Tell Me On A Sunday (Tour – Manchester)

It could easily be described as the musical version of Shirley Valentine – a Liverpudlian protagonist finds her true self through mistakes made in love – only it’s not as funny, it tells its story through ‘samey’ songs and it’s somehow ten times more predictable.

As it’s a Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice collaboration, you would expect Tell Me On a Sunday to be something truly special. And yet, it just misses.

It’s no easy task producing a musical that has no dialogue to piece emotion together. Yet, it has worked wondrously in productions, such as Cats, Joseph and, of course, Les Mis. In this case, however, ridiculously quick changes in tone make transitions feel contrived, rather than natural.

Claire Sweeney must be given credit for her ability to carry a show entirely on her own. Her voice undoubtedly has a lovely tone and she does deliver songs with believability, but there isn’t the power (even in instrumental crescendos) to leave you with goose-bumps.

Ultimately it’s the repetitive nature of the production that makes Sunday a bore. Woman falls in love with younger man, sings a song, walks in a circle round the stage and so on. When it doesn’t work out, and she eventually finds herself with a married man and repeats herself all over again. To give some indication, in the second half, out of nine songs that are performed, five have already been done previously.

By the time you’re listening to “Writing Home” (For the Fourth Time) – yes that is the name of the song  – it’s lost its effect, and you become fed up with the clichés, and  the lyrics, ‘Tell me on a Sunday please’, start to sound more like ‘Tell me when it’s over please…’

– Rebecca Cohen.