Stratford East's search for new musical forms comes good with this ska version of Love's Labour's Lost transposed to the Windrush generation. Arriving by boat in Britain from the West Indies with big dreams of bright shiny new lives, Dennis, Ferdy, Bernie and Lennie decide to forswear women for three years in favour of forging good careers. But the women in their lives have other ideas. Meanwhile, getting any kind of decent job proves impossible. Love's Labour's Lost is not one of Shakespeare's better plots (unusually, he concocted it himself rather than stealing it) and Paul Sirett's book improves upon the original, transforming the philosophical debate of Shakespeare's play into an all-out war of the sexes. Like much of Paul Joseph's memorably melodic music, songs such as Better Than You, in which the men and women vie with each other in drinking and knitting contests, have real style.
The individual experiences of the men - such as Denis, who naively believes the medal that belonged to his late RAF pilot brother will open doors, and Ferdy, a university teacher who can only get a factory job - are skilfully incorporated.
But at three hours the show is at least 30 minutes too long and some of the staging is clumsy, although Tameka Empson's hilarious running commentary from the audience covers most of the joins. The performances have real razzle-dazzle and the evening always makes up for with exuberance what it lacks in sophistication. Could it transfer? Take it out of its community and you might rip out its abundant heart. On the other hand, it would inject the West End with the new lifeblood it needs.
· Until May 22. Box office: 020-8534 0310.
