This mildly likable but lame new musical is that increasingly rare thing: it is neither a jukebox show nor based on a popular movie. The plot is certainly original. Set in 1952, as a newly confident America was testing its nuclear capability, it takes place largely in the self-styled Atomic City USA, otherwise known as Las Vegas, where tourists flock to see the dawn mushroom clouds.
Only they are not flocking to the mob-owned Golden Goose Hotel, run by the recently promoted Lou Lubowitz (Simon Lipkin), whose soldier brother Joey (Dean John-Wilson) has deserted the army rather than risk being fried to a crisp on the testing site. Lou will have to deal with the mob if he doesn’t come up with a nuclear-themed idea to increase trade fast. Joey’s encounter with a desert shepherdess, Candy (Florence Andrews), and her best friend, would-be fashion designer Myrna (Catherine Tate), sows the seeds for a beauty pageant.
There’s a kernel of something potentially intelligent and interesting here, particularly on the themes of personal and political betrayal. But the show goes for a 1950s screwball comedy style and misses it not just by a mile but by an entire exclusion zone. There are characters whose behaviour is driven entirely by the demands of the plot, and there is an increasing air of desperation in both the pastiche songs and Catherine Tate’s accent, which frequently leaves Nevada and goes on long walkabouts in the Great Victoria Desert. Some of the lyrics are smarter than the plot might suggest, but even at its best this is just sweetly silly.
• At St James theatre, London, until 9 April. Buy tickets at theguardianboxoffice.com or call 0330-333 6906.
