Once Upon a Time at the Adelphi

I’m used to low Audience:Performer ratios at the Union Theatre, but this one is 2:1 with a full house – and they’re all so young, I actually aged several years in two hours.

Phil Wilmott’s musical is a love story set in that (in)famous Liverpool hotel which switches (rather confusingly and a bit clumsily, I thought) between the 20’s / 30’s and now. It’s a simple tale with some Adelphi myths woven in – cowboy Roy Rodgers and his horse on the hotel roof and a trainee Nazi in the kitchens! I’m sure I’m being scouse-ist, but it reminded me of Blood Brothers, with musical themes recurring and the old Alice looking rather like Mrs Johnstone.

The positioning of the band between the two banks of seats meant they drowned out (well, at least from where I was sitting) a lot of the solo vocals, though the chorus singing was excellent. The fact that the entire cast seemed teenagers meant you had to suspend belief even more than usual with a musical. The design coup was the back of an illuminated HOLLYWOOD-like hotel sign, though this did restrict the already restricted playing area; apart from that they seem to have spent the rest (plus most of their salaries, I’d say) on a huge number of costumes.

It’s not a great show, but it’s one of that endangered species, a NEW MUSICAL, and it’s in a lovely theatre, so you have to go!