Beautiful Little Fool
Southwark Playhouse Borough
Until 28th February 2026
Beautiful Little Fool at Southwark Playhouse feels like a first draft
F. Scott Fitzgerald has become a household name, a quintessential American novelist whose work is read by students around the world. But his personal life was messy, complicated, and chaotic. Beautiful Little Fool attempts to bring the story of the Fitzgerald family to life.
The musical follows Scottie Fitzgerald, daughter of the infamous Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, as she looks back on her parent’s tumultuous relationship. As Scottie spends her birthday going through an archive filled with her parent’s old relics, letters, and unfinished works, she begins to watch their lives unfold before her eyes.
While I found this concept promising, the story never took off. Both the book by Mona Mansour and the lyrics/composition by Hannah Corneau left something to be desired. The story was altogether quite mild, failing to capture the passionate, dramatic, infamous lives of Scottie’s legendary parents in a compelling way.
Leading the audience through the plot was Lauren Ward as Scottie Fitzgerald, whose performance was winning in spite of lackluster material. Ward had the tricky task of playing both a 48-year-old woman reflecting on her parent’s’ lives and a 15-year-old child in the midst of it all, cleverly changing her demeanor as she stepped in and out of the story. She handled long moments of narration with poise, but Mansour’s script made it feel like Ward was reading the audience a Wikipedia page. This, along with repetitive lyrics, left much of the main characters’ inner dialogue and emotional depth unexplored. When it comes to live theatre, I prefer to be shown what is happening, not told.
Joining Ward on stage was David Hunter as F. Scott and Amy Parker as Zelda (the role of Zelda is principally played by Hannah Corneau, with Parker covering in tonight’s performance). Both gave capable acting performances but really soared with their vocals. Corneau’s score is a difficult one, and both Hunter and Parker delivered strong, reliable, and emotional voices throughout. Accompanying these vocals was an incredible on-stage band led by Adam Rothenberg, bringing a pop-concert-esk element to the show.
I would be remiss not to mention another standout element of the production, Ben Stanton’s superb lighting design. Behind the set was an impressive grid of circular lights, once again evoking a concert feel. Stanton effectively switched between these bright lights during the upbeat songs and dim, moodier lighting during quieter moments of realization and reflection. I often found myself thinking that the lighting conveyed more of the story to the audience than the script itself.
Telling a complicated, compelling story is a real challenge, one F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald knew all too well. Beautiful Little Fool felt like a first draft; the concept shows promise, but it remains one-dimensional. For a musical based on such historic, colorful people, it was surprisingly muted.
Beautiful Little Fool is playing at Southwark Playhouse until February 28th.
⭐⭐
Reviewer: Jordyn Murray
Photo: Pamela Raith