BWW Reviews: WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN, Playhouse Theatre, Jan 13 2015

When the musical version of Pedro Almodovar's Women On the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown opened on Broadway in 2010, it had a fabulous cast (Patti LuPone! Sherie Rene Scott! Laura Benanti!) and there was a lot of excitement. But it closed earlier than expected - to the disappointment of many message-boarders here on BWW. Now it's arrived in the West End at the Playhouse - hoping to do a Legally Blonde and be a better show in London than it was in New York.

I didn't see the show in the Big Apple and I watched the film for the first time in the run-up to my trip to theatre. For me - and I'm sure I'm not alone in this - the big draw in this production is that it is Tamsin Greig's musical debut. So let's start with that. I'm a long-time admirer of Ms Greig - dating back to the days when I only knew her as the voice of Debbie from The Archers. She's a brilliant actress - and yes, it turns out she can sing as well. You suspect that she doesn't have a massive range, but what she does sing sounds good - deep and jazzy, although possibly a bit affected by opening night nerves. You wouldn't ask her to sing Elphaba, but she doesn't need to be able to in order to play Pepa, and she really is rather good in this.

She wouldn't seem an obvious fit for the role either - after watching the film I was certainly a little perplexed at her casting - but it really works. She's funny and sparky and sarcastic - and carries the frankly bonkers plot off with aplomb and a raised eyebrow. I've seen interviews where the creative team have said that if she hadn't done the show, then they wouldn't be staging it and I can see why - the show needs a performance like hers at the centre to ground it and give the audience someone to cling to in the madness.

The story - which has been tweaked a bit from the film and re-ordered slightly - is crazy: Pepa has been dumped by her married lover, Ivan, and is trying to track him down. His estranged wife, Lucia, is also trying to find him - ahead of a court hearing where she's suing him for desertion. Ivan and Lucia's son - Carlos - is flat-hunting with his uptight girlfriend and ends up looking around Pepa's place, where Pepa is being visited by her best friend Candela, who is having a meltdown because it turns out her boyfriend is a terrorist. With me so far? Throw in gazpacho laced with sleeping pills, a lawyer with her own interest in Ivan's situation, a crazy taxi driver with a mambo obsession and a fluorescent-clad matador and you have possibly the maddest show I've seen in the West End recently.

But it's just so much fun. Sure the plot has a few holes and the songs aren't the most memorable you'll ever hear, but band sounds good and the performances are great - as well as Greig, Hayden Gwynne as Lucia and Anna Skellern as Candela are both hard to stop watching. Willemijn Verkaik is sadly underused, but she does a lot with what she's given. The staging is simple but effective, and the bright colours of the lighting design and costumes create the colour-packed Madrid of the late 80s that you see in the film.

If you like your musicals, you'll find much to like here. How much it will appeal to the casual theatre-goer I don't know. But Greig should be a draw and the Playhouse is small. I certainly enjoyed myself - and I'm hopeful that it will find an audience among those who are looking for a musical for grown-ups.

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