Techies
★★☆☆☆ Diffuse
Braw Venues @ Hill St (Venue 41): Fri 7 – Sun 30 Aug 2026
Review by Hugh Simpson
Techies from Yonder Window at Hill St is a promising new musical that has come over wholesale from New York but seems to have lost something on the way.
The musical by Sam Carner and Derek Gregor, having been extensively workshopped and presented in concert across several years in the USA, is making its official world premiere at Hill Street. It’s that familiar thing, a backstage musical. The techies of the theatre department of West Side high navigate uncooperative teachers and egotistical actors.
A scene from Techies. Pic Katie McHugh.
It’s an engaging, self-aware piece that features several romances (including some charming queer relationships). It’s also diffuse and far too long at two hours straight through without an interval.
There are some catchy numbers, but other than the excellent opening number they don’t necessarily grab you. The best (sharp Hamilton parodies, an interesting song about the dangers of social media) might have come from a different musical altogether.
The narrative tends to wander off in different directions, a situation made worse by the huge cast. It’s probably designed to be played in schools, and so wants to involve the largest possible number of people, but so many characters are introduced at the beginning that you are still trying to work out fully who some of them are at the end, and the acting space is uncomfortably crowded throughout.
The central character is Joan, a stage manager who has a control over the performance most stage managers could only dream of, seeming to combine the roles of producer, director and all-round guru. This tends to make the character’s slide into self-doubt a little difficult to believe, but there is no denying the vocal power Ana Sofía Hernández López brings to the role. There is great talent throughout the cast, but she is undoubtedly the stand-out, with an engaging, tuneful and witty performance.
noteworthy
There are other noteworthy performances; Elena G. Thomson as Vanessa, the actor whose head is turned by internet attention and Zoe Chilton as Night Train, the shy lighting operator who nurses a passion for her.
Daniel Arch’s egotistical Oliver, Henry Alper’s self-effacing Hammer and Sofia Prada’s earnest Stitches also excel, but the cast are uniformly impressive; tuneful, energetic and well-drilled. Katie McHugh directs assuredly, but the production never really seems at home in the confined acting space. The recorded musical backing (musical director James Higgins) works well enough, but the show sometimes struggles to impose itself.
Sometimes a long gestation period can work in a show’s favour, but sometimes it loses its focus along the way. This is what seems to have happened here. There’s the basis of a very good musical here, but it is currently too long, too meandering and going off in too many directions at once.
Running time: Two hours (no interval).
Braw Venues @ Hill St (Alba Theatre), 19 Hill St, EH2 3 JP. (Venue 41).
Friday 7 – Sunday 30 August 2026.
Daily: 5.45pm.
Tickets and details: Book here at EdFringe.com.
Tickets direct from venue: Book here.
ENDS
