Ryan Ellsworth and Pixie Lott [Pamela Raith Photography]

IN Who Killed Marilyn?, writer Sharleen Cooper Cohen claims to have rescued Marilyn Monroe from the ubiquitous victim role she has been assigned since her death in 1962, aged 36, and to reveal “the real woman behind the image”.

Monroe was treated abominably by most of the men she encountered, and Cohen does not shy away from this. But neither does she show Monroe as “proactive, strong-willed and determined” to any real extent, or reveal anything new about the 1950s starlet, despite the play’s stated intentions.

Instead, we are given glimpses of Monroe’s well-documented relationships with baseball player Joe DiMaggio (Henry Proffit) and playwright Arthur Miller (Ben Dilloway), before she becomes involved with Jack (Mars Sams) and then Bobby Kennedy (Paul Kane) through to her final hours.

Singer-songwriter Pixie Lott captures Monroe’s breathiness and strikes a series of poses showing off her best assets – an imitation rather than an immersion in character, except for a scene with her psychiatrist, Dr Ralph Greenson (Ryan Ellsworth), which feels credible. Most of the male roles are underwritten, though Dilloway and Kane manage to shine.

The main issue is the writing. Cohen is determined to embrace the well-trodden conspiracy theory – that Monroe was killed because she knew too much about the Kennedys – and presents it as the truth, draining the piece of tension. The dialogue veers between expositional, banal and melodramatic.

Philip Wm. McKinley’s direction can’t rescue the script, and the show sits awkwardly in the Emerald Theatre’s cabaret-style space.

Jasmine Swan’s costumes are also slightly off the mark – Lott wears white pedal pushers – while the men inexplicably have paint splashed onto their suits, perhaps to signal their tainted personalities.

It’s a shame because the cast work hard in a play riddled with clichés.

Until October 29
whokilledmarilyn.uk/