A musical based on a book can always be something that goes one for two ways – it can be something that doesn’t work or it is something that can go the complete opposite direction and be a knockout.

Hello Kitty Must Die is based on the book by Angela S Choi that was released in 2010 and is produced by the same team behind Six. The story follows Fiona Yu, high achieving, Chinese-American woman who is fed up with the stereotypes forced onto her by a white, patriarchal society. In the lead song it is very evident that she is sick of being defined as a “human embodiment of the speechless cartoon feline Hello Kitty.”

This is a musical that delves into a lot of issues, sex, drugs, violence and topics about Chinese culture that you may not be aware of. Right from the start, this musical is aggressive and it comes fighting strong with bold lyrics that take you right into the central core of what the issues are and it doesn’t stop, it’s continuous and for someone like myself, a white woman, I found it incredibly insightful, educational and also empowering at times.

This is a musical with a bold narrative that keeps on giving and the audience around me were really enjoying it. The songs were sung exceptionally well and it felt like i was in the West End at times, it was that level of professional. The set is very simple however it is used and manoeuvred so swiftly that it is used incredibly well.

Also, there are only five actors with four of them jumping in and out of different characters and it is done correctly, they are all distinctive and it is incredibly obvious when they are certain ones which is important and is very hard to do and have seen other shows at the fringe where they have failed to do this.

I highly recommend this show, initially it will shock you but as the story goes on it will be a story that you will engage in and want to find out the ending.

**** 4 Stars