Book by David Grieg

Directed by Max Webster

Music and Lyrics by Abner and Amanda Ramierz

Additional Lyrics by Jeremy Sams

Review by Dominic Corr

Tour Dates

In what may be The Lyceum Theatre’s pinnacle production of their anniversary year; the long-awaited (and inevitable) stage-adaptation of David Nicholl’s adored novel, One Day, brings the streets and landscape of Edinburgh right into the heart of one it’s most cherished and celebrated theatres. With a pulse of song and heart-warming light; One Day shines with the fervour only a life-long romance can span: captured by two leading performers who capture the idealism of youth, and the inevitability of life, perfectly.

The narrative unfurls from a single night in 1988; with Emma and Dexter’s graduation on St Swithin’s Day in, before leaping through two decades in the span of around 150 minutes, each visit landing on the same date one year later. All represented by an enormous digital calendar held loftily above the Lyceum stage. Their lives knot, fray, and re‑entwine as ambition, insecurity, and circumstance tug them in unexpected directions. Adapted for the stage by David Greig, the show preserves the novel’s structural conceit while allowing music to deepen its emotional register.

A contemporary tale, adapted from an outside source for the stage (the reminiscent embers of last years’ Wild Rose are inescapable), There are few theatrical transformations as striking as the one currently underway inside The Lyceum, in co-production with Melting Pot, where One Day reshapes the auditorium into an intimate, in‑the‑round space primed for an epic yet deeply personal story. The world‑premiere musical adaptation of Nicholls’ much‑loved novel embraces the restless pulse of time passing, crafting a production that feels both cinematic in scope and emotionally immediate.

Director Max Webster steers the piece with an unhurried confidence, resisting the temptation to oversaturate its most poignant moments. His approach emphasises clarity of storytelling, even as the years accumulate around the characters. The choice to reconfigure the theatre brings the audience into their orbit, lending the production a sense of shared proximity that suits the central pair’s gradual dance toward and away from one another.

With such famous folks as Anne Hathaway or Leo Woodall starring in cinematic and screen adaptations; the central protagonists are at the crux of the shows success. And in Sharon Rose and Jamie Muscato; One Day strikes perfection with its casting. There’s a palpable axis around which One Day turns, and it’s forged in the restless push‑and‑pull between Rose and Muscato – a pairing whose charge carries the production’s emotional ballast. Rose delineates Emma’s evolution with razor‑fine instinct: posture loosens, cadence shifts, humour curdles then ripens, each year resting differently on her shoulders. When she reaches for the score’s more vulnerable terrain—hinted early in the stripped‑back “Blackbirds”—the room tightens around her, the voice cutting clean through time’s sediment.

Muscato counters with a Dexter shaped by gleam and fracture in equal measure. He arrives buoyed by the arrogance of someone for whom every door has always opened, yet Muscato allows the slow leak of doubt, the bruise beneath the bravado, to bleed incrementally across decades. When Dexter stumbles—professionally, romantically, spiritually—the performance avoids the mawkish: instead, it folds into a textured slackening of confidence that never begs for sympathy but earns understanding. Together, the pair carve a dynamic less about fate than about the messy human habit of getting in one’s own way, and in their hands, this long‑spanning duet becomes the clearest, sharpest line the production draws.

Surrounding them, the ensemble adds vibrancy without overwhelming the core duo – perhaps a touch too much so. While Peter Hannah brings a visceral realness to the pair’s pal Callum, and David Birrell’s Stephen provides a steadying adult presence and constant steady hand, Dan Buckley tries their hardest to work with a script determined to make the role of Ian a caricature; while Miracle Chance supplies sharper comedic edges as Tilly. Each character is crafted to enrich Emma and Dexter’s shifting worlds, creating a constellation of relationships that reflect the uncomfortable truth of drifting in and out of each other’s lives. They’re often more often than not utilised with Carrie‑Anne Ingrouille’s choreography and the additional Swing team, all threading movement through the staging sparingly but effectively, grounding transitions without disrupting narrative flow.

The creative team’s work elevates the production’s thematic ambition. Rae Smith’s set and costume designs lean into texture over spectacle, using colour palettes and evolving silhouettes to trace decades with quiet precision. But fear not; there are still a few flashy gimmicks and set-pieces to keep the theatricality alive; especially when bolstered with Bruno Poet’s lighting, which washes between warmth and shadow, finding a visual vocabulary for nostalgia, loss, and renewal. The decision to form the production into the round; utilising unfamiliar elements of The Lyceum, make One Day one of the more engaging, and unique pieces created and premiered in Scotland, and offer a dynamic experience for veteran and new-comer to the venue.

Musically, the score by Abner and Amanda Ramirez, with additional lyrics by Jeremy Sams pulses with sincerity but is chink in One Day’s otherwise crowd-pleasing armour. Songs capture the uncertainties of early adulthood and the tremors of long‑held affection. The lyrical writing is particularly strong; earnest without veering saccharine—yet the sound mix blurs softer vocal lines, resulting in muddied emotional climaxes and a tricky opening number which doesn’t initially hit the marks. Simon Baker’s sound design otherwise supports the production with atmospheric care, but there are moments where balance slips, especially during fuller ensemble sequences, and is something which ought to have been worked out during the lengthier preview season.

Embroiled by the inconsistencies and shattered edges of life, One Day emerges as a compelling and magnificently crafted new musical – one full of wit, tenderness, and a steadily intensifying emotional pull. In capturing the elusive alchemy of timing, connection, and regret, the Lyceum’s and Melting Pot production offers a sweeping crowd-pleasing experience: moving, stylishly realised, and resonant long after its final moments.

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