STAGE
Singin' In The Rain
Palace Theatre
4/5
IN A NUTSHELL
Jonathan Church's faithful adaptation of the Hollywood hoofin' classic brings sunshine on a rainy day.
REVIEW
Turns out beyond the gaudy portals of the Palace Theatre it ain't rainin' so much.
There's pavement gum and grey skies and gurning multitudes with duelling elbows but none of those colourfully clad hoofers eager to impress with their fast feet and 100 watt smiles.
So best stay indoors, with them, with the glamour and escapism and the gee whiz and the joy.
Only a grouch could resist such a carbon-copy homage to the Hollywood classic, delivered with such attention to detail and genial brio that it makes Glee look like Les Miserables.
In this no-expense-spared adaptation, the fiddle-de-dee and tra-la-la coincides with the clippety-clop and splish-splosh to make an unalloyed treat that brings the audience to its feet après le deluge.
So the pantomime of the silent era is passing and the legendary screen idols of Lockwood and Lamonte find themselves behind a mic and behind the times as the talkies expose their technical weaknesses.
Some are better equipped for the revolution than others. Don Lockwood (Mad Man-a-like Adam Cooper) is smooth as a lubricated zoot suit on Broadway but Bronx bird Lina Lamonte (Katherine Kingsley) with a voice like fingernails on a blackboard discovers a "doig eat doig world".
Enter simple songbird Kathy Seldon (a winning Scarlett Strallen) who has the voice - and the heart of Don - but not the billing or the pulling power.
A brainwave from music man Cosmo Brown (a scene-stealing Daniel Crossley) introduces dubbing and double crossing which makes for much of the preppy drama.
The romance is as convincing as a dancing dodo in a field of flattened corn but this is a world where people burst into song when most would chunter into their kebabs so hyper-realism isn't a deficiency that mars proceedings.
And, frankly, who cares. There's a songlist to get through and director Jonathan Church knows why we put our penny in the jukebox.
He tees up the songs with aplomb and then lets rip to a cavalcade of classics - Make Em Laugh, Good Morning, You Were Meant For Me - all delivered with a stylish side order of choreography from Andrew Wright.
Singin' In The Rain is accompanied by screeches from the front rows who got a log flume soaking and Gotta Dance is a dreamy extravaganza that parades the masterful costumes (Bill Butler) and set design (Simon Higlett).
Generally, I am the nut in the nougat, hard-bitten and resistant to all forms of sweetness - but, hey, where'd that soppy grin come from?
Sequins and raindrops, snazz, jazz and romance, flapper girls and slick umbrella action. The forecast predicts a splash hit.
