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The Real Kyle McCarren review – musical eulogy to lost bandmate strikes a chord
The Real Kyle McCarren is an earnest new US musical about Andy Roninson’s friend and bandmate Kyle, who died suddenly at 21. Framed as a concert-style eulogy, it explores the unsettling early days of grief, when private mourning overlaps with memorial tributes from people who knew the deceased differently. The reviewer finds its original music and performances polished and affecting, though believes the show does not fully bring Kyle himself into focus.
Roninson narrates and plays keyboards, while Sean McVerry portrays Kyle and co-wrote the score; other mourners, including Kyle’s mother, ex-partner and another claimed best friend, each perform a tribute in rock, soul or folk styles. The production, co-directed by Lonny Price and Matt Cowart, includes inventive staging such as recreating a skipping CD recording, and Coffey’s ballad is singled out. However, the review argues that reliance on retrospective accounts, rather than fuller flashbacks or a broader plot, leaves the central character elusive; it runs at Pleasance Courtyard in Edinburgh until 30 August.
In short
- A heartfelt musical explores grief after a young bandmate’s sudden death.
- Strong songs and staging outweigh an underdeveloped central character.
- The show runs at Edinburgh’s Pleasance Courtyard until 30 August.
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
A theatrical work benefits from developing its central character more fully. Even within a concert format, incorporating fuller flashbacks, direct scenes where audiences encounter Kyle's own voice and personality, or a broader narrative arc would strengthen the piece. Without this deeper characterisation, the tribute, however moving, remains dependent on fragments and external perspectives that inevitably leave the subject themselves elusive and underdeveloped.
The case against
The concert-style eulogy format authentically reflects how grief and memory actually operate. We know people through fragments, different perspectives, and our own relationships with them—not through complete biographical narratives. By deliberately leaving Kyle somewhat elusive, the production honestly captures the disorienting reality of losing someone and grappling with who they really were versus how different people remember them. This fragmented approach is more truthful than imposing a neat character arc onto lived experience.
Explained simply
In the US musical The Real Kyle McCarren, writer and performer Andy Roninson looks back on the sudden death of his friend and bandmate Kyle, who was 21. The show takes the form of a concert-style memorial, with songs drawing on the first, confusing days of grief.
Roninson narrates and plays keyboards, while Sean McVerry portrays Kyle and co-wrote the score. Kyle’s mother, former partner and other friends each offer their own tribute, reflecting the different relationships people had with him.
The musical explores how mourning can be both private and shared, as people remember the same person in different ways. Its structure also raises a question at the heart of the story: how fully can someone be brought to life through the memories of those left behind?