Review: Sunny Afternoon, Hampstead

"I am so lazy, I don't want to wander, I stay at home at night"

I am the wrong age for a Kinks musical to make me particularly excited, nor were they really a part of my family's soundtrack whilst growing up so there was little reason for me to get too excited about Sunny Afternoon at the Hampstead Theatre. Indeed, even my personal alert service notifying me that Dominic Tighe appears in a police uniform (albeit briefly) scarcely raised my attention which is most unlike me. But with the end of the run fast approaching, a rumoured transfer as yet unconfirmed and someone willing to queue, I found myself at the final show.

Where I enjoyed myself mostly. Aiming itself above the jukebox format but still coming across as a luxury version thereof, it is paper-thin stuff, clearly far too in reverence of its still-living protagonists (one imagines Joe Penhall writing the book with Ray Davies hovering over his shoulder). The focus is far too much on Ray rather than the band as a whole or even the excitement of 60s Britain and so one is left waiting for the songs, which are undoubtedly extremely well done. Miriam Buether enjoys the chance to reconfigure the auditorium once again with her design and Ed Hall keeps a pulsing energy about the piece although it would be nice to see a show like this that doesn't force the jollity quite so much at the end... 

So whilst glad I caught it, my instinct that it was missable was on the nose. And for my money, Waterloo Sunset is a Cathy Dennis song (and I had the cassingle to prove it).



Running time: 2 hours 45 minutes (with interval)
Booking until 24th May

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