The snappy title of this year’s freshers’ musical provided many an opportunity for many a play on words. As a fresher myself I was not sure what to expect when I walked into the theatre. What I got was a vivaciously fun, glowing performance with multiple laugh-out-loud moments that make the 11pm start worth it.

The plot of the musical focuses on pop superstar Candice, (a Taylor Swift/Sabrina Carpenter hybrid, with a dash of stereotypical popstar entitlement) played by Hattie Jones, who is forced to rely on a group of schoolgirl fans to be her back-up back-up dancers. Her real back-up dancers are unfortunately stuck in the Suez Canal as their eco-boat has got trapped; which the dancers are only on because Twitter is tracking Candice’s (probably atrocious from how frequently she suggests using a private jet) air miles.

The Back-Ups masterfully interweaves humour specific to Cambridge students, such as Candice finding the water “chalky” in the Midlands or her manager O’Neill using her Camcard as a backstage pass. These are combined with more general ‘current’ jokes through references to nepo-babies, fan fiction, thanking Beyoncé first, and the ludicrousness of “a store called Gregg’s that serves chicken korma in a pie and pretends it’s normal” to the American Candice. The jokes which roused the strongest reactions from the audience were those that used the physical acting and facial expressions of the actors. This was a notably strong area across the musical, all the cast were in constant action or motion. You could look at any character at any moment and be entertained.

“You could look at any character at any moment and be entertained”

A standout was Aisha, played by Rosie Spragg, whose expressive facial reactions and the energy with which she threw herself into jokes and physical acting created some of the play’s funniest moments. Another notable performance was that of Poppy O’Hara, who perhaps had the hardest character of the girls to make ‘stick’. Her role as the unaware, blundering Jaime could easily have fallen flat, but Poppy’s frank, direct delivery and constant grin toward the audience meant all the jokes landed.

The musical lends itself to a loud and interactive audience, from the nod-winks to the Cambridge students, some of the ‘dirtier’ jokes, and Candice’s audience interactions through her performance to the real audience, as if we were her fans at her Wembley performance, invite this energy. On opening night, the audience delivered, though this was perhaps helped by the number of people that seemed to be close friends with at least one person on stage – the whoops, boos, and laughs were constant. I hope that this energy continues throughout the musical’s run as it adds to the positive, energetic mood of the play.

Directors Lauren Birbeck and Olivia Marshall masterfully played into the play’s quick wit and energy through their deft direction. They created a swift pace which mirrored the witty dialogue in dynamic movement that was endlessly entertaining. This is a notable achievement due to the variety of theatrical techniques – freeze frames, shifts in perspective, and flash-forwards. The dancing and singing felt polished and confident, something easy for a more novice production to miss, and a particular strength of The Back-Ups. Although some slip-ups from opening night nerves were inevitable these were negligible against the powerful voices of all the cast, from the ensemble to the main characters. The dancing, though some members of the cast did not appear to be trained dancers, always managed to be enthusiastic yet clean. Choreographer Emma Gower did a masterful job of combining skills that a less-practised dancer could achieve in a combination that still looked complex and visually entertaining.

“It indulges in pure fun, and the positive energy radiates off the stage”

The Back-Ups’ visual intrigue was further shaped by the particularly effective use of lighting. The bold pink lighting used to indicate times of emotional importance to Candice was incredibly successful, especially when this pink light was contrasted, at times of conflict, with the white light of her partner Alix (Celine El Kahi), or the red warning light associated with Candice’s manager O’Neill (Evie Marlow). The repeated use of a spotlight achieves a similar end, beginning as a hyper-dramatic fun convention that stresses Candice’s star power, but gradually coming to represent Candice being trapped in the limelight.

Candice’s battle with her understanding of herself, and the gradual self-realisation she reaches due to her relationship with “these kids” who give her a “new purpose” are a welcome surprise in the otherwise quite effervescent show. These moments are stressed by the contrast in musical tone; the bubbly, pop music numbers are replaced with an acoustic duet between Candice and her partner Alix in which they reflect on what Candice was like before fame. This song and others like it manage to create intimacy and pathos by slowing the pace of the musical, without feeling jarring or like an interruption.

The freshers’ musical had the audience laughing and whooping, and ended in a well-earned standing ovation. It indulges in pure fun, and the positive energy radiates off the stage. The Back-Ups feels like a production in which all the actors have formed genuine friendships, which as an audience member you can’t help but feel welcomed into.

‘The Back-Ups’ is showing at the ADC Theatre from Wednesday 20th until Saturday 23rd November, at 11pm.