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Unique wedding woes
TOM KING sees a bitter-sweet musical, the first ever about a gay marriage
Passionate partners: Tyrone Huntley (left) and Billy Cullum in Leave to Remain [Helen Maybanks]

Leave to Remain
Lyric Theatre Hammersmith

AS A musical, Leave to Remain treads familiar ground.

The young Alex and Obi meet and fall in love before their respective pasts catch up with them, throwing their future together into doubt. But the fact that they’re both gay gives what would otherwise be a fairly hackneyed story some interesting new dimensions in Matt Jones and Kele Okereke's work.

The plot thickens when Alex (Billy Cullum), a US citizen whose visa is dependent on his work, announces he must leave Britain and follow his company to the UAE, effectively calling time on the couple's new and thrilling romance. The only way Alex can stay and be granted “leave to remain” is for he and Obi (Tyrone Huntley) to marry.

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