Robert Burns must have had his off days, but even at his most uninspired he could never have sunk to the banal level of the lyrics he is made to sing in this new musical about the poet's promiscuous love life. "The perfect woman head to toe/ And one I'd rather like to get to know," runs one of Mike Gibb's less impressive efforts as Scotland's national bard begins his platonic romance with Nancy McLehose, aka Clarinda.
The effect is to deprive Burns of the very quality that makes him interesting. A brief rendition of Ae Fond Kiss, sung a cappella by George Drennan towards the end, gives a glimpse of the linguistically rich musical this could have been. More typically, we get a set of inconsequential songs that are not only colourless - however sweetly sung by the four-strong company - but reflective, backward-looking and undramatic. Not one of them develops the action in a way that a purposeful musical number should.
This is consistent with the undramatic nature of Gibb's book. Large chunks of it are written as past-tense monologues and, when we get to the present tense, the dialogue is speculative, repetitive and free of conflict. It is like something you'd find in the education wing of a Burns museum. All that has happened by the interval is that Burns has left his Ayrshire home and met McLehose in Edinburgh - and that without a hint of narrative friction.
Neither does Gibb offer any insight into the poet's motivations as a writer or Lothario. In act one, we see him as a jolly playboy whose way with the ladies is a bit of a laugh, while in act two, he gets guilty about his womanising. The conviction of the actors, though, is admirable.
· Until February 2. Box office: 0131-556 9579. Then touring.
