Review: Pretty Woman: The Musical at Crown Theatre

Pretty Woman: The Musical at Crown Theatre
Sunday, April 19, 2026

One West Coast to another, from the City of Angels across to our City of Light, modern Cinderella tale Pretty Woman: The Musical opened its season at Crown Theatre this evening, the cast and crew giving a performance brimmed full of spectacle, verve, and panache. With big hair on the stage, big guitars across the music score, and under fluorescent neon skies reminiscent of most GTA cut-scenes, tonight was also a stirringly blatant love letter to the eighties.

A homecoming of sorts for the two Perth-born leads, Samantha Jade and Ben Hall, the duo inhabited the iconic roles of Vivian Ward and Edward Lewis so fully that at times one could almost forget the mega-hit movie the musical property was based upon. Jade brought all the sass expected of Vivian, paired with a magnificent singing voice, pitch-perfect from the first, whilst Hall as Edward journeyed from workaholic corporate raider to dew-eyed romantic in a manner most heart-warmingly believable. Combined, Jade and Hall sparkled with an easy chemistry each time they were on stage together.

As strong as both lead performances were, Bobby Fox in the dual roles of Happy Man and hotel manager Mister Thompson near enough stole every scene he was in, with acres of charisma and yards of talent to spare. Whether on Hollywood Boulevard, where he led the scenes as if they were New Kids on the Block music videos, or when teaching Vivian how to ballroom dance—switched up from the table etiquette scene of the movie—Fox excelled at every point.

Vivian’s colleague and roommate Kit de Luca was performed by Michelle Brasier, who brought the broadest accent from Queens, the biggest can of hairspray, and likely the largest personality of the night to the fore, acting both as best friend and camp mother. Of the ensemble, special mention should be made of Jordan Tomljenovic, who brought an intensely sunny and joyous visage to hotel bellhop Guilio, a role that contained extensive interplay with the primary cast.

The songs contained within were fabulous: Welcome to Hollywood and Anywhere but Here landed as a fantastic one-two opening for the night, whilst the opera scene, halfway through Act Two, entwined the musical number You and I, a masquerade ball, and snippets of song from La Traviata itself in a beautiful, spectacular manner.

Other easy highlights were the dance numbers in the performance, especially when considered there were exactly zero in the original property. The choreography on display in these pieces was second to none, whilst the costuming ran the gamut from Madonna’s Lucky Star era through the TV wardrobes of Full House or 21 Jump Street and, of course, finally landing on the Rodeo Drive chic made famous in the movie.

The staging was impressively effective in its affected simplicity, easily switching from streets to hotel to polo club, with the ensemble whizzing this way and that, either clearing away or placing down props, often a mere few seconds before they broke into yet more song or dance.

At the core of the piece was Vivian as she began to understand her own worth, set against Edward opening himself up to unexpected vulnerability. Jade and Hall gave these aspects of their roles a delightful authenticity, the almost believable character arcs of both given the lightest sprinkle of Tinkerbell’s dust. Both in-universe on stage and externally into the audience, most everyone was leaning directly into the fairy tale here.

The Los Angeles of stage and screen, the self-styled American dream factory, often appears a cacophony of competing, contradictory ghost stories or urban legends, unremittingly grim or hopelessly naive—consider a Mulholland Drive or Sunset Boulevard placed against a La La Land or Singing in the Rain.

Pretty Woman, both as movie and musical, inhabits the Goldilocks zone between these sparring waypoints, neither too hot nor too cold, too dark nor too light. Elevated this evening by a superb cast alongside some utterly fantastic song and dance numbers, the stage shone brightly tonight with the property being the fun, romantic, and nostalgic romp it always was. Quite possibly the perfect escape back to 1990 from our current everything.

PAUL MEEK