Review: Escape Room: The Musical

📍 Just The Fancy Room at Just The Tonic at the Caves

🗓️ 20th August 2026

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With its book and lyrics by Tom Rolph, lyrics by Michael Rincón, and produced by Grownup Playhouse Productions, Escape Room: The Musical follows a group of friends who are tricked into a reunion at an escape room.

Walking into Just The Fancy Room, the stage was already set for an escape room adventure, with props and puzzles displayed across the space. It really helped to set the scene for the performance before it had even begun and immediately made you feel like you were stepping into the world of the show.

The show is fun, and there are definitely a lot of different stories and characters to keep you entertained for an hour. It’s quite an easy watch, which is in no way meant as a criticism. The setting of an escape room for a musical is also quite unique — I’ve certainly never come across another show set in one, so it definitely stands out from that perspective. I just don’t necessarily think that the story being told throughout the show needed that environment. Further use of the escape room itself would most certainly have elevated the show and created a stronger structure around the group of friends.

Similarly, there is a lot of humour mixed throughout the musical, but I think at times it could lean into those humorous moments a little more to really get the audience engaged. I also found the breaking of the fourth wall a little unclear. Are we, the audience, in the room with them and therefore are they talking directly to us, or are we watching them trapped in the room? At the moment, it feels like the show is trying to do different things at once, and establishing this more clearly would help to strengthen the overall structure.

That said, there’s also a lot to like about this. It’s fun, with catchy songs, and the cast of six are excellent at portraying the varying emotions of being locked in a stressful situation, with a countdown timer ticking away in the background. Each of the characters gets their own moment to shine, and you get to know them a little better as the show progresses, which helps you follow their individual stories. The twists and turns along the way also definitely make the show an interesting one.

There’s the basis of a really great story in there that does pull you in, but I felt like there was more to explore within it. The concept is unique and clever, and the wonderful performances really capture the fun of the show. It’s definitely one to check out, and I look forward to seeing how it develops further. With some tightening of the book and a stronger structure around the escape-room element, this one has a lot of potential.

Escape Room: The Musical is running at Just The Tonic at the Caves until 29 August at 19:30.