Where to start with this one. Well, I suppose the creative process started with the worldwide hit music of Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman. The 1980s writers and producers who masterminded huge global smashes for the likes of Kylie, Jason Donovan, Rick Astley, Mel & Kim and Sonia to name but a few. Debbie Isitt took onboard the task of both writing and directing this ambitious attempt to tie together a disparate series of songs, all performed to the SAW backing track which filled dancefloors in the decade of dayglo colours and big hair.
In a nutshell, impending groom Nathan jilts his bride to be Ella at the alter after his Grandad delivers some mysterious news on the day of the wedding. In the aftermath bride and family all jet off to Turkey where the honeymoon was to have been played out, thinking they might as well have a knees up to lift the gloom. Soppy Nathan subsequently decides that he has made a bad decision and heads with best man Ash to said Turkish resort in order to persuade Ella to forgive him and marry him after all. However Ella has befriended waiter Nadeem so events have moved on quickly... Chuck in a gay best friend and a campy hotel manager who both seem to have been left over from a 1970s sitcom, plus a couple of Amercian con artists and you have a concoction of events which we struggled to follow, mostly because the narrative became so absurd.
Chief calling card for the show is Aphrodite herself, the goddess that is Kylie. She appears in a huge mirror dispensing advice to would be bride Ella throughout the piece. Sadly its not enough to save the show. The cast themselves are working their socks off trying to deliver. There are some good voices too as they rip through the SAW classics. Personally we feel some of the show is a little mis-cast, and whilst there is a lot of love in the air with a happy ending in which all the major protagonists find themselves a partner, none of the couples seem to have any stage chemistry. The show is played very broadly - think Benidorm (TV series) meets Mamma Mia! but without any of the finesse of either, and you are pretty much there. Some of the ensemble set pieces are impressive but for the most part, the word we kept coming back to was tacky. The characters have no depth, the storyline is all over the place and it just doesn't have any warmth in which we can invest our feelings for the characters. More Blackpool in the sun than anything else.
Judging from the audience on the night we went, the largely hen party crowd lapped it all up as they drank their proseccos. Its the songs themselves that stop this show from turning into a disaster. 'Too Many Broken Hearts', 'Better The Devil You Know', 'Never Gonna Give You Up' and many many more just about save the bacon on this mess of a show.
I Should Be So Lucky knows its audience and will likely do good business around the UK, but as a quality piece of theatre in the words of Mel & Kim it "Ain't never gonna be respectable".
Rob & Ian
For further details of the show go to soluckymusical.com
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