Star Rating: *** Oh, brother. It's the norm now for stage-school wannabes to audition in front of several million viewers watching prime-time TV. Director/producer Bill Kenwright has managed to shoehorn no fewer than three finalists from his Fame-meets-X Factor talent show, Any Dream Will Do, into his latest touring franchise of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's extravaganza. The result is a smorgasbord of cash-cow showbiz cynicism which, a couple of generations on from its 1968 debut, looks like a prophecy come true - an everyday tale of a spoiled kid with ideas above his station who makes it big.
Star Rating: ***
Oh, brother. It's the norm now for stage-school wannabes to audition in front of several million viewers watching prime-time TV. Director/producer Bill Kenwright has managed to shoehorn no fewer than three finalists from his Fame-meets-X Factor talent show, Any Dream Will Do, into his latest touring franchise of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's extravaganza. The result is a smorgasbord of cash-cow showbiz cynicism which, a couple of generations on from its 1968 debut, looks like a prophecy come true - an everyday tale of a spoiled kid with ideas above his station who makes it big.
Lloyd Webber's original score colonised every popular musical form going: French chansons, country hoe-downs and a very white calypso are all still given big licks, though it's surprising Cat Stevens has never paid more of an interest in what sounds suspiciously like an appropriation of his own piece of bubblegum, Matthew and Son, from 1967.
But the music's marriage to Rice's arch period lyrics is a hoot. The result is a charmingly ungroovy piece of cut-glass Home Counties naffness that even Rice doesn't seem to be taking seriously. It's a shame, too, that for all the energetic delivery by a well-drilled cast, the weakest link is local lad Craig Chalmers in the title role. If Kenwright wants to make a quick buck off performers who aren't up to it, that's his business. But if he thinks no-one's going to notice, he should probably dream on.
