Review: SAVING BRITNEY, Old Red Lion Theatre

Photo credit: Zoe Grain

Growing up in the public eye since she was only three years old, revered princess of pop Britney Spears is known by everyone but not everyone has the same connection to her and not everyone knows what her life is really like. 

Over the past few years, her life and her fame have encountered another form of popularity, closer to fame introspection and media treatment, which was revealed to the public in the now-famous Framing Britney Spears documentary.

Shocked and inspired by the #FreeBritney movement and the documentary, two talented artists, actor Shereen Roushbaiani and writer, director and designer David Shopland joined forces to create the powerful and moving show, Saving Britney. 

After 425 days and preceded by an online prologue, Saving Britney is finally playing on stage at the Old Red Lion Theatre, running until 5 June.

Before approaching this formidable one-woman show, produced by Fake Escape, don’t get too attached to the title, because this show is not all about Britney. She certainly is the starting point and the ingenious stage design clearly shows it, with the shrine of photos, posters, albums, and t-shirts, which is one of many other noughties reminiscences and discoveries for audiences along the way.

All of these items belong to Jean from Gloucestershire. Jean had a fan epiphany moment aged around 8 when she heard ‘Baby One More Time’ in 1999. Since then, she has kept a diary and lists all of her links to the pop star but also what Britney Spears and her music was, and still is, for her throughout her life. Shereen Roushbaiani impressively embodies two parallel life stories, Britney’s grand moments coincide with Jean’s life as she faces a uneasy childhood and teenage years, her parents’ divorce, her sexual awakening, her mother’s death, up until her young adult period and the dawn of the Britney Spears conservatorship trial, when she comes to realise what her connection to Britney, building and comforting, over the years really is.

Interacting smoothly with the audience, who will go through many emotions from joy and tears, Roushbaiani also masters the switch between the American and English accents across the narrative two-stories, with a well-written script, significantly shown in moments when she recounts Britney’s life with a plastic toy microphone - noughties fans will be able to appreciate this! She also interacts with the physical stage space by dance and showing her musical and vocal talents along the way, with the always welcome Britney Spears setlist which chronologically accompanies this marvellous monologue. 

Using two clothes racks as physical representations, this vibrant performance occasionally seems larger than the space but it is more than ideal to deliver the intimate and moving monologue being performed. Bringing this intimacy to the audience, who clearly understand that whatever their Britney’s fan degree is (or whether they discover one during the show), it brings some universal moments and life questions to these two-life stories, bringing joy, love, fame, pain, but also questions the interactions and projections we have about our favourite singers - what life seems and it is really like behind closed doors.

After an online prologue, we can salute this staggering monologue and let the audience debate which album they want to play first after the show! 

**** Four stars

Reviewed by: Alexia Irene

Saving Britney plays at the Old Red Lion Theatre in London until 5 June. To book tickets, please click here.