I Should Be So Lucky - U.K. Tour

God it looks...awful

I battled through horrendous traffic on the M62 last night, thanks to the closure of the M6 near St Helens, with what's usually a 50-minute journey taking double that time.

It was worth the effort despite the show's shortcomings with its paper thin book and occasional misjudged punchline, "I've got dementia" being the worst offender, which plenty in the audience seemed to find hilarious.

If you enjoyed seeing Dolly Parton appear in the clockface in 9 to 5, you'll love Kylie's many appearances in a mirror here as she tells Ella, our leading lady, to be "strong, beautiful and fabulous".

There was a short show stop part way through act one, when a basket failed to descend for a balloon ride. The running time is currently 2 hours 20 minutes without that delay.

The plot, such as it is, involves the a bride being jilted on her wedding day, heading off on honeymoon to a Turkish resort with family and friends in tow. She finds a new love interest there, only for the groom to follow her out there begging for a second chance. The explanation we're eventually given of why the groom jilted Ella at their wedding is quite laughable. His character is treated as a bit of a buffoon for much of the show, so it's certainly hard to root for Ella to say 'Better the Devil You Know' and get back with him at the expense of her new love interest, Nadeem.

Standouts in the cast are Lucie May-Sumner in the lead role of Ella, as well as Jamie Chapman as Spencer, the resort host. I'd have liked to see more of Sydney Isitt-Ager in the underwritten role of Helen, especially the potential rivalry between her and Ella which could have been further explored. Scott Paige seemed to go down a storm with the audience as the stereotypical camp gay bestie but it's a character and portrayal we've seen far too many times before. Jessica Daley's character is given hints of a sub plot which don't go anywhere. The plot as a whole rather disintegrates into nothing once, ten minutes into act two, Ella's decided which of her two suitors she's choosing.

When the show puts its lame book to one side and focuses on the music, as it does for much of the latter stages of act one, that's when it comes into its own, although where many of the song insertions in & Juliet feel genuinely witty, here they're mostly served with a slice of cheese. There's obviously the obligatory medley at the end to send everyone home happy.

All in all then, I think this is probably the show people expected it to be. If you can put the creaky book to one side, it does boast a talented cast delivering some fabulous songs from Kylie, Rick Astley and Bananarama among others. I left the scaffolding-clad Opera House thinking the cast were great, the show was pretty terrible, but I had a fun and fairly enjoyable evening regardless! At least until getting back to my car and finding that now the M62 was shut.

It's all the basic ones you'd expect. Very Kylie heavy. There was some Brother Beyond and Hazell Dean and a nice Mel and Kim medley

They're pretty much full songs in the main. There's a few which are shortened versions but it's not as bad as something like Moulin Rouge which jumps from song to song

Someone in the show said on Twitter that this show was destined to become the next Mamma Mia… which immediately put me off.

That was the Head of Production Marketing for the show who also shared a short clip of Never Gonna Give You Up from the encore.

For me, reading these comments and seeing the clips I feel it's a double-edges sword.

It's somewhat re-assurring that Mamma Mia! it isn't. It means that, again, ABBA and their music is still leading the way and after 20 + years everything else is a poorer version.

On the other hand, in these financially tough times, if it's getting bums on seats and it's going to bring in those who may have never been to the theatre, well, that can't be a bad thing, can it?

It's not actually getting that many bums on seats. Just been looking at availability and there's loads of seats left for the rest of the run. It's being heavily promoted around Manchester.
ATG don't seem to have many offers on this either which is putting me off booking again. I'd like to see it again but there's no way I'm paying the full prices they're asking for it, it's not worth that.

I too wish that Muriel's Wedding came over too.

I am from Sydney-where Muriel escapes Porpoise Spit to go to- an when I was home last (4 years ago) I had just missed it.  I picked up some flyers and has the cast recording.

Although I am returning home in February, it won't be playing.

#envy gmoneyoutlaw! #envy

Show been ruined by some so called theatre fans tonight....