Julian Eaves 
And the company, all giving their energies for a song and dance, make this the wonder it is: a rollicking night out, and also a landmark in the development of another great British musical theatre writing team. Where will they go to next?
Musically, this is a serious work, that demands a lot of its listeners; but it repays handsomely in its dramatic and aesthetic effects.
There really is no infrastructure in Ireland for making work of this kind, which makes the achievement all the more striking. Everyone has another job, or two, and time has to be snatched to rush away from other responsibilities to do this job. Yet, there they all are, sticking together, helping each other along, and making something really rather lovely happen.
Nevertheless, this is another creditable creation from the production stables of Sasha Regan and underlines her continuing commitment to the development of new British musical theatre. Very much worth your serious consideration, which it will repay by pleasing and charming.
Cadogan Hall brought a lavish concert performance of the piece to its stage, and – once again – we saw and heard just why we should value this work amongst the highest achievements in the musical theatre. It is simply breath-taking. Indeed, freed of decor and costume, lighting and choreography, and of all the pageantry of the theatre, when exposed to the forensic inspection of the concert platform its virtues come across even more strongly.
If anyone loves the music of Caro Emerald, then they’ll love this feast of her songs presented in a dramatic context. If anyone does not know her music, or has yet to be persuaded of its merits, then they will be enchanted by the delicious performances given by a cast of 10 in this production, supported by a smart 4-piece band and MD Iain Vince-Gatt.
Sid Above The Arts 21 September 2016 5 Stars Book Tickets If the last you heard of Sid Vicious was seeing Gary Oldman gradually die of heroin addiction in Alex Cox’s 1986 biopic, ‘Sid ‘n’ Nancy’, you will be delighted to hear that he’s back – and every bit as corrosive and destructive as he was then. Well, nearly. This is all thanks to terrific new writer, Leon Fleming, who has rejuvenated the 62-year old mythic figure via the obsessive, manic, troublesome, 18-year-old’ish revolutionary-living-at-home-with-his-mum, Craig. Our hero in this one-act drama is not the taciturn, sneering, wincing guitarist of The Sex Pistols, but a despot only in his own bedroom, a tyrant merely to his lone parent and neighbours (whom he intermittently deafens with blasts of punk music from his personal music centre). Craig has a list – of course – of pet hates, and this forms the substance (ah, … Read more
Added to this is the factor of Lippa’s music and Greenwald’s lyrics (they share credits for the book). Both can be bright, incisive, strongly characterised and emotionally expressive. Equally, there are extensive passages where they slip into conventional harmonic, rhythmic, melodic patterning and generic, very plainly worded statements of the kind that do the two actors having to carry the entirety of the drama few favours. It is whole to the credit of James and Sharon that they are able to make us care so much about what happens to John and Jen, even when a lot of the material they have to work with does not make this an easy or a straightforward task.
