Cece’s grandmother has just died, causing her to spiral into a quarter-life crisis. She soon meets seven “guests” who have been living with her grandmother for all these years, and now it’s time for her to live with sin.

The opening monologue delivered by Cece (played by Lauren Lopez) explains the predicament she is in, and sets up the narrative for the rest of the musical. The opening number quickly changes the tone of the play, and shifts from a mournful tone of dismay and hopelessness to one of playfulness and mischief. This is when we meet our seven “deadly” sins, the sins which have been living in Cece’s grandma’s house, and now living with her.

“The choreography is also very well considered and executed”

The opening number is jazzy and playful, with truly fantastic voices from the entire cast, both leading the number and harmonising in the background, adding a lot of texture to the performance. The choreography is also very well considered and executed, setting the high standard seen in the rest of the show. We open with the sins bombarding Cece with questions about her life, why she doesn’t have a boyfriend or husband, what she is to do now that her grandmother is gone, and pointing out all the other misfortunes and insecurities in Cece’s life.

The sins soon decide to help Cece become the person she was born to be. They decide to give her advice to make her life her own, but taking advice from sins may not lead to the best conclusions…

Each number in the show is well executed and fits well with the narrative in the show, however, most songs are in a very similar style, leading to the enjoyment of the songs whilst watching them -- but they’re not the most catchy and don’t tend to stay in your head after the show. Having said that, the numbers themselves were very enjoyable, with a large portion of the audience nodding and tapping toes along with the tunes.

“Cece is the only character with a solo number, causing each of the sins to feel like one single unit rather than individual characters”

The costume design was also very well thought out and adds a nice sense of elegance to the performance from the sins. However, as there are seven sins, we don’t really see much character development from anyone other than Cece herself. Cece is the only character with a solo number, causing each of the sins to feel like one single unit rather than individual characters. If the play was longer we may have been able to see the sins interact with each other a little more, thus showing their motive and personal connection with Cece, rather than just as a group that just happens to want to help Cece for no clear reason.

Overall, this show is a lovely dramatic musical about a young adult, who finds her place in the world and gets help from the sins surrounding her. This was a very enjoyable show, with my only true complaint being that I wished it was longer! This show will be a highlight of your day.

Living with Sin is playing at The Space at Niddry street from the 15-20th August