When I was at university, I didn’t achieve much. I discovered drugs and alcohol, slept a lot, and just about made it out with my degree in Film and TV (that I have never worked in). The same cannot be said about Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. Whilst at university, they wrote a musical about the six wives of Henry VIII, which they then took to the Edinburgh Fringe in the hope that maybe their friends would like it. Their friends did like it. The fringe audiences liked it. In fact EVERYONE LOVES IT! The show in question is, of course, SIX, the epic historical (her-storical) musical that has taken the world by storm, and forever changed the landscape of musical theatre. Not to mention, completely changed how we view the 6 passionate and intelligent women that until now had only been known by their association with an English king.
SIX is truly a global phenomenon, wowing audiences in the West End, Broadway, and worldwide, since it opened in London in 2019, and garnering the writers a Tony Award each for Best Original Score. But Toby and Lucy aren’t ones to rest on their laurels. After the worldwide success of SIX, they’ve turned their attention to a brand-new and completely different show: Why Am I So Single? (WAISS). This time, instead of reimagining history, they’re diving into the messiness of modern relationships and the struggles of single life. With WAISS, they’ve brought their signature style, sass, and wit to a whole new, deeply relatable arena – one that doesn’t involve queens (well maybe a few), but plenty of heartache, hilarity, and self-reflection (read my review here).
I had the absolute treat of getting to sit down with Toby and Lucy for a chat about their success, keeping each other grounded, and of course … Twilight: The Musical!
Hi Guys! Really cool to meet you! (I then definitely didn’t go all fan-boy at them and tell them how me and my kids listen to SIX all the time – I am far too professional for that!)
Why Am I So Single? explores relationships and dating. How much of it is pulled from your own experiences?
Lucy: It obviously draws quite heavily from our experiences, but we’ve also had a lot of fun stealing stories from our friends – everyone we know, basically. It’s kind of this fun thing where we know what’s true and what’s not, but no one else does. Except for our friends, who are like, “Oh, that’s me!”
Toby: Yeah, and we’ve made a lot up as well. The two main characters have bits of both of us in them in different ways. I see myself in both of them, but also, thank God, not in other ways – because they do some questionable things.
Lucy: And in some ways, they’re like past versions of ourselves. We first started thinking about these characters about five years ago, so they probably felt closer to us then. But now, it feels less autobiographical, though there’s still some truth in there.
Toby: It seems like a memoir, but it really isn’t. Well, in a way, it is. We were inspired by our lives, but as we kept working on the story and these characters, they kind of left us behind. They became their own creations.
Lucy: Especially with Leesa and Joe, who play the leads. They’ve made the characters so their own that it feels like they belong to them now, which is really nice.
The show has a mix of humour and heart. How did you balance the silliness with the deeper emotions of loneliness and love?
Lucy: I honestly think that’s the only way I know how to cope with those things at all. I think both the characters, and also both of us, have a bit of a relationship with humour versus the difficult, sincere things in life. The tone of the show is this constant grappling with big feelings and real sincerity. The characters are a bit allergic to the idea of sincerity, while simultaneously being the most sincere people in the world.
Toby: Yeah, it’s like they find it impossible to express their feelings honestly without inserting a bit of humour. Somehow, that’s woven its way into every line and song in the show.
Lucy: I think it’s just how we are, and it’s how a lot of people are, right? Even with SIX, a lot of the humour comes from complete sincerity while saying something totally savage. In life, people rarely just openly say, “This happened to me.” It’s more like, “Yeah, well, this difficult thing happened, but whatever.” There’s an inherent discomfort with sincerity. Most people don’t dive into raw emotions easily.
Toby: That heart versus humour dynamic is at the core of the show. It’s about navigating modern dating, but also about friendships that you go through all of that with. The horror of dating and feeling alone is balanced against the humour you share with your friends, where you laugh at those awful experiences together. That’s what the show is really about: laughing through the horrible bits.
“There’s such a mix of people – ‘gaydies, ladies, and baedies’ with lots of gender fuckery, and it feels like my group of friends. “
You’re two best friends who’ve written a show about two best friends writing a show. When you were developing the characters’ relationship, did you put a lot of yours in there? How do you hope audiences will connect with that?
Lucy: Yeah, there’s a lot of our relationship in there, but also bits of our friendships with other people. A big part of the show is about what makes a love story, and we took inspiration from traditional love story dynamics. People have come up to us after shows saying, “This reminds me of my relationship with my friend,” and we hope audiences feel seen and reassured about the love stories in their lives, especially the non-romantic ones.
Toby: Besides the two main characters, we’ve got this big dance ensemble that feels like a friendship group I relate to. There’s such a mix of people – [sic] ‘gaydies, ladies, and baedies’ with lots of gender fuckery, and it feels like my group of friends. I think audiences will connect with that too.
SIX is known for its strong musical influences, blending pop culture with classic musical theatre. What can audiences expect from the musical style this time around?
Lucy: SIX was very much pop divas meets musicals, but this time it’s more like a mix of our modern pop sensibility with something that feels like a big, fancy musical. We’re still drawing on pop influences, but the style feels more theatrical.
Toby: Yeah, we’ve really played with pastiches of different musical styles. Each number in Why Am I So Single? has its own unique feel. Some are more poppy, others are nods to classic musicals – like big ensemble numbers or old-school Hollywood. It’s basically us taking a bunch of different musical styles and putting our own spin on them, with a modern, digital twist. So, people will hear influences from different genres, but it’s all filtered through our own perspective.
This is your first major show since SIX. How has your writing and directing process evolved since then? What new challenges have you faced with this show?
Lucy: Oh gosh, that’s a good question. I think writing-wise, we’ve definitely grown. SIX was the first musical we’d ever written, and for me, it was the first thing I’d written as a writer at all. Over the last five years, we’ve worked on quite a few different things, so we’ve learned a lot from each other during that time. Every project we work on has its own process, and with Why Am I So Single? it felt even more collaborative. Sometimes one of us would take the lead on a scene or song, and other times we’d write together in a back-and-forth manner. It’s become even more hybrid as we’ve both started to steal each other’s skills! The terrifying thing is that we’ve made each other redundant!
Toby: Yeah, Lucy’s definitely stolen some of my writing tricks, but I haven’t stolen her directing ones. When it comes to directing, that’s really Lucy’s domain, and it’s been fascinating to watch her bring our writing to life. When rehearsals started, I took a step back because Lucy was in the driver’s seat as director, and I trust her completely to do an amazing job – which she has. But it’s been interesting figuring out when to take off the writer’s hat and when to put on the director’s hat. There’s always a balance between how we approach challenges; sometimes it’s a writing issue, sometimes it’s a directorial thing. Figuring that out has been a fun, though tricky, dynamic.
As I mentioned earlier, my kids absolutely love SIX. Did you have any idea when you were writing it that it would have such a wide appeal?
Toby: Like big no. I mean, the thing that we find ourselves saying a lot is that when we wrote it, we were just hoping some people at the Edinburgh Fringe would come and see it. Maybe our friends, maybe a few others. The reach it’s had? That’s still completely baffling. We didn’t expect it at all, and it’s overwhelming to think about sometimes. But in terms of younger people, it’s been really lovely and wonderful. Especially because SIX is a show with no men on stage – it’s all women and non-binary people taking up that space for 80 minutes, which is pretty rare. For kids to see that, be entertained, and connect with it – that’s really powerful. It feels like such a gift.
It is a gift. SIX is an amazing gift that you’ve given to the world.
Lucy: I don’t know, I guess it’s nice because it feels like it’s so much more than about us now. Like Toby said, it’s the performers, the musicians, the actors – they’re the ones leading it. It’s happening all over the world with different casts, and it doesn’t belong to just us anymore. It belongs to all of them and to audiences like your kids who engage with it. We’ve sort of handed it over, and now everyone’s running with it.
Toby: Yeah, that’s what feels like the real gift for us. The show has grown into something so special, and we’re just really lucky to be able to witness that.
What’s been the most surreal moment of your journey with SIX?
Toby: I think one of the most surreal moments for me was when SIX performed at Hampton Court. It was a few nights on this giant festival stage, literally within the palace grounds. It was incredible.
Gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.
Toby: Yeah, it was surreal. You’re watching the show with turrets behind the stage, and it felt like this crazy, beautiful aesthetic. It was like a music festival but also this Tudor pop concert, you know? The SIX fans, the “Queendom”, were there in full force. It felt like the pinnacle of what the show could be in a live performance – Tudor queens as pop stars on this massive stage within a palace. And, honestly, it felt like the ghosts of the original queens were there in the audience, dancing along. It was really special.
[to Lucy] What was yours?
Lucy: I was just going to say, a surreal moment for me was when we went to see a school production at the City of London Girls’ School. It was so cool to see six teenage girls having the best time of their lives performing it. You could see them getting the bug for it – making the audience laugh, loving every second. It was the funniest and so heartwarming.
What was it like winning Tony Awards? I saw the interview you did straight after…
Lucy: That was crazy.
Toby: I felt high as hell in that interview – off the moment, I mean.
Lucy: It was so unexpected.
Toby: Yeah, I remember that buzz, like the adrenaline was wild. Standing on the stage of Radio City Music Hall was just surreal.
Lucy: We were the first ones up! We thought our category was going to be in the second half of the ceremony, but it was the first one of the evening. Toby had just sat down, like, 30 seconds before the camera was on us.
Toby: Yeah, I was chatting to people on the red carpet, totally unaware that I had to go on stage right away! And honestly, not to be too indulgent, but earlier when Lucy said “SIX was the first thing I ever wrote”, I thought – that’s so funny that you won a Tony Award for the first thing you ever wrote!
It must be so surreal. Do you ever get used to it? All the billboards and seeing SIX everywhere?
Toby: D’you know what? I think there’s a really strong chance that if this was something that was just happening to me, or to one of us, we’d have got used to it. But thank God we’re both in it together. So, any time something happens, we’ve got the person next to us being like –
Lucy: “That’s not normal!”
Toby: Or, you know, just bringing each other back down to earth, like –
Lucy: “This is cool, but remember that time you suggested that really bad idea?”
Toby: Yeah, exactly. Like, “That’s a shiny award, but you wrote the lyric ‘tall large Henry VIII,’ so maybe don’t get too carried away!” It’s nice going through it with one of your best friends, being able to keep it all in perspective, even when everything feels a bit fancy.
After the success of SIX, how do you manage the pressure of creating something new and following up such a huge hit?
Toby: I think that pressure is kind of what shaped this show. In Why Am I So Single?, the characters are writers, and they’re like, “Oh my God, we’ve got to write a big, fancy musical, and big, fancy musicals are supposed to be about big, important things.” But all they want to write about is something that seems unimportant – their friendship, their love lives, talking about dating. And that’s why it became a big fancy musical – to make something they thought was unimportant seem grand. But as the characters go through the show, they realise those things are actually incredibly important. And I think that’s what the show is really about – it’s a celebration of friendship and love.
That came about because after SIX started taking off, we were quickly asked, “What’s next?” We felt that pressure looming, like, “What’s the next one going to be? This one’s doing so well.”
Lucy: One of my best friends came to see Why Am I So Single? and asked, “So, what’s next?” and I was like, “How dare you?”. I refused to engage with it.
Toby: Yeah, it’s a lovely question because people are excited about what we’ve done and want more, but that pressure to follow up SIX kept looming over us. We even went on a writing retreat in early 2019, thinking we’d write something big and important. But we ended up just gossiping about our own lives, and then realised – wait, this is actually something we can write a big fancy musical about! That anxiety about “what’s next” has kind of underlined everything in this show, but we channelled it into the work rather than letting it weigh us down.
My last question comes from my friend Suzi. She wanted to ask: when are we getting Twilight: The Musical?
Toby: Well, it’s funny because, you know, Twilight may or may not be mentioned a few times in Why Am I So Single? Weird!
Lucy: That’s so funny because it all started as an Instagram story. We were procrastinating while writing, and we thought we’d treat ourselves. We got people to suggest song titles, and then Toby would improvise them.
Toby: Yeah, I don’t remember the titles… You always remember.
‘Hold on Tight, Spider Monkey’ and ‘Jacob Got Buff’ were the ones my friend Suzi suggested.
[They start singing a bit of Jacob Got Buff]
Lucy: And I was like, “He’s fixing your bike, he’s fixing your whole life…” [Both sing Hold on Tight, Spider Monkey]
Toby: Wait, was that from the Musical Theatre Appreciation Society?
Yeah, on Facebook. I asked them for questions, and that was one of them.
Lucy: Too sweet. I’m going to dig out these videos from the archives and repost some faves.
Someone posted the full video on YouTube, if you look it up.
Lucy: Oh God, okay. There are some real bangers in there, Toby, you really did well.
Toby: I couldn’t have done it without your direction, Lucy! To the producers of Twilight: please, reach out. We’ve just finished this show, going on holiday for a week, and then we’re ready to run with it!
That’s what’s next, right?
Toby: Yeah, please, just send over the contract – we’ve got a few songs ready to go.
Well, it has been an honour and a pleasure talking with you. Thank you so much for your time.
Toby: You too. And all the best to your kids as well!
Why Am I So Single? is playing at the Garrick Theate, currently booking until February 2025. For tickets go to www.thegarricktheatre.co.uk
Read our full review of Why Am I So Single? here.
Words by Nick Barr
Photography Piers Allardyce
