Vinyl nerd turns into a real charmer

LONDON’S second-newest theatre (I’ll get on to the newest in a sec) is taking something of a risk in hosting High Fidelity, a musical based on Nick Hornby’s book, for it bombed in an earlier version on Broadway.

But here it is again, anglicised by Vikki Stone. And it’s a charmer.

Rob, a sad man in a tragic Oxfam jumper, owns, he says, ‘the last real record shop on earth . . . a business with zero growth potential’, where the vinyl collection charts his life.

His girlfriend — played by Shanay Holmes — has left him for the last Zen-style hippie on earth (this is the Nineties). Around him are nerdy men whose passion for rock is matched by an intolerance of customers whose taste falls short.

Yet it all works out, to music by Tom Kitt, and lyrics by Amanda Green, which include the memorable line: ‘Maybe you were Helen Keller and I was the water.’

Oliver Ormson’s Rob (below) is channelling Hugh Grant, so he’s villainous but ultimately endearing. His friend Dick, played by Carl Au, finds a girlfriend when he comes to terms with Natalie Imbruglia.

There’s little not to like, except the location of the theatre, which is hell to find.

WHICH you can’t say about the Boulevard Theatre, built on the site of the Raymond Revuebar, that epicentre of 1970s Soho loucheness. Fittingly, the venue was established by the granddaughter of late owner Paul Raymond, the ‘King of Soho’.

It opened with Ghost Quartet, which also has a connection to vinyl — each section is introduced as ‘Side one, track four’, or whatever.

If you turn up expecting a play, you’ll go mad looking for the plot. Better to accept the billing as a ‘song cycle’ by Dave Malloy.

There are themes rather than a plot: death, sibling love, ghosts and, er, whisky (cups of it are handed to lucky audience members).

Carly Bawden, Maimuna Memon, Niccolo Curradi and Zubin Varla swap speaking and singing roles and instruments: triangle, xylophone, cello, keyboards and a stringed one I didn’t even recognise. They’re terrific. Memon, in particular, has an extraordinary voice.

As for the theatre, it’s an interesting, intimate space in the round, but once in, you can’t get out. And Ghost Quartet is 90 minutes, no interval. I’d have shaved a couple of tracks off side two myself.

MELANIE McDONAGH