Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Ever since Serial arrived on the scene a decade ago, podcasts devoted to true crime have soared in popularity \u2014 so much so that Disney+\u2019s Only Murders in the Building fabricated a comic riposte, impishly sending up the genre while creating something every bit as addictive.Into this arena strides Kathy & Stella Solve a Murder, a daft and delightful comedy musical about two social misfits from Hull whose shoestring podcast bursts into the true-crime stratosphere when murder arrives on their doorstep. A hit at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2022, it\u2019s a show that riffs on the popularity of murder mysteries, where armchair detection can make a killing, and raises a few of the ethical complexities of entangling entertainment with real-life crime. Shy, reclusive Kathy and bolshie, outspoken Stella \u2014 Bront\u00e9 Barb\u00e9 and Rebekah Hinds, both excellent \u2014 are struggling to break through from their makeshift studio in Kathy\u2019s mum\u2019s garage. But when true-crime-podcast superstar Felicia Taylor (Hannah Jane Fox) arrives in town and is promptly murdered \u2014 apparently by the killer whose case she\u2019d solved \u2014 Kathy and Stella get sucked into a live whodunnit. Soon they are grappling with clues, forensics and the ire of Detective Inspector Sue Shaw (Elliotte Williams-N\u2019Dure) who, in time-honoured fashion, takes a dim view of amateur sleuths mucking about in the morgue.The whole thing is delivered with jaunty tongue-in-cheek flair, as the style ricochets from melodramatic excess to moments of genuine pathos. Matthew Floyd Jones\u2019s songs bring a droll, down-to-earth northern twist to musical staples \u2014 power ballad, love duet, soul-searching solo \u2014 and Fabian Aloise\u2019s choreography sends the wannabe detectives spinning around the stage on their humble office chairs. Meanwhile, the script, by Jon Brittain (who co-directs with Aloise) touches on the strange appeal of murder stories \u2014 the two friends bonded as lonely schoolgirls over a shared love of gruesome crime fiction \u2014 and the lure of fame. With superstardom dangled in front of them, should Stella use her editing skills to \u201ctweak\u201d the evidence and move the case along?Ironically, the show\u2019s own success has thrown up similar challenges to those faced by its protagonists. It arrives in the West End expanded from its original shorter format and has perhaps lost some of its charm in the process. It\u2019s over-amplified \u2014 to the point where lyrics become inaudible \u2014 and somewhat oversold. It feels as though it\u2019s pushing too hard when it doesn\u2019t need to; the most effective scenes are often the quietest. Meanwhile, even granted that it is deliberately quirky, the show could conduct its interrogation of issues with a bit more rigour.At its best, however, this is still a hugely likeable, self-deprecating piece, bubbling with mischievous energy and carried by two cracking central performances. For all the slicing and dicing, this is a warm-hearted show about friendship.\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606\u2606To September 14, kathyandstella.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Ever since Serial arrived on the scene a decade ago, podcasts devoted to true crime have soared in popularity \u2014 so much so that Disney+\u2019s Only<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-115054","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-culture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115054"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115055,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115054\/revisions\/115055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}