The Playhouse, Edinburgh
Three stars
The rain pouring outside the Playhouse is a telling
pointer of the night’s entertainment inside, where former X-Factor crooner Ray
Quinn slips into Cliff Richard’s pastel-coloured slacks in this latest tour of
the stage musical based on the 1963 film. Quinn is Don, the London bus grease
monkey who manages to sweet-talk the management of a pre-privatised service
into letting him and his merry prankster mates co-opt a bright red double-decker
as a mobile holiday home for their European road trip. Along the way they pick
up a girl band and runaway pop star Barbara, whose pushy mother has already jaded
her to success.
Racky Plews’ production of Michael Gyngell and Mark
Haddigan’s script adapted from Ronald Cass and Peter Myers’ original screenplay
shows off more of a saccharine sixties than a swinging one. Like the film, it depicts
an innocent world where teeny-bop pop and light entertainment soundtrack a
magical mystery tour around a picture postcard version of foreign parts young
people were desperate to discover for themselves.
In this sense the end result is an infectiously
endearing mix of innocence and experience, with Quinn and Sophie Matthew as
Barbara leading a series of wide-eyed routines that even nudging attempts to
sex thing up can’t spoil. The one sad loss is the airbrushing out of The Great Orlando,
Ron Moody’s virtuoso mime artist in the film.
In the end, however, the show’s nostalgic appeal wins
out. For the finale, while everyone else is giving it teeth and smiles, big-suited
former Opportunity Knocks winner Bobby Crush stands at a portable piano looking
for all the world like a cross between Jerry Lee Lewis and Jools Holland. This alone
is worth the bus ticket for a vintage slice of British showbiz fun.
The Herald, June 21st 2018
ends
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