The big draw in this bouncy musical is Danny Dyer, swapping Albert Square for a role as a Hollywood producer — albeit one who sounds more Canning Town than Tinseltown. His daughter, Love Island winner Dani, makes her stage debut alongside him, as an aspiring screen star who earnestly persuades him to be less of a Scrooge.
But the duo don’t appear until an hour into this cheerfully escapist show, which is based on Debbie Isitt’s successful film franchise and features tunes she’s written with Nicky Ager.
There’s amusement in seeing father and daughter dressed as Christmas baubles, and the festive spirit swells when they perform a duet of Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. Yet while their involvement is being emphasised in order to shift tickets, the reality is that they don’t contribute a huge amount, and neither does Jo Brand as that unimaginable thing, a jaundiced theatre critic.
Instead the onus is on Simon Lipkin and Scott Garnham, as the teachers — one tireless, the other broken-hearted — who battle to breathe fresh life into a struggling Coventry primary school’s annual nativity play. They hold the action together, and a supporting cast of nearly 30 children inject the sparkle and shine repeatedly mentioned in one of the better songs. The Hollywood angle originates in a lie that Garnham’s character, Mr Maddens, tells his students. Establishing his story and its bizarre implications takes much longer than it should, especially given that this is a family show promising busy effervescence.
But there are redeeming features: an upbeat ending, a cute dog, a general air of wholesomeness, and Danny Dyer’s willingness to risk looking, as he might put it, an absolute melt.
Until December 31
