BWW Reviews: LOSERVILLE, Union Theatre, March 3 2015

Loserville (continuing at the Union Theatre until 21 March) is a peppy, poppy musical imagining how email might have been invented (had it been early days Apple/Microsoft who had done so). McBusted man, James Bourne, has provided a batch of songs that are never less than anachronistically appealing and the band rock them out with gusto.

But (you knew that was coming didn't you?) what could be a harmless diversion that might lack some of the storytelling heft of Spring Awakening or Bare but has plenty of those shows' emotional teenage energy, is spoiled by singing that is lost behind the bass, guitar and drums. Quite why the vocals should be so indistinct and inaudible in a theatre that specialises in exactly this kind of boutique musical revival is a question for first-time director (but Union Theatre veteran) Michael Burgen - and I do hope something can be done soon.

Amongst the young cast, Holly-Anne Hull and Lewis Bradley work together well as the geeky girl with a secret and the ruthless egomaniac with daddy issues; and Jordan Fox (once he stops his Act One screeching) gives some pathos to his gooseberry guy even if his Star Wars motif overstays its welcome. The other leads, Lewis Newton and Sarah Covey, have parts so underwritten that they can do little more than scowl and pout - admittedly that's pretty much all some teens can do, but one would like a little more!

So it's not West Side Story - not much is - and it's unfair to expect it to be. That said, we would like to hear the songs!