The Man in the White Suit – Wyndham’s Theatre

Picture: Nobby Clark

The Man in the White Suit continues at Wyndham’s Theatre, London until 11 January 2020.

Star rating: one star ★ ✩ ✩ ✩ ✩

I would have left at the interval had I not been commissioned to write a review. Rarely have I been quite so disappointed in a show which had so much promise. It is quite sad to see such potential and talent so misguidedly squandered.

Based on the 1951 film of the same name, The Man in the White Suit tells the story of Sidney Stratton (Stephen Mangan) who invents an indestructible cloth which will never need cleaning, thereby threatening the entire textile industry.

Now, I usually like a bit of farce but it has to be slick, original and witty. Writer/director Sean Foley’s take on this tale is anything but.

Actors shouting (Richard Cordery as Birnley and Rina Fatania as Brenda) is not, in itself, funny.

And you need a lot more than a few nostalgic skiffle numbers (words and lyrics by Charlie Fink) to make the musical ingredients cohere.

The stick puppetry is woefully unoriginal too. Any theatre-going child will have seen it in many a children’s show.

The worst thing, though, is the clunky predictable script. You can hear the jokes, such as they are, coming as if we were in low grade pantomime.

The piece, tries quite valiantly to play up topical nuances and occasionally succeeds. I chuckled once in two hours and ten minutes – at the line: “No one is ever going to believe that the oil companies are corrupt.”

Stephen Mangan, with his rubber body and good line in tellingly gormless facial expressions, does his very best to make something of his role but it’s an uphill struggle.

Kara Tointon finds a rather good tortured, heightened RP for Daphne but her character’s posturing soon becomes tedious.

The single star I’m prepared to grant to this unfortunate show is for four things: Michael Taylor’s imaginative set, the jolly song about innovations and pensions complete with actor-muso spoon playing and accordion continuo, Oliver Kaderbhai’s splendid drumming and a reasonably entertaining tango sequence by Mangan and Tointon.

Susan Elkin