This is an odd one. I don’t really like musicals that much. Indeed, I usually go out of my way to avoid them. Real theatre is drama to me. But when I was offered tickets to this show tonight, I immediatly accepted. Why?
Well it’s not because I’m an particular fan of the star, Amanda Holden. She seems to have had something of poor run of sitcoms with Celeb and Mad About Alice. And it’s not because I’m a big Anita Dobson fan – she’s just taken over from Maureen Lipman.
But it is full of great music. And actually Amanda Holden is pretty good – much better than her comedy performances would have you believe (I never saw Cutting It). Anita Dobson is hilarious as Mrs Meers – a faux Chinese Hotelier. At the interval, we notice that her longstanding other half, Brian May, is sitting in front of us. Well not directly in front of us obviously, since I wouldn’t be able to see the stage for hair if he was. Sheila Ferguson, once of the Three Degrees, shows up everyone else’s singing, but don’t let that worry you.
The story’s hackneyed. I’m one of the few there who evidently hasn’t seen the Julie Andrews’ film, but it doesn’t matter. A great evening is had by all. We all go away humming the tunes and wishing we could tap dance… or is that just me?