BWW Reviews: DON'T STOP BELIEVIN', New Wimbledon Theatre, October 7 2010

The hit American television series Glee has revived the taste for enthusiastic singalong last seen a generation back in the karaoke craze. Don't Stop Believin' is described in its publicity thus, "This production is a tribute to Glee and is not affiliated to FOX TV or any associated company", so that's the lawyers sorted and we can get on with the fun.

And fun is what you get. The production captures the feel of Glee in the performers' costumes so, with the audience well schooled in the concept of tribute bands, everyone gets on with enjoying themselves. There's a wide selection of hits from the sixties to the noughties, mixing up rock classics like Livin' On A Prayer" with medleys from Queen and The Beatles and slow ballads like True Colors. Even if you're not quite sure about a song (and I wasn't about She's Leaving Home and A Day In The Life as the best choices from the Lennon / McCartney songbook) you're only two minutes away from I Say A Little Prayer For You" - so the show is never wrong for long. There's a lot of dancing, mostly from the Pan's People school of literal interpretation - Van Halen's Jump sees the boys and girls er.. jump a lot - but this is not a slick show that aspires to the production standards of Cirque de Soleil's epics on the Vegas Strip: it's a feelgood evening for a predominately female house.

There are some curious decisions in the production that left me a little unconvinced. The six boys, five girls ensemble often left one boy gooseberrying alongside a couple in the romantic ballads - surely an extra girl would balance off the cast? Glee is rooted in American high school glee clubs - and nothing in American high schools is done with less than 100% earnestness - so the inevitable introduction of a bit of English camp and the raised eyebrow doesn't sit comfortably with songs that repeatedly affirm confident, upbeat attitudes belted out with utter conviction.

Amongst the mums, teenagers and girls-night-outers sitting, standing and dancing around me, those things hardly mattered, and neither did the relative lack of alcohol (the fuel of karaoke) nor the extreme difficulty of dancing in the stall seats. They loved the show and, actually, why not?

Don't Stop Believin' is at the New Wimbledon Theatre until Saturday 9 October and on tour at

 

12 - 16 October
Mayflower Theatre, Southampton

18 - 23 October
Derby LIVE Theatre

25 - 27 October
Swan Theatre, High Wycombe

28 - 30 October
The Hexagon, Reading

2- 6 November
Kings Theatre, Glasgow

9 - 13 November
New Victoria Theatre, Woking

15 - 20 November
Churchill Theatre, Bromley

22 - 27 November 
Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton

29 November - 4 December
Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield

 

 

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