David Walliams’s book titles give more than a clue to the story within – Gangsta Granny, Awful Auntie, to name but two that have already made the transition from page to stage. Billionaire Boy... well, you can see the connection. Making an appearance at the curtain call on press night, Walliams proclaimed this new musical adaptation of his 2010 story “so much better than my book” (reports of Gangsta Granny’s press night have him saying the same). Who am I to disagree with an author who has sold more books than JK Rowling? But I do. This is good, but not quite that good (yet).
Joe Spud’s dad has made his fortune manufacturing toilet rolls that are anything but (ahem) bog standard (the latest ones are Mintybumfresh – and thereby hangs a plot point). Poor little rich boy Joe has everything he could want – except a friend. He begs his distracted widower dad to let him leave his bullying private school to start afresh at the local comprehensive.
Jon Brittain’s adaptation, as directed by Luke Sheppard, cleverly conveys Walliams’s authorial playfulness by sending up stage conventions, but it also inserts action-hobbling, point-making/sentimental extra scenes. Songwriting/composing team Nick Coler and Miranda Cooper move the action forward lyrically but underpin numbers with a too-samey upbeat rhythm – notwithstanding dynamic delivery by musicians and cast. Tweaks to the treatment and the score would resolve these issues.
Characterisations, though, make the show sing, among them: Ryan Heenan’s Joe, winsome with no trace of tweeness; Lem Knights, goofily sincere as Bob, Joe’s newfound (and almost lost) friend; Dean Nolan and Sophia Nomvete – solid as the boys’ parents, wildly exuberant in multiple other roles. Children in the audience were so rapt they even clamoured for the lettuce leaves Raj (Avita Jay) throws them instead of sweets. Potentially a (not-so) little gem.
Billionaire Boy is at the NST City, Southampton until 6 January
