This effervescent musical makes a splash – but be sure to take a brolly
Singin’ in the Rain Sadler’s Wells, London EC1
★★★★★
It was certainly raining as I made my way to Sadler’s Wells, but I wasn’t singin’. Yet the prospect of a second high-octane big musical opening just a few days after the all-conquering Anything Goes at the Barbican was a heartening one. After so long slumbering and fretting, it joyously appears that theatre is at last putting on its top hat and tails and tap-dancing its way back to happiness, avoiding puddles and pestering pinging apps as best it can.
Jonathan Church’s lively and confident stage spin on the classic 1952 MGM film premiered at Chichester in 2011, from where it made its welldeserved way to the West End. It’s an admirably slick and well-oiled machine now, and if it does not have that ineffable quality of loveliness that quietly suffuses all the very best musical productions, it has a lot else going for it – not least Andrew Wright’s effervescent choreography and no fewer than five tonnes of water per show. Sit in the first few rows of the stalls and you’ll be able to feel the full force of the latter.
Former Royal Ballet principal Adam
Cooper is a slick fit in the Gene Kelly role and dances and taps up a storm (at the age of 50, too; Kelly was a full 10 years younger when the film was made). Cooper starred in the 2011 production, and a decade of getting soggy while singing finds him remarkably cheerful. In my review of that Chichester production I remarked that Cooper could use a few more singing lessons to bolster his vocal strength, and he appears to have done so, undertaking the music with confidence now.
Cooper is Don Lockwood, one half of the silent screen’s most famous film couple, alongside Lina Lamont (Faye Tozer). Every movie they make is a smash, and Ian Galloway’s delightfully witty black-and-white video designs offer us an example of the Lockwood and Lamont oeuvre, complete with hokey title cards.
Everything is rosy – apart from the fact that it is 1927, The Jazz Singer is about to herald the new era of the “talkies”, and Lamont speaks like a constipated duck. As Don’s affable chum and handy comic sidekick Cosmo (former Strictly professional Kevin Clifton, giving a very fine account of himself ) puts it, Lina “can’t sing, can’t dance, can’t act – a triple threat”.
This narrative of an art form in transition is fascinating, although it must be said that the material is stretched pretty thinly and is exposed by a marked absence of subplots. It feels like a long wait until a lamppost is finally brought on stage for Cooper to twirl around, having just declared Don’s love for upcoming – and decidedly more “naturalistic” – actress Kathy Selden (Charlotte Gooch). Make sure you wait until the end of the curtain call for a glorious encore of coloured umbrellas, mackintoshes and splashing.
Until Sept 5. Tickets: 020 7863 8000; sadlerswells.com
Adam Cooper first starred in this 10 years ago. Now, his voice is much better