Singin’ in the Rain – New Victoria Theatre, Woking and Touring

Adam Cooper and Charlotte Gooch in Singin’ in the Rain at the New Victoria Theatre, Woking and Touring

Singin’ in the Rain continues at the New Victoria Theatre, Woking until 2 April 2022 and tours until 20 August 2022.

Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

When screenwriters Betty Comden and Adolph Green cobbled together a new film musical from Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed’s back catalogue in the early 1950s, it is doubtful that they ever imagined they would be creating a milestone of the genre that would continue to meet with great success in its stage adaptation 70 years later.

Fans of the 1952 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film Singin’ in the Rain starring Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, Debbie Reynolds and Jean Hagen will love this new touring production, directed by Jonathan Church, which offers an astonishingly faithful adaptation of the original featuring some ingenious theatrical solutions given that certain elements do not translate naturally to the stage.

The foundations of its appeal are, of course, firmly laid by the iconic songs that made the original film so famous, from the vaudevillian comedy of ‘Fit as a Fiddle’ and ‘Moses Supposes’, to the romance of ‘(You Are My) Lucky Star’ and ‘You Were Meant For Me’, as well as several other numbers with which audiences will already be familiar, not least the title song itself.

That said, this production is notable for the scale of its ambition, seeming to have made few concessions to the usual limitations of a touring show, with a comparatively large company, much impressive technical wizardry (predictably including a whole sprinkler system) and a generously proportioned evening’s entertainment. This ensures that the experience of the West End, and in particular the show’s 2021 Sadler’s Well’s revival, is brought to regional theatres up and down the country.

Charismatic leading man Adam Cooper plays Don Lockwood, a role that seems to fit him hand in glove, doubtless in consequence of his having been associated with it since 2004. Cooper has great onstage chemistry with both Alastair Crosswell as his sidekick Cosmo Brown, and Charlotte Gooch as his love interest Kathy Selden, and the energetic trio’s ‘Good Morning’ towards the end of Act I is certainly one to watch out for.

Crosswell provides many wonderfully comic turns as Cosmo, being endlessly entertaining in ‘Make ’Em Laugh’ (even despite the omission from the sequence of the famous final stunt). Gooch portrays a thoroughly believable character as the young aspiring (and failing) actress who falls in love with Cooper’s Hollywood star.

Proving that her talents extend far beyond being one-fifth of the BRIT Award-winning pop group Steps, Faye Tozer shines as the quirky, high-pitched Lina Lamont, whose number ‘What’s Wrong With Me?’ is brilliantly executed without going over the top. Among the supporting cast, Dale Rapley presents a suitably authoritarian film studio patriarch as R.F. Simpson.

As might be expected of an all-singing, all-dancing show such as Singin’ in the Rain, Andrew Wright’s choreography is beautifully and engagingly realised from the outset. Highlights include the extended ‘Ballet’ in Act II (corresponding to ‘Broadway Melody’ in the original film) featuring dancer Harriet Samuel-Gray, and the final watery reprise of ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ for the full cast.

With spectacular song-and-dance routines, an emotional love story, and a set that captures all the glitz and glamour of 1920s Hollywood, this fantastic production makes a splash in more ways than one.

Christopher Wiley