"Radio Times - The Musical" Review

Malvern Festival Theatre

RADIO TIMES - THE MUSICAL (The Watermill Theatre Ltd)

Vivien Carter as 'Radio Girlfriend', Amy Chapman

At last, local audiences can enjoy the delights of a Watermill Theatre musical on their doorstep, with their first ever visit to Malvern Festival Theatre, and what a delight their first offering is. Radio Times, the musical, is a toe tapping, frolic through the live broadcast of a radio variety show during the London blitz, which will have you grinning like a Cheshire Cat from beginning to end. The show is a tribute to the works of Noel Gay, a musical genius best known for the stage hit ‘Me And My Girl’, and includes a multitude of classic songs from the roaring twenties and thirties.

The prestigious Watermill Theatre, home of the incredible, all-male Shakespeare troupe, Propeller Theatre Company, is famous for their stunning actor/musician musicals, an idea conceived by the immensely talented John Doyle, once artistic director of Worcester’s Swan Theatre, where the actors not only sing and dance but play a multitude of musical instruments to accompany the numbers, while performing. Radio Times was revived at the Watermill Theatre last August and has since been rewritten, revised and re-jigged to create, in my opinion, a much better show than the original 1992 production.

The cast simply ooze with talent. The lovely Gary Wilmot headlines as ‘cheeky chappy’ Sammy Shaw, creator of the BBC’s Variety Bandwagon, whose antics leave his long suffering girlfriend Olive, sweetly played by Sara Crowe, with an uncertain future until the return from America of an ‘old flame’, Gary Strong, portrayed by Michael Hobbs, now a successful movie star, who is keen to reignite past passions. Suddenly aware of what he might lose, Sammy enlists the help of his comedic sidekick and lifelong friend, Wilfred, perfectly played by Ben Fox, who does his best to keep everybody happy including the BBC and Home Office. Jared Ashe, Rob Copeland, Ed Currie, and Paul Herbert are brilliant as the band and Sophie Byrne, Amelia Cormack, Sally Peerless and Sarah Scowen provide wonderful vocals as the fabulous Grosvenors, while Christian Edwards is adorable as the awkwardly funny, sound effects maestro, Jeeps. Undoubtedly the stars of this show are the amazingly talented, and stunningly beautiful Vivien Carter, as the delectable ‘Radio Girlfriend’, Amy Chapman and the equally talented and hilarious John Conroy as BBC producer, Heathcliffe Bultitude.

This is the hidden gem of musicals, with mass appeal, that will have you beaming from ear to ear. For a guaranteed, great night out, go and see Radio Times. It runs at Malvern until Saturday.