Sept 25th-Oct 10th 2015
Mercury Theatre/Brian Eastman/Christabel Albery.
"The smallest show with the biggest heart.", thus tweeted Robert Lindsay, who mingled among the admirers at this evening's Press night for an Irving Berlin-themed musical adaptation of Basil Dearden's "classic" nostalgic comedy about a run-down old cinema.
Romanticised in many respects, with Old Tom the Commissioner turned into young Tom the son of Mrs. Fazackerly (Liza Goddard instead of Margaret Rutherford, on formidable form). Plot devices such as this and the young couple being driven apart by his screenwriting chores for a B-Movie Western seem hackneyed, as well as obvious black-and-white villains and heroes, but these are mostly incidentals in between the musical numbers, which are vibrantly staged and choreographed particularly by the younger performers.
This is most certainly intended to be a shameless crowd-pleaser, turning an endearing piece of cinema into a glossy piece of theatre. It therefore only has any partial resemblance to the original Smallest Show on Earth.
w: Thom Southerland, Paul Alexander.
d: Thom Southerland.
s: Liza Goddard, Brian Capron, Laura Pitt-Pulford, Haydn Oakley, Matthew Crowe, Sam O'Rourke, Christina Bennington, Philip Rham, Ricky Butt, Leo Andrew.
Lighting: Howard Hudson.
Musical Supervision: Gareth Valentine.
