They're Playing our Song
Menier Chocolate Factory, London SE1
Until I pen a song as enduringly successful as 'Nobody Does it Better', I will have the utmost respect for Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager. The composer-lyricist duo have, in their respective careers, made sweet music. But not in this show, a slight romance based loosely on their own.
Alistair McGowan is neurotic composer Vernon Gersch, thrown together with 'flaky' lyricist Sonia Walsk (Connie Fisher) to write a few hits. The result: a Woody Allen-meets-Barbra Streisand explosion of neuroses. But although Neil Simon's book bristles with quips, neither the casting, nor the set-up, which hangs on the single thread of Walsk's inability to let go of an ex, can create the zingy chemistry this two-hander requires.
Fisher's voice is as lovely as ever; unfortunately, her characterisation and accent are as natural as the bouffant wig she sports, which makes it a relief when she starts singing. McGowan's voice, a little tense on occasion, held up well none the less.
There's fun to be had from director Fiona Laird's irony-free embrace of the Seventies: campy choreography and a stage that's a spinning record. At various points, there are three other Sonias and Vernons on stage providing harmonies. It's cheesy; it works. The real problem is that if you write a musical about songwriting, you need to deliver the goods. If Walsk is such hot property in the lyrics world, why is she singing: 'I'm afraid to fly/ And I don't know why'? That the show was such a hit in 1979 is puzzling enough, but why it should be revived at the Menier - which does such good work for musical theatre - is an enigma.
