★★★★★
There are plenty of musicals built around country music, but rather fewer that trust the genre enough to start from scratch. Oil & Whiskey arrives at London’s Old Red Lion without a jukebox of familiar hits, without a famous artist’s back catalogue and without resorting to country pastiche. Instead, it offers 16 original songs, a four-piece live band and a relationship story that understands something country music has always known rather well: heartbreak and humour make excellent drinking companions.
“A breathless rollercoaster of country music, comedy and heartbreak — and enormous fun.”
Written by Dax Wiley, with music by Nashville-based musician and songwriter Kit Nolan, Oil & Whiskey has already enjoyed a sold-out award-winning run at the 2025 NYC Fringe Festival and performances at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Its limited London run marks the show’s international debut, with the producers describing it rather neatly as a “dramedy” about two former lovers who meet for a drink and revisit the relationship that brought them there.
The premise is deliberately simple. Teddy (Cornelius Versa) and Zelda (Juliet Perel) find themselves back in the New York bar where they first met, and over the course of the evening we piece together their relationship, their separation and the misunderstandings that remain between them.
There is no villain here and no enormous dramatic revelation waiting in the wings. These are two people who loved one another, got things wrong and have unfinished business. Perel makes Zelda’s position particularly easy to understand: she was the one left behind, and consequently it is difficult not to find yourself rooting for her. Versa, though, ensures Teddy never becomes simply the man to blame. The pair are evenly matched performers, with believable chemistry and neither overshadowing the other.
That believability is one of the production’s greatest strengths. Oil & Whiskey isn’t particularly interested in manufacturing theatrical melodrama from its breakup. Instead, it feels as though we’ve been granted temporary permission to peer through a window into somebody else’s relationship.
Then there is Bree.
Played with terrific comic instinct by Sarah Giulianti, Zelda’s best friend is the sassy, cynical New Yorker who can puncture an emotionally charged situation with a perfectly timed observation. When Zelda’s choice of clothing is assessed with the wonderfully cutting, “That outfit really doesn’t say closure,” we know precisely what kind of friend we’re dealing with.
Later comes the equally memorable “I’m smiling but I’m dead inside.”
The humour isn’t bolted onto the story to provide comic relief; it runs through it. That matters because Oil & Whiskey moves quickly. One song tumbles into another, dialogue switches from recrimination to affection to comedy, and the result is less an evening designed to leave its audience emotionally shattered than a breathless rollercoaster of a relationship.
And that is enormous fun.
Country music is the engine
For country fans, however, the real revelation is the music.
The score is predominantly rooted in Nashville country and country rock, although Nolan is prepared to wander considerably further afield — at one point, unexpectedly, into rap. Crucially, the musical variety doesn’t disguise a lack of country credentials. This is a show that understands the musicality and storytelling conventions of the genre rather than merely borrowing its boots, whiskey and broken hearts.
“Oil & Whiskey doesn’t just borrow country music’s boots, whiskey and broken hearts — it understands the genre.”
Songs including “Jealous”, “Apologize”, “Daddy’s Little Girl”, “La La Love” and “Oil & Water” form part of a remarkably substantial original score. Particularly memorable is “Seein’ You’s Like Drinkin’ Whiskey”, exactly the sort of title that could comfortably find a home on a Nashville setlist.
Indeed, several numbers could exist independently of the show as country songs in their own right.
That might be Oil & Whiskey’s greatest achievement. There isn’t a country standard or crowd-pleasing cover thrown in to guarantee a reaction. Every song has been written for this world, and the audience responded enthusiastically after number after number.
The four-piece band remains on stage throughout, tightly led by musical director and bass player Sam Weston, while two backing vocalists add another layer to the arrangements. With musicians and performers sharing the small stage, the dividing line between musical theatre and country gig becomes pleasingly blurred.
For a country fan who doesn’t normally consider themselves a musical-theatre person, that makes Oil & Whiskey unusually accessible. The musical language is already familiar; the drama comes as part of the package.
A honky-tonk squeezed into a London pub
The Old Red Lion’s tiny upstairs theatre is an inspired home for it.
With only around 50 seats, there is nowhere for the performers to hide — but equally, very little separates them from the audience. The production embraces that intimacy rather than fighting against it.
The New York bar where Teddy and Zelda first met provides essentially the entire setting. There are no elaborate scene changes and little conventional choreography. Instead, the principals move fluidly around the performance space, changing microphones and positions as the focus shifts between conversation and song.
Even a flashback to Nashville requires little more than a small costume change. It is immediately clear where and when we are.
That economy gives the production something approaching the atmosphere of a honky-tonk gig unfolding inside a fringe theatre. It also places considerable responsibility on the cast: without scenery or spectacle to distract us, the performances, dialogue and music have to carry the evening. They do.
There is a slight price to pay towards the end. Once the destination of Teddy and Zelda’s encounter becomes apparent, the final stages spend a little too long allowing the pair to talk — and sing — through the events and misunderstandings that separated them. There is no single dramatic catalyst for their reconciliation, and by then the audience is unlikely to be surprised about where their story is heading.
The relentless pace also eventually produces a little fatigue. The performance we attended ran for 90 minutes without an interval, and the Old Red Lion’s malfunctioning ventilation on an exceptionally warm evening certainly didn’t help matters: by the finish, cast and audience alike were visibly feeling the heat.
It says plenty for the production that the room nevertheless remained firmly with it. The jokes landed, the songs were greeted enthusiastically and the intimate surroundings turned what could have been limitations into much of the show’s charm.
There is another nice touch downstairs. Across the London run, Oil & Whiskey is pairing performances with live country artists in the Old Red Lion pub, with UK names including Brooke Law and Shea Rafferty among those scheduled to appear. The production describes this as part of its unusual partnership with local country and honky-tonk scenes in New York, Nashville and London. For British country fans, it turns a theatre visit into something closer to a complete night of live country music.
Perhaps the most refreshing thing about Oil & Whiskey is that it doesn’t feel as though somebody has spotted country’s current popularity and decided to dress a conventional musical in cowboy boots.
It has been built from the music upwards.
The relationship at its centre is recognisable rather than revolutionary, and those looking for a devastating exploration of lost love may find themselves entertained more often than genuinely moved. But that seems entirely appropriate for a show that proudly calls itself a dramedy. Comedy and drama constantly rub shoulders, just as affection, resentment and regret coexist between Teddy and Zelda.
Most importantly, it is pure entertainment.
London theatre isn’t exactly overflowing with original country-rock musicals, and Oil & Whiskey deserves considerable credit simply for doing something genuinely different — then doing it this well. Strong performances, sharp dialogue, an excellent live band and a whole evening’s worth of original country songs make this far more than a novelty for country fans.
No covers. No soundalikes. No jukebox safety net.
Just an ex, a bar, a bottle of whiskey and a very good collection of songs.
“Strong performances, sharp dialogue and a superb original score make Oil & Whiskey far more than a novelty — this is country musical theatre with something of its own to say.”
★★★★★
Oil & Whiskey runs at the Old Red Lion Pub & Playhouse, Islington, until 19 September 2026.
