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★★★★★ There’s something instantly appealing about a show that decides to take on the baffling, shape‑shifting world of HR — or whatever rebrand it’s hiding behind this week — and this New Zealand trio do it with a grin, a raised eyebrow, and a surprising amount of musical bite.
What unfolds is a brisk, knowingly absurd tour through the corporate labyrinth. We start with the coded niceties of the classic HR email — those soft‑focus euphemisms that somehow manage to say everything and nothing at once — before meeting Dick, the magnificently un-woke CEO whose opinions feel like they’ve been preserved in amber since 1993. From there, the show barrels into a series of increasingly deranged hire‑and‑fire scenarios: interviews conducted mid‑childbirth, performance reviews held at funerals, and a general sense that HR has finally slipped its moorings and floated off into pure theatre.
It’s all delivered with tight choreography, bright vocals, and a willingness to lean into the ridiculous. There’s even a rap battle between AI and a human employee, which lands with the kind of knowing silliness that makes you wonder how long it’ll be before your own workplace tries something similar in earnest.
The charm of the piece lies in its relatability. No matter where you work — office, shop floor, charity, gig economy — there’s a moment here that will feel uncomfortably familiar. HR The Musical doesn’t pretend to diagnose the modern workplace; it simply holds up the mirror and lets you laugh at the reflection.
Reviewed by Andrew Hunter
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