BWW Reviews: SHANG-A-LANG, King's Head Theatre, January 24 2014

Just before she hit it big (Dancin' Queen big) with Mamma Mia! (the Rocky Horror Show de nos jours), Catherine Johnson wrote Shang-a-Lang (revived at the King's Head Theatre until 15 February). So is it the "Ring-Ring" that foreshadows "Waterloo"? Well, maybe.

Three women on the brink of reaching - gulp! - 40 get themselves off for a November weekend at Butlins Minehead, a prospect the bleakness of which is alleviated by the 70s Theme Night's Special Guest Stars, The Bay City Rollers (or what's left of them). Cue lots of bittersweet reflections on lives too full, too empty and too much - and maybe just a bit of fear for the future.

Each character is instantly recognisable - a good thing in comedy - if, these days, a little too familiar from the oceanic volumes of reality TV that has flooded our screens since the play was written in 1998. Kellie Batchelor invests her "Guilty Mum" Jackie with a enough contradictions to keep us interested in her fate, but Samantha Edmonds as "Moocher Sleeparound" Lauren and Lisa Kay as "Can't Find A Man" Pauline are given just too much to do to make us root for their one-dimensional characters.

Thomas Craig and Ben McGregor make the most of the two lads in the band who are out for what they can get and sod the consequences - and actually get the best lines.

Though there's always a healthy audience for shouty, sweary comedies with lots of emotional baggage flung about, the lack of nuance and character development - we are pretty sure what's going to happen next, pretty much all the time - make for a somewhat unsatisfactory play, despite all the energy and commitment on stage.

Though it makes no claims to be Uncle Vanya, perhaps just a little more of the rapier and a little less of the sledgehammer would have made for a more rounded show, and made us care a little more about what happens next.

Photo credit - Nick Pomeroy

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