It may not be good Dickens. It may not have the pizzazz of Oliver! But after so many musicals that seem to be written by computers and performed by androids, this show at least is the work of recognisable human beings and has the ever-amiable Roy Hudd to nudge it into our good graces.
Even though Chris Tookey and Hugh Thomas co-wrote this musical when they were Oxford undergraduates, no one could accuse them of approaching the novel with Leavisite seriousness. In fact, they frame the action as if it were being presented by Mr Sleary's Circus which creates several problems. The main one is that it undercuts the social anger that underlies Dickens's portrait of heartless Gradgrind utilitarianism and of the suffering of Coketown's industrial workers.
The novel offers a running battle between a rigidly statistical view of human beings and the claims of imagination. But, since the story is here being presented by circus performers, cheerfulness reigns throughout.
What the device does do is enable Tookey and Thomas to tap into the world not just of circus but of music hall, melodrama and panto. Indeed their 27 songs range over the whole entertainment spectrum including romantic ballads, G and S patter and even, anachronistically, 40s Hollywood.
Students of Dickens may wince at his transformation of the mysterious Mrs Pegler into a comic, rural fussbudget. But Hudd acts as the evening's jovial master of ceremonies, bringing a wonderful whiff of Archie Rice to the proceedings.
No one could claim that this show pushes out the boundaries of the musical and Tookey's own production could usefully do with a bit of Joan Littlewood's improvisatory freedom. But this tuppence-coloured tuner reminds us of the days when the musical was a source of innocent delight.
Until August 5. Box office: 020-7930 8800 .
