Love Goddess: The Rita Hayworth Musical – Cockpit Theatre

Love Goddess continues at the Cockpit Theatre, London until 23 December 2022.

Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩

The tumultuous life of Hollywood star Rita Hayworth gets the musical treatment in this by-the-numbers biography created by Almog Pail. An ambitious undertaking, Love Goddess’ reach doesn’t quite exceed its grasp, yet it’s nonetheless a compelling story with just enough moments of glamour and sparkle to captivate the audience.

Pail originally parlayed the story of Hayworth in a cabaret show entitled Me, Myself and Rita, commissioned by Malta’s Mediterranean Institute Theatre. The one-woman revue later made it to New York’s United Solo festival and Feinstein’s/54 Below, and had two spells at London’s Canal Cafe Theatre.

It has since been reworked by Pail and Stephen Garvey as Love Goddess, a five-hander musical hat has just received its world premiere at the Cockpit Theatre in Marylebone under the guidance of director Steve North.

Pail once again takes the lead role, this time sharing the Hayworth duties with Imogen Kingsley-Smith as the Young Rita. Simon Kane, Joey Simon and Jane Quinn tackle a series of roles – more than 40, it would seem – including parents, husbands, movie moguls, journalists and co-stars.

From above us in the gallery, musical director Archie Combe leads a piano-bass-drums swing band, serving up lashings of 30s- and 40s-style numbers masterminded by musical supervisor/arranger Logan Medland. And evoking the spirit of Hayworth’s most musical dance numbers is choreographer Jacqui Jameson, whose work elevates what could have been a rather relentless rehash of Hayworth’s Wikipedia entry into a much more rewarding night of theatre.

The cast are roundly high-spirited and engaging performers, with the youthful Kingsley-Smith standing out as a talent to watch. A product of Sylvia Young and no stranger to the stage from a young age – credits include Matilda and Billy Elliot – she is the complete package. No pressure, but she and Joey Simon have the daunting task of re-creating those Fred Astaire numbers that made Astaire call Hayworth his favourite dance partner. They do a pretty good job, too, as far as this two-left-flat-footed author can attest.

Both boys do a sterling job – Kane has a remarkably fulsome voice – and Quinn is particularly watchable as, among others, Rita’s mother Volga and the journalist Jules Graham, whose career-long coverage of Hayworth almost – oh so almost – provides a framework for the show. And I could certainly take more of Simon’s tapping.

In the lead role, Pail is eminently watchable and gives a solid performance, at its strongest when Hayworth is at her weakest. A little under-powered vocally, Pail nevertheless embodies Hayworth completely, and her account of the legend’s descent into dementia is gripping, if tragic, stuff.

What lets Love Goddess down is the rather pedestrian – and at times inconsistent – dramatic structure. It’s a cookie-cut of musicals like the numerous Marilyn Monroe biogs, or Judy! or End of the Rainbow. It lacks the panache – and bite – of something like Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill which so dramatically recounted the hellish treatment of Billie Holiday. Ticking off the incidents isn’t enough; one of the reasons for the success of the recent Elvis biopic, for example, is Baz Luhrmann’s choice to tackle the King’s story from another viewpoint, that of Colonel Tom, and Goddess could benefit from this kind of slant.

One issue is that Hayworth’s life – while a whirlwind of a tale set during the golden age of Hollywood – just isn’t theatrically dramatic enough on its own. It’s too generic, which can read as cliché. But it’s surely still a story worth recounting, hence the need for a good dramaturg to sculpt it into a more compelling piece. Slipping glimpses of her youth during spells of lucidity in her Alzheimer years, perhaps, or capitalising on the under-used framework of her Q&As with journalist Jules, maybe. There is also a question of what the show is actually about, beyond the faithful retelling of Hayworth’s life story. What do we take away from this story? How are we changed by what we learn about her?

What also doesn’t do the show any favours are odd directorial choices, such as expecting actors to deliver their lines from the gallery, where a quarter of the audience cannot see them. Clarity on who’s who would also be helpful, so a more consistent use of costumes and wigs would certainly aid the performers in their multi-tasking. And perhaps just being a little more ambitious with the staging – in a bottomless-budget world, it would be great to have more cast and more sets (well, any set!) to give the show the glamour that this leading lady deserves. I could really imagine this show given the star treatment.

But these are production issues that can be worked through. There is an interesting show in here, with effective music and songwriting on offer. Hats off to any producers managing to stage a brand new and original musical right now in London, and for a first stab at bringing Love Goddess to life beyond a cabaret setting, there’s much credit due here. It just needs a bit of work to shape the material into a show worthy of its legendary subject.

Craig Glenday