Symphony (Soho Theatre)

The bar is open as you head to your table. It could be a cabaret bar in Montmartre, but this is London's Soho Theatre which seems to echo the old time music hall.

A four-piece rock band wander on stage and begin to jam as the drinks and conversation flow. The audience, their noise and laughter are all part of a new musical theatre extravaganza called Symphony.

Things kicks off with the bittersweet tale of Jonesy. If you were never good at sport at school then you’ll relate to this tale of a woeful misfit. The asthmatic geeky Welsh schoolboy is played with touching and self-mocking humour by Iddon Jones as he seeks and eventually finds acceptance and affirmation, although not as a member of the team he had hoped to join or in the way he had hoped to find it.

When his story is over we are told another, one centred around the people of London and the travails that take place in a city that is both hostile and warm depending on which side of the street you’re looking at it from. After that we hear about a couple in turmoil and each story rings true if you are a member of the lost generation still keeping the faith of the glorious tradition of hard rock.

This is a fascinating cross between rock opera and concept album. From a series of colourful and comic vignettes in words and music, emerge the portraits of a gallery of grotesque yet sympathetic characters. The stories of their lives are told with a spirit of good humour and we move between the worlds of different characters with minimal changes of costume. Symphony is a fitting title for this piece, which is symphonic in form. The stories are linked together not to form a coherent narrative but by the themes of misguided hope and social ineptitude.

As the only woman in the band, Katie Ellen Salt has to play all the female roles, which she does with clownish exasperation at the variously inept men she has to deal with; and it is she who has the most powerful singing voice. But all of the band members show great versatility in both acting and musicianship, switching from role to role and instrument to instrument effortlessly throughout the performance.

This is a wonderfully inventive theatrical entertainment that left the audience shouting for more, and indeed it could have been longer. In keeping with the hard rock tradition the band could have perhaps have had at least one encore up their sleeves.