Reviews

Review: Miss Nightingale (London Hippodrome)

The musical returns after running at the Vaults last year

Adam Langstaff, Matthew Floyd Jones, Lauren Chinery, Matthew Bugg and Oliver Mawdsley
Adam Langstaff, Matthew Floyd Jones, Lauren Chinery, Matthew Bugg and Oliver Mawdsley
© Darren Bell

Seven years after it first opened at the King's Head Theatre, Second World War-set musical Miss Nightingale flies again with a new production at the glitzy London Hippodrome in Leicester Square.

It's a neat choice of venue – the music hall-turned-casino Hippodrome lends the production an immense amount of pizzazz, while the cocktail tables assembled around the stage build on the music hall authenticity – allowing punters to sip on prosecco or red wine while the story unfurls.

Matthew Bugg's show is a love letter to wartime entertainment – the memories of Gracie Fields, Vera Lynn and Joyce Grenfell are never too far away. It follows music hall entertainer Maggie Brown (who assumes the titular avian moniker) and her rise to stardom, while at the same time seeing her composer George Nowodny (Matthew Floyd Jones) and manager Sir Frank Worthington-Blythe (Oliver Mawdsley) engaging in an amorous and (due to the circumstances of the period), clandestine relationship.

As the story unfurls and elements of promiscuity, unplanned pregnancy and blackmail come into the mix, it all sadly becomes a bit of a muddle. Bugg's script is clunky, replete with jingoistic language and cliché, chock full of soapy twists that detract from the very real and intense context of the Second World War. For homosexual individuals (who were mistrusted as it was believed they'd be more susceptible to blackmail), this was a war on two fronts – on top of the every-day Blitz, there is the threat of discovery, with severe consequences. Tied to the fact that some storylines never seem to be resolved (Maggie's brother Harry, played by Bugg himself, is reported missing in action and then never mentioned again), it all feels underbaked. For a show that's been developed over seven years, these creases should have been ironed out.

It's left to the cast to deliver the goods, and the amount of talent on stage is explosive – Lauren Chinery makes for a charismatic central performer, helped by the fact she can seemingly play every instrument under the sun. Indeed, the six cast members, multi-roling as the onstage band, do the work of champions – accompanying every number and letting the feel-good tunes make the merriment flow. Although the lyrics dial the innuendos up to 11, there’s something charming about their composition; some, such as the group's performance of "Understudy", creating a real emotional impact.

As far as nights out at the theatre go, it's a musical that never awes, but it certainly doesn’t drag. The flash and flare of Craig Garratt’s Hippodrome lighting keep it visually exciting, and the choreography, while confined to a relatively small space, is always creative. The script is faulty, yes, but Miss Nightingale manages to just about take off with the aid of a talented company on stage.

Miss Nightingale runs at London Hippodrome until 6 May.