The Go-Between – Apollo Theatre

Picture: Roy Tan

The Go-Between at the Apollo Theatre, London until 15 October.

Rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

This is a haunting musical evocation of ‘the past is a foreign country’ novel by LP Hartley that became a memorable Julie Christie movie in the 1970s, but whether it has a future in the jukebox-saturated West End will sadly depend on the pulling power of its star Michael Crawford.

It is 30 years since his opening Phantom and whether Crawford at 74 and back on a London stage for the first time in five years means enough to today’s theatregoers is open to question.

For one couple seen leaving after Act I saying Crawford “doesn’t sing as well as he used to”, this austere tale, a long way from a conventional musical, clearly wasn’t what they were expecting.

Crawford plays the ageing Leo, looking back to his 50-year-younger self as a 12-year-old guest at a Norfolk country house. He reflects on how his adult love life was messed up by being asked to act as messenger boy, delivering billets-doux between his school friend’s sister Marian, due to marry a disfigured war hero, and her bit on the side, the six-packed tenant farmer Ted.

Leo comes from a much poorer background, has lost his father and knows nothing of ‘spooning’ or the physical side of what’s going on, only that in his innocent pre-pubescent way he has his own never-to-be-spoken feelings for the flighty Marian (Gemma Sutton, faultless as usual).

Barnum it ain’t but I loved it, particular the nigh-on perfect Act I with Crawford’s soaring, fluttering ‘Butterfly’, the one song from the show that could stand on its own, still sending shivers down the spine and a tear rolling down my face.

The tattily-clad Leo is the one being transformed, on this three-week holiday idyll, from chrysalis to butterfly, treated to a new outfit his own folk could never have afforded. It is a birthday present from Marian and the start of an innocent infatuation with the young lady of the house.

‘Butterfly’ (lyrics by David Wood) is the most thrilling moment in West End debutant Richard Taylor’s ethereally elegant score, lovingly played by the lone musician, Nigel Lilley, on a grand piano. The same composer’s more recent Flowers For Mrs Harris has been wonderfully received at the Sheffield Crucible.

Roger Haines’ production, first seen at the West Yorkshire Playhouse five years ago, relies heavily on Crawford, rarely offstage in two and a half hours as narrator, and the young Leo -– William Thompson on the night I saw it but being rotated by three lads over the run, as is the role of his pal, the scene-stealing Marcus (Archie Stevens).

Both are first class and the support from Sutton, Stevens, Stuart Ward (Ted), Stephen Carlile (the cuckolded Trimingham), Issy Van Randwyck and her weather-obsessed hubby Julian Forsyth, John Addison and Jenni Bowden is as immaculate as Tim Lutkin’s dimly evocative lighting and Michael Pavelka’s fading country house set.

Act II is a little less successful but the cricket match with Leo, coming in as 12th man to make the winning catch at the expense of hunky Ted and the village side is joyously evoked.

There’s a case for a few small incisions to be made and five minutes cut but it does have a very strong Act I to measure up to.

This is a charming play-with-music, perfectly paced and dressed to suit turn-of-the-20th-century England, that will delight many and disappoint a few who don’t approach it with an open mind, so welcome to the West End, Mr Taylor, and fingers crossed you stay there for a good while.

Jeremy Chapman

Tickets for The Go-Between are available HERE.