original writer Roger Kumble co-authoring a jukebox version of his hit take on the 1782 French novel Dangerous relationships. Now, director Jonathan O’Boyle – who’s presided over a slew of nimble stagings of off-West End musicals – has taken it in hand, with a killer cast mostly making up for a flimsy production budget.
