WILD ABOUT YOU at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane

★★★

“It’s a long journey, but a highly entertaining one courtesy of the wonderful vocal performances”

There are two things that strike you about the world premiere of Chilina Kennedy’s (music and lyrics) and Eric Holmes’s (book) new musical, “Wild About You”. The first is the inescapable fact that this is a stylish production, blowing onto our shores from across the pond with the confidence and swagger to head straight for Drury Lane. Picking up half a dozen of the finest voices in musical theatre, the performances alone claim the right to make the West End its first stop.

The second is the title. With the exception of a fairly throwaway number early on in the first act, it is very hard to work out why the writers opted for “Wild About You”. Admittedly it has undergone a couple of name changes since its progression from an album recording to the stage, but they still don’t seem to have labelled this show correctly. Perhaps when the concept is more finely honed, and trimmed a little, they’ll find it. The musical is a bit of a chimera, its personality split down the middle with each side of interval exposing its own idiosyncrasies and influences.

At the centre of the story is Olivia, beautifully played by Rachel Tucker, who inexplicably wakes up in hospital with gaping holes in her memory. Aided by the duty nurse, Shae (a gorgeously camp and comedic performance from Todrick Hall), she embarks on the task of piecing together a messy past as her memories slowly gather shape. The more she tries to find herself, the more she discovers that that is pretty much what she’s been doing all her life. The flaws in her character echo the flaws in her story, and we therefore find it difficult to empathise with the self-obsession that afflicts her. As her tangled love life ricochets between husband Michael (Eric McCormack), artist Thomas (Oliver Tompsett) and on-off lover Jessica (Tori Allen-Martin), our sympathies diminish with each rebound.

The second act becomes a different show entirely following a twist that is as inexplainable as Olivia’s initial amnesia. Her memories are re-traced from the others’ perspectives and her son Billy (Jamie Muscato), now eighteen, turns the story on its head. ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ meets ‘A Matter of Life and Death’ meats ‘The Time Traveller’s Wife’ meets ‘A Christmas Carol’ meets ‘Before I Go to Sleep’. A touch too quirky for its own good, the matted storylines are eventually smoothed out into its glossy, if a little sentimental, finale.

It’s a long journey, but a highly entertaining one courtesy of the wonderful vocal performances, backed by musical director Nick Barstow’s ten-piece band. Justin Williams’ sleek and stylised set frames the piece with an intimacy that cleverly belies the vast space; mirrored by Nick Winston’s ‘up-close and personal’ staging. Kennedy’s musical score wears it’s influences openly with its fine balance of belters and ballads. The dynamics are occasionally at odds with the narrative, particularly the impressive opening number into which Tucker pours her heart and soul. Maybe it needs to start smaller, allowing itself to grow naturally. Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a grand opening but similarly we wonder where it can go from here.

The show seems to have skipped a few steps in its evolution. Its success now lies in its shrinking and fine tuning before we can really get wild about it.