With another jukebox musical touring and receiving bad reviews (All The Fun Of The Fair), is it time that this sub genre called it a day? The main criticism of the David Essex tune inspired show seems to be the lack of real winning songs. But critics have also mentioned the plot, or lack of one.

With Never Forget proving itself on tour, but not in the West End, where it’s about to close, is the tide turning? Mamma Mia! continues to pack them in, bolstered even more by the success of the film. We Will Rock You also continues to be absolutely critic proof. But for every two shows like this, there are a string of losers. Desperately Seeking Susan anyone? How about Tonight’s The Night or the awful Can’t Smile Without You? The list of disastrous shows is endless.

I can see whay these shows get made, as they have a guaranteed audience, longing to sing-along to their pop idol’s greatest hits. But ultimately a winning show either has to have a strong story, some humour or at least new interpretations to see you through to the megamix ending. But some of this latest batch of juke box whipper snappers have none of these things.

All The Fun Of The Fair has been receiving standing ovations from David Essex fans. But with no live band and a lack of memorably iconic tunes, what can there possibly be for the non fan? At least Mamma Mia! and Our House have that extra something to convert the most cynical of theatregoers.

With news though that the completely forgettable Never Forget is heading back to Manchester, there seems to be no rest bite from the endless amount of weak, insert song in here, style shows. So, I guess what we all need is a little patience.

-Glenn Meads

What do you think?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 at 1:50 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.