Unhappy women and useless men are the staple of Promises and Lies, a show that, for all its superficial differences, owes a lot to Mamma Mia! - but isn't half so fun, or even so sophisticated. And let's face it, Mamma Mia! is about as sophisticated as a hen night on the Costa Brava. The recipe is pretty much the same: swap the music of Abba for that of Birmingham band UB40 and a sunny Greek island for the underbelly of a British city, while the girl searching for her lost father here becomes a mother looking for the daughter she abandoned at birth.
As Catherine Johnson proved with Mamma Mia!, it takes skill to make the book of a musical look effortless. Promising playwright though she is, Jess Walters comes nowhere near pulling it off as she tells the story of homeless teenager Remi, who, in the space of 24 hours, loses her drug-addict boyfriend, is preyed upon by pimp and drug dealer Marcus - the big bad wolf of the city - and discovers her long-lost mother. In between, Walters fits in a spot of S&M and murder.
The songs have a certain emotional power, and the UB40 classics often sound terrific arranged for female voices. But the show lacks laughter, any hint of a feelgood factor and any real characters: Remi is a passive figure to whom things happen. Mostly nasty things.
The trouble with trying to do a gritty musical is that reality doesn't sit very comfortably with the form: just when someone announces that they are going to have to have their arm amputated, someone else bursts into song. There are also oddities: Remi seems curiously unfazed by committing murder, and the skimpy story of Rwandan refugee Fedens is so brushed over as to seem gratuitous. The show is too busy getting to the next song to worry about such things. It's a wasted opportunity and a waste of the talented cast.
· Until April 15. Box office: 0121-236 4455.
