BWW Reviews: THE GRAND TOUR, Finborough Theatre, January 7 2015

In 1840, a young gentleman would complete his education with visits to Western culture's great cities: Berlin, Vienna, Paris, Rome, Athens. A century later, Colonel Stjerbinsky's "Grand Tour" is rather different in its motivation, as he flees the Nazi jackboot, but it's equally valuable as an education.

Thom Southerland's revival of Jerry Herman's The Grand Tour (continuing at the Finborough Theatre until 21 February) is a tale of life, love and liberty, ambitious in its conception and rewarding in its execution. It may possess as much corn as the wheatfields of Ukraine and feel a little more Broadway than Breslau, but it packs plenty of punch when it evokes the ruthless driving of peoples off their lands as the Panzers rolled from Berlin.

The story is that of a gentle love triangle. Jacobowsky - humble, clever, funny; Stjerbinsky - proud, racist, boring; Marianne - gentle, confused, beautiful. If you're thinking that those three are cookie-cutter characters for the merchant Jew, the upper class Pole and the bourgeois Frenchwoman, you would be right, but such obvious reductions are avoided by three excellent peformances. Alastair Brookshaw impresses again (after his brilliant work in Parade for the same director) as Jacobowsky, singing with great skill and carefully balancing a growing love for Marianne with a growing understanding of Stjerbinsky, as the coldness between the two Poles thaws. Nic Kyle has furthest to travel and does it well, almost visibly shrinking as his outward status diminishes while his internal conscience develops. Zoe Doano has the looks and charisma to attract both men, though she never quite suggests (and nor does the script) how or why she ever fell for Stjerbinsky in the first place.

There are plenty of big Broadway songs (as you would expect from the man who would, four years later in 1983, write La Cage Aux Folles) which are delivered by a fine support cast on Phil Lindley's ingenious, if slightly wobbly, set. A nice balance too between the keyboards and vocals pleases the ear - something not every venue of this intimacy gets right.

If you're after a good story, well told with a bittersweet tinge but also one unafraid to confront the hideous impact of the Nazis' advance early in World War II and don't mind a bit of razzamataz in the delivery, this show will entertain and will make you think. And sung so well, so close up, it's a thrilling musical experience too.

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